1981 Fuji Cyclone V

[lotsoballs]

Today I unboxed a new toy recently imported; a 1981 Fuji “Cyclone V” which a pretty advanced arrange ball compared to some earlier 70s models. It was partially tested by the seller; so today testing out and starting the cleanup/refurbishment.

The seller was wise enough to remove the glass and tape it up covered cardboard so even the glass arrived just fine. Also included a few real arrange ball tokens.

Upon first plugging it in and turning it on; nada but a humming sound. After poking around a half hour worrying if I just bought a huge paperweight; I found the main board had shifted and come completely disconnected from the connector at the bottom; fixed that; then it mostly came to life. Most everything except one solenoid that was not working; it would not reset after you shot your 16 balls and press the payout button nor would it payout tokens; finally figured out a random loose connector needed to be placed in an odd spot to activate the token payout solenoid.

So now it’s 95% working; I put a ball in all 16 pockets and only 2 bulbs didn’t light up; I’ve got a few extras to fix that hopefully. The gameplay is pretty interesting on this one!

The rust on the trim is pretty bad unfortunately; trying to see if Evaporust can get that looking decent. Also, the nails are badly tarnished; debating if it’s going to be more work trying up polish them by hand for hours; or take everything off the playfield board; remove all the nails completely as if doing a full playfield replacement/restoration and let my tumbler do all the polishing work; either way it’s going to be a lot of work! The good news is the playfield itself is in really nice shape; minimal fading or damage.

Updated to follow; rust removal and general cleanup are now in progress!

Anybody have this model or similar? There is a random connector I have no idea what it’s for; parlor connection for out of tokens light or?




Payouts would not work until the black connector was placed here:



Random connector unplugged?

[sparky kilowatt]

Congratulations, can't wait to see the progress pics.

[lotsoballs]

Today I’m working on rust removal of the chrome trim; as you can see it was stored somewhere damp it seems, lots of rust on the top of the door frame. Will also test trying to polish a nail or two to decide if it’s going to be easier to just remove all the nails for vibratory tumbler polishing than dealing with hand polishing severely tarnished nails.

I’m not going to play this machine anymore untill I get these nails cleaned as the balls are knocking crud/tarnish dust off the nails.

I removed the chrome trim and scrubbed it with balled up aluminum foil dipped in salt water brine; that removed a good bit; now going to leave paper towels soaked in “Evaporust” rust removal product covering the rusty parts; covered in Saran Wrap to keep it from drying up.


It’s not going to be perfect as there’s places where the chrome is gone completely.

I wonder if anyone has a parts machine arrange ball to sell me the chrome trim?

[Wayne-Ooo]

I wonder if anyone has a parts machine arrange ball to sell me the chrome trim?

I wouldn't think that the frame has to come from another Arrangeball machine. I would think a frame from a Pachinko machine would work.

A frame from a Nishijin model B fits/works on my Miracle/Satomi Arrangeball, but not on my Taiyo-Electron Challenge ball. But, I would think that a frame from another manufacturer would work on it, as the Nishijin frame works on the Miracle Arrangeball.

[emmadog]

it sucks that chrome plating things is so expensive these days and that far fewer places will do it. you may be able to get all the rust off but it's gonna likely be pitted. an option would be to sand/prime/paint with some sort of silver. i went thru trying to find a chrome like paint but there pretty much is no such thing and the better ones were extremely fragile which necessitated a clear coat. the clear dulls the finish so much that it looks like silver. regarding the nails, it's a pain to remove everything but if the entire nail is grubby then that may be the only option. i typically just polish the heads of the nails which looks great and takes a fraction of the time.
the random connection if everything else works, is likely something done by the parlor. i had two machines arrive like that (one of which is the same game play as this one), i forget now but when i removed the xtra connections the machines worked properly.

[lotsoballs]

After letting the Evapo-rust soaked paper towels do their thing over a few hours; and a bit of scrubbing with a Scotch bright pad; results are looking promising! Most of the rust came off; although there’s a few discolored spots of bare metal on the top. I may be able to salvage this trim after all.

Was also thinking a regular pachinko trim may work as long as the hinge is on the left…

Still need to remove some rust on the inside of the door trim; but after that’s done will try polishing it up with Blue Magic to see if I can get it acceptable looking.

Bad news is the nails are well beyond hand polishing to restore them; I tried polishing a few by hand you couldn’t tell any difference. I’m going to have to remove everything of the rear of the playfield; then pull all the nails; vinegar soak them, tumble polish, clean the playfield and reinstall all the nails nearly a full restoration.

[sparky kilowatt]

That chrome cleaned up much better than I expected it to, looks really good from here.

[lotsoballs]

That chrome cleaned up much better than I expected it to, looks really good from here.

Yeah; I’m kinda amazed myself!

It’s certainly not perfect; but huge improvement of what it was! (Junk)

Some metal polish will get it even more shiny!

[lotsoballs]

It’s a nice sunny day; so today going to apply Retro-brite and leave this badly yellowed plastic trim out in the sun to bleach it a couple shades lighter. From pictures I’ve seen it should be off-white; not cigarette tar yellow.




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[lotsoballs]

Making some real progress now; playfield board is removed; along with the nails for polishing.

[lotsoballs]

I checked the progress of the tumbling of the nails; but found a disturbing problem… apparently times were tough in the early 80’s they cheaped out and used brass coated; not solid brass nails. The brass coating is completely gone; tarnished/rusted away leaving a bare copper looking metal alloy. The lower potion of the nails protected by the wood still have shiny brass coating. Never seen this problem before restoring multiple machines.

No wonder they were so badly tarnished/rusty if there’s no brass left!

I can’t use these copper looking nails; going to have to buy some nice vintage real brass nails.

[lotsoballs]

I ordered some brass pachinko nails from pachinkoboy.com; also a 3D printed “pin setting gauge” a jig or tool that helps you install nails at the proper angle and depth. Looks like could be useful!

[lotsoballs]

The nails and the tool for setting the nails arrived; the tool works nice; less adjustment of the nails will be needed after installing them.

So now can resume the refurbishing/upgrading to solid brass nails!




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[lotsoballs]

It’s done! All the lights work; the issue with a couple was just related to the switches.

It cleaned up pretty good! This machine is pretty cool to play gameplay wise; the big tulips definitely encourage faster paced gameplay (rapid fire shooting) vs the laid back gameplay of earlier arrange balls; and the “spinning numbers” upon starting the game are very digipachi like.

Now I just need to make a nice stand for it.

[MrGneiss]

Very nice!!

[sparky kilowatt]

Looks like a fun machine to play, nice work!