Beginnings

I've had an attraction to pinball for years. I first played one with my dad at our pool clubhouse. I remember it seemed like such a cool, grown-up thing to do, with people smoking and drinking, having fun (it was the early '70s). I got one of those Marx toy pinballs for Xmas one year, and later a pachinko that I took apart and tinkered with endlessly. I even set out to build my own pinball, but only managed to ruin a nice piece of plywood.

Thirty-five years later I got a wild hair and started scouting CL & studying IPDB, just to see what was out there. Early 2014, a package deal came up: a pair of nonworking Gottliebs (Sing Along & Fast Draw), good price, so I went for it. Threw the Fast Draw in storage and started restoring the Sing Along.

Knowing next to nothing about pinball machines, I read all I could on the Web (thanks Vid!), then cleaned, stripped, filled, touched up and cc'd the pf, resprayed & stenciled the cabinet, traced some wiring problems, rebuilt the pop bumpers and now pretty much have the Sing Along working perfectly. It's in the house and the whole family loves it. Gonna start on the Fast Draw next...