I added this game to my collection a couple of years ago. It is called a "roll-top" pinball because you actually take the ball out of the cabinet, roll it across the top of the playfield glass, and it drops down into place. This supposedly was put in place because of the then-current Wisconsin gambling laws that prohibited pinball machines with spring-loaded shooters due to the lawmakers' reasoning that the machine was a game of chance, therefore, an illegal gambling device. To get around the law, United devised the roll-top design where you have total control on where the ball goes.

The flippers are at the far end of the playfield, in a pretty much useless location.

The game plays 100% and all features work. Overall, it's in good condition. I added the blue steel legs because the original stand was a big wooden base, and wouldn't fit down my stairs, so it is now history.

So, I am considering restoring the translite glass, but not sure how to go about it. It's in decent condition, but some of the white paint has flaked off in some spots, and it has me concerned.

Looking for ideas on how to go about this. Calling on experts out there.

wisconsin_pinball-1024.jpg

Bump. Anyone?

Unfortunately, I didn't get any images of the base that was under this machine. It was very large, and the machine was nested into it. It looked to me like a home-made base, so I removed the machine and picked up some steel legs for it. If I can locate wooden legs, I'll probably put those on it instead.

Here is a hi-res image of the machine with several views:

http://www.ramegoom.com/john/Wisconsin_Pinball-United/wisconsin_pinball.jpg

And one more, individually:

http://www.ramegoom.com/john/Wisconsin_Pinball-United/wisconsin_1948.jpg

My bad, calling it a translite. It's definitely glass, silk screened.

The sections of the screened back-glass are mostly at the bottom right side and center, where the girl and guy are, and the colors are kind of off-white, so it seems it could probably be touched up. However, the screening, for the most part, looks very fragile and flakes off easily, so I think it'd be best to either go all-in with the restoration, or leave it alone altogether.

I was thinking about possibly shooting a hi-res image of the glass, photoshopping the bad areas, then having a transparency made. Then I could place it between a clear front and a semi-opaque white sheet in the rear. I have done slot machines this way, and turned out pretty good (belly glass, payout glass).

This way I can produce a "white" color along with other colors. Although a transparency doesn't have the saturation of a silk screen print, it may be close enough.

I'm afraid to even touch that glass right now, as a considerable amount of the paint is bubbling and ready to flake off. But I can take a 24mp image with my Nikon D800 and make an exact size duplicate in a large transparency.

I wonder if this has ever been done before?

That's remarkable. It takes an artists' touch to get it right. Looks great, probably close to as good as it was new.

I am impressed!