I believe there is a slot in the bottom of the head that the glass sits in. Oh..if you ever have to remove the glass, you must remove the hinge.

Normally would be a couple brackets at the top. Any sign of them having been removed? The glass only goes into the slot when being removed.

Dave,

I looked at my Pre-restore Pic's from my Williams 1960 Nags and it seems to be similar to the 59 Tic Tac Toe. There is a slot at the top of the box to remove the glass and a metal retaining bolt on the inside top to keep it from falling out, I believe.

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Pre Restoration Front Lightbox and Back glass (resized).JPG

Pre Restoration Light Box View Left Side (resized).JPG

Tic Tac Toe Backbox (resized).JPG

Here is a pic of my 1957 Arrow Head. My 1959 Rocket is the same.

The game should be sitting on the ground slightly leaning forward so the glass does not fall back when you lower the light panel. Light panel should be removed when taking out the glass and that light panel retainer moved out of the way.

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It may not be perfect but much better than some other woodrails I've owned where you drop the glass through a slot in the top.

If the light board is bulging or out of position the slightest, bye bye artwork on the backglass.

Hi o-din,

So your earlier games did not have the slot at the top of the back box to slide the glass in? Your picture looks like it does but pictures can be deceiving. My early 50's Williams game have the slot.

Guess Williams were trying many things game to game, as it sounds like they knew there was an issue. Good to know
so I don't screw up in the future.

Those are my early games now, but are still late 50s. No slot. Backglass comes out from the rear.

Earlier 50s Williams games did have the slot and the game I was referring to was a 1948 Gottlieb Buccaneer I owned that rubbed the paint when I pulled it out. I tried to find a way around it but it was just the way it was.

Later Williams from the early 60s added a couple of metal stops that would prevent the backglass from falling back when the light board was tilted. Still needed the the light board removed to get the glass out easily.

The Nags you posted was a different beast altogether. More similar to the early 50s models.

Yup, this is what I learned from your post. Good to know, Thanks.

Not to beat this to death, I have a 58 Williams Short Stop. It also dropped the back glass from the top slot and has a side bar that you can see a recess in the side of the frame side, for a bar stop (Missing) to hold the glass. So it seems between 57 and 60 they were trying to work out the best way to do this and the tic tac toe idea was not maybe the best for the reason you describe.

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You have to remember games like Nags and the pitch and bats had complicated mechanical backglass animation, so what worked on standard pinball machines wasn't the best in cases like those.

I also noticed my 4 Bagger seems to have heavier duty components on what are basically the same stepper units.