(Topic ID: 251739)

1973 Gottlieb Big Shot EM - Restoration

By RustyRazor

4 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

IMAG4798 (resized).jpg
BigShot_before_after (resized).jpg
IMAG4574 (resized).jpg
IMAG4573 (resized).jpg
IMAG4571 (resized).jpg
IMAG4570 (resized).jpg
IMAG4569 (resized).jpg
IMAG4568 (resized).jpg
#1 4 years ago

Greetings all! I am the new owner of a Gottlieb Big Shot that someone seems to have been roasting marshmallows in. I have no history of the unit and unfortunately bought it after viewing it in a dark shop. I have fond memories of these machines when I was a kid and don't mind to invest gobs of time to breath life back into this unit. There were obvious signs of a rodent residing in the past and I am unaware if that lead to the shorting wires and burnt wire insulation. Before I was going to commit into this project I pulled the head, playfield and all the pertinent fuses to test the isolation and power transformers.... both OK (whew). So here is my initial problem.. many wires heated up to the point of burning off the insulation. The worst case ones either were unsoldered on purpose or heated up to the point of melting the solder and were disconnected from their terminals. If someone could take some close up pictures that would help me reattach the wires properly would be appreciated. For now, I will unsolder the wires.. cover the damaged area in shrink tubing and re-attach. I could also use a picture of the main relay description strip, as just small bits are left. I am planning on debugging the main board as much as I can before attaching the playfield and head. As for a schematic.. don't have one and not in a hurry to buy one until I can get this machine out of the flat line stage. Being in Canada and having bought parts from Marco before... I found the transaction somewhat excessive and would not want to do a repeat for now. In advance.. thanks for any help you can give.

IMAG4568 (resized).jpgIMAG4568 (resized).jpgIMAG4569 (resized).jpgIMAG4569 (resized).jpgIMAG4570 (resized).jpgIMAG4570 (resized).jpgIMAG4571 (resized).jpgIMAG4571 (resized).jpgIMAG4573 (resized).jpgIMAG4573 (resized).jpgIMAG4574 (resized).jpgIMAG4574 (resized).jpg
#2 4 years ago

PM sent.
-Mike

#3 4 years ago

Thanks for the help Grizlyrig. Have found a few hours to work on this again and was scratching my head when I came across a pair of wires with the insulation being burnt off at the score motor. Thought the only way this was possible is a short in the motor. I decided to wire the motor directly to the transformer (with fuse) and it worked fine.... sooooo… I have came to the conclusion this is a WD40 cookathon. Upon further checking, that's exactly what happened. Keeping a positive attitude, hoping that I may just need to correct the burn damage and I might have a working machine. So.. can anyone help me with some bottom board pictures so I can identify wiring and components??

#4 4 years ago

I've actually seen worse bottom panels (but very few.) Remove the bottom panel, pull up a comfortable chair and take your time. When trying to figure out after-burn wire color coding, Steve Young of Pinball Resource taught me neat trick: pull the cabled bundles apart and trace to the point where the clean insulation of the wire in question can be exposed. Most of the blackening occurs to the outside surface of the bundles, so they are quite often protected from heat and dirt exposure inside (somewhere down the line) where you'll be able to see the original colors and patterns. Buy lots of heat shrink tubing in long lengths. You'll need it.

2 weeks later
#5 4 years ago

Got this machine back to life!! Two coils were burnt in the fire, I replaced one and temporarily getting away with a different one. For now I have been touching up the playfield, just to make it look a bit more presentable. Some more final tweeking will come once the playfield is done.
Thanks to everyone for the help.

BigShot_before_after (resized).jpgBigShot_before_after (resized).jpg
#6 4 years ago
Quoted from RustyRazor:

Got this machine back to life!! Two coils were burnt in the fire, I replaced one and temporarily getting away with a different one. For now I have been touching up the playfield, just to make it look a bit more presentable. Some more final tweeking will come once the playfield is done.
Thanks to everyone for the help.[quoted image]

Beautiful work on the billiard balls. Especially on the 5 and 13 with the thin parallel lines.
Any clear coat later to protect the touch ups ?

#7 4 years ago

Thanks phototamer!! Did some final touchups the other day and have two layers of oil based polyurethane on it now. Even after doing some test patches, I was worried the paint was going to interact with the polyurethane. All worked out fine, the bare areas on the wood where the clear came off the playfield now match and the colors are really rich. Hopefully one final coat tomorrow and then let it cure for a week before replacing all the bits.

1 week later
#8 4 years ago

Wet sanded to 2000, used some 3m marine compound and wax I had laying around to get the shine and finished with some carnauba wax. My parts order came in and so everything went back on the playfield. Sure was fun to have my first game on this machine.. the ball movement is sooooo smooth on the new finish, with the new rubbers it just doesn't want to stop moving. I know the back glass is awful.. will have to do something in the future.

IMAG4798 (resized).jpgIMAG4798 (resized).jpg
#9 4 years ago

Im watching this closely . I have a big shot that Im getting up and ready now.

My Back glass is a little worse than yours playfield was a little better.

Anybody have suggestions for doing BG touch-ups.?
Type of Paint to use.?

#10 4 years ago

I'm watching too. We have one that's in better shape, and it's waiting in our hospital room for some love.

#11 4 years ago

Watching also, have a Gottlieb Play Pool (the Italian AAB) coming next week.

#12 4 years ago

I'm watching this thread as well, in fact I decided to make this back glass my latest photoshop project. I might have to hit you guys up for some close-up photos of problem areas. I usually like doing Roy Parker artwork, but this one is my first Gordon Morison artwork I think.

#13 4 years ago

Wow.. I had no idea so many were watching. I have been experimenting with acrylic craft paint on a small sheet of glass. After cleaning the glass with rubbing alcohol, I found it bonded very well and took a number of coats in alternating directions to get solid coverage. The result looked quite impressive, especially with a coat of black to stop light coming through. I do believe I can match the colors quite well, but I am concerned about placement. From the backside, you cannot see the artwork even with a bright light shining against it. This then turns into a job for a contortionist or the need for a video feed and having to paint backwards. So for now I am holding off. I am really concerned about loosing further detail, even removing the glass I am sure I will lose more pieces. I am currently looking for a flatbed scanner, so I can save what's there and rework the rest on the computer. If someone has decent scans of the BG, I would be glad to do the work of assembling and touch up. Then of course comes the issue of getting it printed.. will deal with that later.. hehe.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1973-gottlieb-big-shot-em-restoration and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.