Milford, CT
I'm putting the finishing touches on a Williams Top Hand I picked up not too long ago. This is the add a ball version of Full House. One of the main problems with this particular machine, which is a relatively well documented design flaw is that the 3D Playfield plastic that goes over the 3 playfield card score reels is made of a very thin and flimsy plastic instead of the much sturdier plastic used on their standard playfield plastics (which, IMO is much better than what Gottlieb was using in the same era).
My 3D Piece does not have the usual burn spots common to these, but is missing some pieces and has some warping that I'll probably try to reshape. See pictures:
One of the reasons these have not done well is that there are 4 lamps under it. 2 of these have the white lamp sleeves.
Do the lamp sleeves add extra heat under this type of playfield plastic, or is the warping/dark spots common to these a result of the warmer bulbs used in 60s machines? If so, should I forgo replacing the sleeves? I usually try to restore to original as much as possible, but I do not want to destroy this piece further. Alternatively, would it look stupid if I put 4 LEDs under this piece? I'm not a fan of LEDs in EMs, but this is a special situation.
What should I do to keep this plastic from deteriorating further? I noticed some of the paint is starting to separate/lift from the plastic.
Does anyone know of a person/business that vacuformed these or has NOS of these? The run of these machines was over 5000, so I'm guessing someone out there might have done this at some point (no, PBresource does not have these; I asked).
Any advice on restoring this piece, opinions on what you'd do in my shoes is appreciated here. I really suck at vacuforming and the piece I have is in warped, so making a template would be pretty difficult.
