I picked up a rough 1959 Around the World pin today. This will be my fourth restoration and hopefully my best. I learn something every time. The plan is the fix the broken wood on the cabinet, make stencils and do a full repaint. I'll also repaint the entire playfield and clearcoat after fixing the inserts. The inserts aren't cupped as much as they are recessed. Since the game doesn't work I'll take apart the mechanicals, clean and polish when possible. I'm sure I'll run into a few problems so please comment with suggestions. Tomorrow it is going to a local exterminator for fumigation. I'll be able to pick it up in a week and then the fun will begin. This is where I am today.

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Well I’m pretty disappointed. I took the metal covers off the wood rails this morning and found bug damage on the left rail. The right side is OK. I’m taking it to the exterminator this morning so if anything is alive they can take care of it. Does anyone sell the wood rails for a 2 player machine?

Well I have bad news, good news and more bad news. I took the machine to the exterminators yesterday and he confirmed the damage to the left wood rail is from dry wood termites. He dug around in the wood and believes it is from an old infestation since there were no live bugs. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a source for new rails yet. I still have some time. I plan to wait until the game comes out of the fumigation vault and then do a very close inspection for additional damage. If it isn't too bad I'll press ahead with the cabinet. For now my main concern is if the termites got in the side.

Yes I talked to Steve this morning. He has the rails for a single player game and this is a two player. Apparently the single player rails are rounded on the top and the two player rails are flat. He said I would have to make them myself.

Depending on the results of a thorough inspection I’ll have to make a set somehow.

I got the pin back from the exterminator yesterday. He confirmed the termite damage is from a previous infestation. I removed the playfield and bottom relay board to get a look at what I’m dealing with. It is of course very dirty which was expected. Beside the termite damage on the left wood rail I found a small area of damage on both corners of the back of the cabinet. This can be fixed easily. The rest of the cabinet is in reasonable shape.

The plan is to start with fixing the wood issues on the cabinet and doing a full repaint. I’ll need to make my own stencil and have some tracing paper on order. To help with the smell in the garage I’ll put the back box and relay board in one of those vacuum bags. The playfield is a mess cosmetically. I’ll need to do a complete repaint using an airbrush and install some decals. I’ve had good luck with Spraymax so I’ll seal the paint with it. None of the score reels or steppers work smoothly so they will be disassembled and cleaned. All the other relays will get similar attention and if it moves I’ll rebuild it. I may also use orange dot coils for the flipper. Thanks to a fellow pinsider I have a file to make new plastics. All of this should keep me busy for a year or so. I attached a few pictures of it scattered around the garage.

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I guess you’re right. Most guys would install new rubbers, clean and wax the playfield and have fun. For me the fun is in the project. I attached some additional pictures so you can see some of the detail that would drive me crazy. The pictures show how much the inserts have shrunk as well as the planking and paint lose.

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Someone put a clasp on the front of the cabinet and did a super butch job to the wood. I’ll fill the holes with wooden dowels and still need lots of filler.

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I started work on the cabinet. I stripped the paint and did some initial sanding. I discovered more termite damage. It is confined to the back and isn’t structural. Tonight I started filling holes with wooden dowels where possible and filled some of the termite damage on one of the back corners with fiberglass resin.

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The other corner filled with resin.

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I broke my sander tonight. Hopefully DeWalt makes a replacement part.

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I ordered a new pad for the sander from Amazon. I also did some more resin on the back panel.

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It’s been almost two weeks since my last update. I was able to get new parts to fix my orbital sander and purchased a new 1/4 sheet palm sander. They are very helpful with the sanding task. I finally finished filling all the termite holes with resin and have moved on to using bondo for the normal dents and scrapes. I also repaired one side of the cabinet that had bowed a little. The cabinet is made from multiple narrow pieces of wood that was glued together and the glue came loose between two boards. They didn’t separate enough to get glue in the joint so I reinforced it from the inside. It doesn’t look great, but is strong. I decided to use satin clear polyurethane on the inside of the cabinet and the bottom. I started the bottom today and think the satin finish will look good. Hopefully I’ll have time this weekend to finish sanding the bondo and maybe put on my first coat of primer.
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I was able to find the time to put two coats of polyurethane on the inside of the cabinet and the first coat of primer on the outside. As expected the primer revealed small cracks and imperfections I didn’t see before. I’ll get some glazing putty for that.

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Tiger stripes

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I sanded the glazing putty and put another coat of primer on it last night. This morning I sprayed the yellow base coat. It’s nice to finally see some color.

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I put another coat of yellow on it this morning. I’m not sure what to do next. Still a ton of options.

The main cabinet is inside and done for now. I’ve decided to start on the back box next. No termite damage this time, but lots of splits, warps and dings to keep me busy. I also painted the coin box.

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I like the contrast between the outside and inside of the cabinet. Strange that the base color is yellow, but will be mostly covered with blue and orange when it’s complete. I still need to find a source to make new wood rails for the sides. It’s always something.

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It’s raining too much to work on the back box so I decided to start stripping the playfield. This will be fun.

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I have almost everything stripped from the playfield. I found a couple of surprises. When flipping it over the edge caught on my frame. A good size piece of the top veneer split and peeled away. It will be easy to repair, but a surprise all the same.

I always rebuild the mechanical parts and sometimes wonder if it is a waste of money. Not this time. Check out the linkage on my upper flippers. This time I’ll need the complete rebuild kit as well as the shafts and flipper bats.

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Everything is removed from the playfield. I plan to store it for now while I go back to the cabinet.

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No in Tampa. The original owner said it was in the family bar in Clearwater before keeping it at their house. It’s pretty beat up. It’s going to take a lot of time and $ to restore.

I started working on the back box again. I stripped off the paint and sanded all the wood. It’s almost a shame to cover it up with paint. I have a few things to glue and fill before the first coat of primer. I plan to use satin polyurethane on the inside like the main cabinet.

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Looks good I wish I had a Cameo and the computer program/skills to use the software. For this cabinet I plan to use poster board cut with a exact knife.

I finished fixing the wood issues and put on the first coat of polyurethane on the trim and inside of the back box.

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I wasn’t able to get my usual white primer so I got the only thing they had. I don’t care for the grey.

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I applied some glazing putty to fill in the tiny cracks and to smooth the wood grain some.

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Although I’m focusing most of my energy on the back box I did find time to glue down a section of loose ply on the playfield.

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I should be working on the back box, but I can’t resist the playfield. I glued a couple more spots of delaminated upper plies and plugged a couple of enlarged holes with a wood dowels. I also noticed grooves worn into the playfield where the posts are installed. Take a look at the picture. The groove is clearly visible.44392CCF-2E23-482E-BD56-8DF8B3603C0E (resized).jpeg

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One of the holes near the right target hole has a broken screw. I plan to leave it since I don’t need that hole.

I cleaned the playfield and used my HP scanner.

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The cleaning with magic eraser and Novus 2 came out as good as can be expected. The playfield still looks like crap, but at least it’s clean and shiny.

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I printed off the scanned files and placed them on the playfield for reference. Although the scanner is supposed to be 1 to 1 it printed slightly different. Not enough to worry about, but I wonder why.

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Thanks Mal. Were you able to do anything with the pictures I sent last year?

I put a second coat of grey primer on it today. Hopefully I can find some white for the last coat.

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I put some white primer and yellow paint on it tonight.

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For now the back box is finished and will go into the house while I make stencils for the blue and orange. I’m happy with it so far.

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The scan is so I have a pattern to make water slide decals for the words and numbers. I’ll use frisket and an airbrush to paint the entire playfield .