My Wizard! restoration is finally finished and ready for inspection. I'm not really an EM guy so this was a little out of my comfort zone. I love the artwork on Wizard! and wanted to further my knowledge of EM's so it was time to dive in, here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike217/sets/72157632060513966/show/
Features include a new Wade Krause clearcoated playfield, tons of Mike Chestnut chrome, all new available targets, plastic parts, hardware, and glass. Cabinet was fully stripped and refinished. I went with gloss paint. I don't know why the factory didn't use gloss, it makes the machine look so much brighter and newer. I also hate the fuzzy underspray look of stencils and tried for nice crisp lines on the edges. I also used a medium blue instead of a dark blue. The factory dark blue was just too dark. The medium blue matches the blues in the backglass much better. I also added the new style Stern metal cabinet leg edge gaurds to protect the new paint. I highly reccomend these if you refinish a cabinet. All the metal bits and pieces were also bright buffed. The coin door alone took a whole day to disassemble, buff, and reassemble. Buffing also makes the aluminum chime bars really pop. Finally, I added Gottlieb 25V coils. At first I put in Bally extra strong replacement coils and the game still felt weak. It just wasn't hitting the spinner hard. An older thread on RGP pointed me to the Gottlib coils and WOW! the game screams now. The spinner must be doing a 100 spins every hit. It's a whole new game with the Gottlieb coils, what a difference. Thanks for looking.

Mike

Thanks. Coils are Gottlieb A-5141. If you order them from Steve Young do not tell him you are putting them in a Bally game, he will yell at you.
The score reels are original, they were removed one at a time and cleaned individually. This was a nice game to start. The last owner had it 15 years an didn't have a key. It hadn't been opened or messed with in all that time and was super clean inside. I removed the mech board but didn't disassemble anything on it. I just gently cleaned it as best I could. As I said I'm learning about EM's and didn't want to screw anything up. I only had a few minor glitches after reassembly.
Paint colors are Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow, Sunrise Red, and Sail Blue on top of the correct filler primer for wood. The gloss is excellent. I know it's not original but it's what I like. Cabinet was rock solid to begin with, even the particle board rear panel. The seams are perfect and there has been no moisture or swelling ever.
Plastics are original. They are perfect so I didn't have to replace them.