I’m going to document the process of bringing back a 1963 Big Deal that was part of a “shed find”. When I got the game home, it was filthy and had a mice nest right at the top of the playfield, covering the arch. Luckily none of the artwork at the top of the playfield got damaged.

Upon setup, the game turned on and started a game but scoring and lights were all not working. All the steppers in the game were seized. As were the scoring reels. After resetting everything by hand, I was able to sort of play a game.

At that point, the tear down and cleanup started.

Below are photos of the game from when I first set it up in the shop.

Alberto

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I got lucky that the mice stayed mostly on top of the playfield. There is some rust on all the mechs, that will be cleaned.

The lock bar has not been cleaned yet. The end caps could use being rechromed but I’m not sure how I will take them off. They are riveted in place. Any tricks?

Alberto

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I looked up info on IPDB and it did not mention the history of the drop targets. It would be cool if it was one of the first. The drops all work, but the artwork is shot.

I’m going to try and recreate it. I’ve sent a few PMs to Pinsiders that own Big Deal, hoping to get a photo of the decals.

Alberto

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dr_nybble

Found the targets on the Williams parts catalog! Another Pinsider sent me the link. Now I can recreate them. Thank you!

I’m not sure about the cabinet yet. Overall it’s not in bad shape, except for the front around the coin door. I’ll see how it looks after a good cleaning. At most, I’ll patch and airbrush the green and orange parts.

I’ll get to the cabinet once I sort out all the rusty bits. The coin door is a tetanus shot waiting to happen.

Alberto

Mikala

That looks really good! You only had the end caps re-chromed, correct?

Did you use a local vendor or send them out?

Regards

Alberto

Some progress tonight. Removed the ball returns mechanism, shooting rod, lifter, and coin door. Starting to soak everything in Evaporust. Not sure how much I’ll be able to do with the door, it’s quite pitted. Most of the metal pieces on this game have some rust that will need to be sorted out.

Alberto

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While the coin door and ball return parts soak in Evaporust, I started working on cleaning all the seized up steppers. First was the Advance unit. That one would not move at all. It was just gummed up with grease and carbon dust. All components were taken apart and cleaned with Simple Green. The disc with all the metal contacts was polished with alcohol and a green Scotch Guard. The coils were cleaned and the coil sleeves replaced (some are metal, some are nylon) and all switches were cleaned.

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Pulled the playfield and the power board off so I could finish cleaning the cabinet of all the mouse poop.

I’ll work on the power board next, clean that up, make sure all switches work, and replace the power cord. Going to add a proper grounded power cord and add an on/off switch.

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More progress on the Big Deal. The new power cord and power switch are installed. A buddy 3D printed a white “igloo” to protect the exposed switch.

The power board is back in the cabinet. Waiting for ground braid to be delivered so I can finish the work on installing the new power cord.

A number of the coin door and ball return pieces are out of Evaporust and shined. They will be installed eventually.

Work has begun on the playfield. The flippers are out and will be rebuilt. Both coils need to be replaced. The four dead bumpers are out and cleaned. The pop bumpers are next.

Alberto

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All the pops are off and cleaned. Waiting for some replacement parts from PBR so I can rebuild them all

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Going has been slow but the following are now finished:

* Power cord has been replaced and the ground braid has been run to all four legs, coin door, and lock bar.
* All the coin door and lock bar parts are rust free and back in place. I did not polish the coin door as it’s heavily pitted. I might do something later, but for now it’s good.
* Ball lift mechanism is also rust free, no longer seized, and polished.

Next step is to clean the playfield. The top arch was a rusty mess due to a mouse nest. That is now soaking in Evaporust.

Alberto

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Playfield cleaned up well. I’m not going to touch this one up as it’s in good shape. Next is a couple coats of wax and then start to re-populate it.

Alberto

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Dave

Once I power up the machine without issues, I will post the procedure, schematic, and photos.

Alberto

Starting to look like a pinball again! New power cord and switch worked. Still a lot of work to do.

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Dave,

Adding the switch did work. It’s a simple switch, just there to kill power to the machine without having to unplug it.

If you look at the schematic below, just to the left of the plug symbol is a wire callout for A60, that’s where the new switch is connected.

On the first photo you can see where the Ground from the plug connects to the transformer case then you can see the ground braid going to the legs, coin door, and lock bar. You can also see the neutral from the plug going to the low-side of the transformer.

The hot side of the transformer is spliced to another wire which is then run along the wire harness (the white zipties keep it in place) to the power switch. I had to use a Forsner bit to make the appropriate size hole to fit the switch. I cut a small piece of Lexan to a square to mount the switch to. The little white igloo covers the switch since the contacts on it are exposed. The wire coming out the other end of the switch then runs to where the old cord’s “hot” connection went to.

I hope this helps

Alberto

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Playfield is almost put back together. The top arch needs to be sanded off and repainted. And I’m in the process of redrawing the drop target decals to get them re-printed.

Save a couple lights that are not workin and the Special lighting up but not awarding,
this game is almost back.

Alberto

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After scanning into the computer, my daughter recreated the artwork for the drop targets. The final version has the darker green. Now I need to bring this to local print shop go have the decals made.

The game is fully working. All mechanical and electrical issues are sorted out. All that is left is stabilizing the backglass and re-creating the drop targets. The issue with the Special not awarding was in the Replay Unit. One of the switches was gapped too wide.

Alberto

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First test print on what will become the drop target decal. Needs to be re-sized but I like the look of it.

The old ones have seen better days.

Alberto

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This Big Deal is flipping again. Only missing the drop targets and getting the ends of the lock bar re-chromed. I need to make room in the shop for a new project so it’s going out to the game room.

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The repro decals for the drop targets are in. Could have sized them a little bigger, but they came out nice. They are made of automotive vynil for durability

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One last one with the decals installed

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