Starting my 3rd 1981 version EBD resto. Right now I'm working on the cab and will show pics of how I disassembled the cab and maybe to give inspiration to anyone willing to go this far on a cab restore. As you can see from the pics, the back part of the cab is in really poor shape. The head support was loose and prior owner had put sheet rock screws and nailed in to hold but it wasn't doing much and he destroyed the wood in the process. Also the rear particle board section is chipped along the bottom and not very easy to repair. I'm replacing the rear panel with new plywood and will be rebuilding the head support. With the rear panel removed I have easy access to replace the floor.

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I start be removing the sheet rock screws and nails. The head support was loose enough where I could get a 2 inch wide stiff putty knife under the wood to start prying it up. I had to break through the old glue and tried not to splinter the wood too much. That didn't go so well and since the top part of the cab was already beat up I just removed it and will replacing with a new piece. That piece has the 4 T nuts that receive the head bolts and also has a routered edge so I'm having it made at my local woodworking shop. Most of this area was assembled using staples and glue so it doesn't take too much effort to break it apart. One that's out of the way the rear glass support wood can be tapped up and out. This piece has 2 nails on either side and just bent up as I tapped it out with a mallet. Removed the nails and will replace with stainless deck screws for better strength.

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Once those 3 pieces are removed, you're basically left with just the 4 sides. The rear panel needs to be replaced so I removed the 2 large wooden cleats on the rear panel and with a few blows with the mallet, it comes off. To remove the floor, you have to start by removing the metal security plate from under the cab. It is held with 11 nails that must be pried up and removed. Once the nails are out the plate can be pushed up enough to clear the groove on the cab front and then you can bend it enough to remove it from the sides. This cab will be the 6th Bally game that I'm replacing the floor in. Everyone so far has been the same. 12 nails hold the floor in place from the bottom and some glue on the center of the 2 cross members. The nails have a T shaped head that were put in with an air or pneumatic type nailer. The heads are buried so I had to cut through the floor with a wood chisel to gain access and pry them up. Once all the nails are removed, it's time to remove the wedge cleats from the inside bottom of the cab. This part is painstaking because to they are removed forcefully the inner walls of the cab will splinter. I used a sharp 1 inch wood chisel and gently pried them up until they popped out. Some wood will get damaged but can be repaired later with wood filler. The cleats are also glued to the floor but since replacing the floor anyway, it doesn't matter if the floor splinters. The corner cleats where the let bolts are don't have to be removed. Bally didn't use all that mach glue and most likely the glue is dried and cracked and not doing much to keep the floor from sliding out. I use the speaker hole as a place to tap it out with a mallet. I forget to mention that the wood block that the power switch mounts to will also need to be removed.

The new pieces will be finished this week and I will cleaning up the inside walls of the cab and preparing to paint the inside in the mean time.

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Thanks, I'll look into those.

Got the wood parts back from the shop. They did a great job duplicating the originals. I hope to shoot some primer on the inside walls of the cab tomorrow.

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Battling the heat the last 2 weekends. I got the inside walls of the cabinet painted black and looking nice. Today I cut the new floor and some of the other cabinet components. I cut the wedge cleats from 2x2 solid poplar stock. I cut new corners for the leg brackets since I broke the originals when removing the rear panel. Also cut the new speaker mounting block. Next will the reassembly of the cab.

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I only had to replace 1 pf rest, the one in the pic. I just copied the original. I cut it from a solid piece of poplar but you can use any wood you like. The original is just 3/4 plywood. The cleats are use to hold the floor in place.

EBD is one of the best Bally classics IMO. I'm glad to help in any way...

Getting things done now that the weather has cooled off a little. Some of the new wooded parts are now installed, such as the lower cross member and lower front support. Also new speaker and power switch mounting blocks. Inside of cab is painted and I installed new ground braid. I laid in the new floor board today(Saturday). It's tough to find a floor that matches the original. So what I came with is Eucaboard sold by Home depot. It is smooth on one side and has texture on the other, similar to the original except the color is more brown. One problem with it, is that it only comes in 1/8 or 3/16 thickness. My solution, use 1/8 and glue them together with high strength spray adhesive. This gives me the 1/4 inch thickness that I need. After curing, I cut in the vent, speaker and power switch holes with a trim router. I used the original floor as a template to trace out the holes using the outer guide wheel to follow against the original floor. It's easier than it sounds. I just clamped the new floor to the old and drilled pilot holes for the router bit. I then glued and stapled the wood blocks to the floor using narrow crown staples.

As most of you know the security plate under these machines is usually very ugly, rusty and has old chewing gum stuck on them. Easy to replace with new galvanized sheet metal. I cut the power switch hole with a Milwaukee bimetal hole saw. Cleaned up the edges with emery cloth.

I glued and stapled the floor in today. I'm quite happy with the result. The darker color looks pretty good even though I prefer the light color of the original floor. Tomorrow I will clamp and glue the plywood strips under the floor to complete the bottom edge of the cab, once cured I can fill any voids and sand smooth. Will look like factory once again. The new rear upright panel is also installed. Glued and screwed using stainless steel deck screws. I carved out the leg bolt holes with a dremel drum sander and 7/16 drill bit. Way nicer then the old MDF rear panel, which is not only ugly and chips easily but is also heavy.

The transformer plate was sent out to get powder coated, looks great.

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Thank you! I just stumbled upon your resto thread a few days ago. I was very impressed with the playfield restoration. Also with the metal buffing. It's light years ahead of my skills. Cab work is very rewarding when restoring a pin, but yes it's a lot of work.

Thanks again. I did try buffing the mirror ball guides on a Xenon and I just made them worse. I used a bench grinder with various buffing wheels and rouge. Maybe some day when I have more time I will try buffing certain parts like coin doors and lock down bars.

Drawing is not my forte. Thank god for CPR repro playfields. I think anyone that can bring back a blown pf like yours was is truly a pin restorer.

Thanks, I have some of those items already. The coin bezel came out very nice especially since it's cast metal with plating over it. I take the easy way out and send them to a chromer lol.

It's been a while since I posted but I have been working on this game when I have spare time. I's waiting on CPR to finish the playfields and also for the weather to warm up so I can finish the cab. The main cab is painted and ready to receive the stencil colors. Been busy re-pinning the connectors and rebuilt the power supply section. Most of the metal parts are at the plating shop for zinc and nickel plating.

I stripped the lamp board panel to prepare it for a re-paint. After removing all the staples, the wood was really chewed up and at that point I decided to have a new one made. I took the original to the wood shop and had some copies made. the original is MDF and the thickness used then is not available now so I had it made from Birch plywood. I also got new lamp shrouds from Shapeways. Expensive at almost $15 each but they match exactly.

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Thanks everyone! I will post more pics as I go and hope to inspire anyone that want's to restore their EBD.

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Sorry I have slow with the updates. Things have slowed down a bit since Pinfest. I'm just getting back into the resto. I worked on the backbox and it's now ready for primer and paint. I have assembled some of the mechanical parts. also collecting new parts. I scored 2 more EBD games that I will also be restoring. Also waiting for the pf's to get finished. I have finished the lamp board, the lamp sockets are installed, new trace wire soldered in. Display holders mounted. On the drop targets, as most of you probably know, the spring steel switch activators are usually rusty and no replacements are available, I decided to paint them. After removing the rust, I painted them with Rustoleum metallic blue to simulate the original look. All the metal parts have been dipped and re-plated. Mostly zinc. The knocker assy is nickel. The original pop bumper rings also nickel. More pics to come...

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Thanks! If you ever do decide to restore your game, I have extra stickers and all of the paper cards for the game, I sell them for a decent price.

Thanks. I know most people like chrome added to the Bally games. Most new games have powder coated rails, lock down bars etc. Not for this EBD but the next one I do, I want to do some powder coat instead of chrome. The color I chose is the gold color from the EBD artwork. Just to see what the parts would look like, I got some samples from Prismatic and chose a color that closely matches the gold. It's more of a mustard yellow. I powdered the lock down bar, coin entry bezel and rear pf glass support. I have a set of raw steel side rails that I was thinking of doing and possibly the coin door skin. I'm afraid it might be too much gold when finished. I also did some of the internal parts the same color, these include the transformer plate, fuse holder, knocker mech frame, lockdown receiver, coin box and lid, coin door inner plate and coin catch basket. I will post some pics of the parts soon.

Marco

http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch;jsessionid=6F4F5EE73AB58D8B00A20112DA7CEE77.jvm1?SEARCH_STRING=a967-00010-0000

It's the Bally Midway part number but it's the same part. Later games like Bugs Bunny have the same part but it's black oxide instead of zinc.

plunger is S-496-118 and coil bracket i 01-9319, also from Marco.

Thanks! Me either lol

Backbox lamp board almost complete. The score display trays are nickel plated. I installed Cointaker warm white LED's. This panel is all new, new wood, new trace wire. The only left to do is install the light shrouds for the tilt, HSTD, etc. I got replacements from Shapeways. I also got the first coat of primer on the backbox. Pretty soon I'll be able to get the base color applied.

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I sprayed the second coat of primer on the backbox. Also started working on the coin door. Before I start assembling the door, some work needs to be done on the wire harness. Soldered in the coin lockout coil and cut new fish paper insulator that goes behind it. Also rebuilding the credit switch. Have to build it from scratch since no replacement it available. Switch blades and gold flashed contacts from PBR. I also cut new fish paper insulator strips. I used the heavy paper from pinrestore.com. Used my guillotine style cutter to make the strips and my Whitney punch to make the holes. I used a sharp object to mark the center of the holes using the old piece as a template. Next is to replace the 3 lamp sockets for the coin bezel windows an the slam switch. I will also re-pin the 24 pos connector and replace the housing.

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Thanks! I had the yellow stickers reproduced when I did my first Bally resto. I noticed that most of the Bally games from this era have the yellow sticker and many of the other cards in the game are the same except for the game specific ones. So I went to a printer with the old cards and had then copied. Some had to be photoshopped due to wear and age. I knew I would be doing more restorations so I had multiples made. PM me if you want the sticker.

For the contacts, I use a spring loaded punch by Making Memories. It's actually an eyelet setting tool with an adjustable handle so you can adjust the tension. The bits that came with the tool do not fit the contacts, so I found a bit that would work. It's just a cone shaped bit that will flare the contact enough so that I can tap it down with a small hammer. Here's the tool:

https://www.amazon.com/MAKING-MEMORIES-26564-Memories-Instant/dp/B000FW97U2/ref=sr_1_1

I use a piece of felt to work on to protect the contact face. It doesn't take much force to flare the contact so there's no worry of ruining the contact.

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PM sent

Man where does the time go! I have been working on this EBD a little at a time. Finally getting to stenciling the cab. I'm using Pinball Pimp stencils and they are working very well. This is my 3rd EBD re-paint. The 2 previous were done with Pinball Pal stencils. As most of you know, the EBD head colors are inverted from the main cab. All stencils I have seen before pimp's have a ivory and gold for the head. So I had to paint the head ivory and then mask off the head and leave the sides exposed to receive the black paint. Once cured, I could then spray the first color ivory (cream) and then the gold. With pimp's you can spray the entire head ivory color and then spray the black stencil. The only drawback is the black stencil has separated pieces that have to be removed one at a time. The paint needs to be fairly dry before attempting the stencil removal. The stencils stick very well, so it's kind of difficult.

I did have a problem with the ivory on the main cab front. I don't think was caused by the stencil. Not really sure what happened, but the ivory lifted on one corner. I'm thinking that i didn't let the black cure enough before laying the final coat. Or there some kind of contamination on the paint.

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