Hello all,

I am currently humming and hahhing over whether or not to buy a 1961 GTB Flipper Parade machine. The story goes that it was a community machine in an old folks home, where it appears someone took excellent care of it mechanically. The game appears to be fully functional, VERY clean inside, lots of new parts. Only problem with it is the dial for how many balls are left does not reinitialize when first turned on, and the GI sometimes goes out...but comes back on after about 5 seconds or so. I think these are pretty small issues. The playfield is in immaculate shape.

The major problem with this is the backglass and the cab. Backglass is for all purposes completely done for. Wood veneer covers most of the glass (yes....the backglass), where it must have flaked off and was painted black on the back too. The cab was painted all yellow, with some of the purple border on the backbox left.

I am looking to try my hand at restoring a machine, but I want to make sure that the amount I spend restoring I will at least get that back out of it if I sell it. Does anyone know what this machine would be worth restored so I know if it is worth spending $300 on a backglass?

Thanks a lot,

theDoc

_{Post edited by doctorFudge : clarify what i am looking for}

Thank you all for the replies and the good info. He wants $300, but his son put the ad up for $200, so I think I could probably get him to honor his ad price for $200.

Just to answer questions, the playfield was either a 9 or 10. Perfect. That and the 98% functionality of the game is why I couldn't get the machine out of my head after seeing it. The plastics were all there, not broken, center plastic was a little flakey, but not bad.

Another thing I noticed was on the front/right corner by the plunger, you could see cracks along the seams of the wood. I have been trying to find something to this regard online, whether or not it is a big deal or what to do to fix it.

On the front of the backbox, it appears there is like a 1/8" thick wood shell on the outside, framing the backglass. Some of that has chipped and broken (in like a 2x2" area) that I don't really know what I would do with either.

I am down to try fixing these things and I am not really looking to resell to make a lot of money. I want the experience and to have a game I can donate to the next Zapcon pinball convention in Phoenix in April.

Thanks again everyone for your input. What a great community

That is a pretty hefty resume. =) I am excited to start learning this stuff.