Harlem Globetrotters On Tour
Bally, 1979This game looks beautiful, outstanding effort! One other thing that some may not notice, Chris repinned most if not all of the connectors in the backbox. This is necessary work and will help keep the game working as it should. I have seen some other Bally restorations on Pinside that are cosmetically beautiful, but don't even address the connectors. Chris does the things that make the game play as well as it looks.
As many know and mentioned, this is my game. Thank you Brian for giving it (original) to me. Several things. I have the original boards but supplied the alltek boards to Chris for the very reasons he mentions. The back glass is NOS that I got from Mike Pacak. I also supplied Chris with the NON-linear flipper mechs for the game. Also, not original but they are something I like to have replaced in every classic bally game. Not a fan of the linear sloppy flippers (over time)
The plastics were a concern. I had anything Harlem pinball related set as "alerts" on my E-bay account. The nos plastics posted one morning and I bought "buy now" immediately. Very lucky!!!
Planning to bring to Ohio show and Expo (and others) for all to play in classic tournament (s). As nice as this game is, it will NOT be hiding in my basement.
Looking forward to picking up the game in the next week or so.
Mark Salas
Quoted from terrapinmark:As many know and mentioned, this is my game.
Congrats! I think most everyone dreams of having their favorite pin receive the HEP treatment. 
Quoted from BrianBannon:This game looks beautiful, outstanding effort! One other thing that some may not notice, Chris repinned most if not all of the connectors in the backbox. This is necessary work and will help keep the game working as it should. I have seen some other Bally restorations on Pinside that are cosmetically beautiful, but don't even address the connectors. Chris does the things that make the game play as well as it looks.
Thanks for the positive comments ..
A lot of what I know about properly rebuilding this era beyond the cosmetics is a result of the many things you have suggested or posted over the years.
Quoted from terrapinmark:As many know and mentioned, this is my game. Thank you Brian for giving it (original) to me.
Ya know, if you loved the experience, I would be happy to trade my other one too you and you can relive it all again! 
Just a shout out to Chris. I set the game up yesterday and it plays and looks fantastic. Believe it or not, it looks even better in person. Game fired right up and plays beautifully. Resides nicely next to Stern Magic and Stern Seawitch.
Just finished another one so I thought I would add it to this post.
This game is a little different.It has chrome legs,white buttons,LED displays,blue flipper rubber,original style score and instruction cards and I stripped the underside of the playfield to bare wood.
All this done in the interest of separating it from the last one.
http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/album580
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42.JPGI love your Posts Chris!!! From all of us "Shoppers" out here it is a beautiful work of art every time and something to aspire to! Have you thought about putting together some of your best work in like a coffee book? I would love to flip through pages of your greatest restore jobs!
Man, Chris, I can't get enough angles of that garage door back there. And the lawn looks so well taken care of...!
You work like a surgeon - completely methodical with such amazing attention to detail. If I had you do one of my pins, I would buy a house first - because I would never EVER move it once it got home. Just absolutely amazing work.
Quoted from jcharlton:Looks beautiful! An inspiration for sure.
I'm in the middle of my first restoration - a Mata Hari. One thing I found particularly challenging when replacing the lamp sockets and running new ground wire is soldering the ground wire to the brackets of the new sockets. It takes a TON of heat it seems to get a good joint with the thick socket base.
Your solution of just running the ground wire under the hex-head screws is simply brilliant (and brilliantly simple)! Thank you for that!
I'll share one little flourish that I added on my project - the little metal plates that cap off the switch stacks tend to get pitted and rusted/corroded a bit. After tumbling mine for a day, I gave them a quick coat of gloss black spray paint. Combined with some new stainless hardware makes them all look sparkly new. Just a little detail that no one but me will likely ever notice, but thought I'd share.
Looking forward to some more updates!
Hey I've been using this avatar for 2 years. Find another one! haha (I was thinking I don't remember writing this at all, kind of freaked me out)
Quoted from terrapinmark:As many know and mentioned, this is my game. Thank you Brian for giving it (original) to me. Several things. I have the original boards but supplied the alltek boards to Chris for the very reasons he mentions. The back glass is NOS that I got from Mike Pacak. I also supplied Chris with the NON-linear flipper mechs for the game. Also, not original but they are something I like to have replaced in every classic bally game. Not a fan of the linear sloppy flippers (over time)
The plastics were a concern. I had anything Harlem pinball related set as "alerts" on my E-bay account. The nos plastics posted one morning and I bought "buy now" immediately. Very lucky!!!
Planning to bring to Ohio show and Expo (and others) for all to play in classic tournament (s). As nice as this game is, it will NOT be hiding in my basement.
Looking forward to picking up the game in the next week or so.
Mark Salas
Wow, thank you Mark S.! I can't wait to play it.
Quoted from Jesterfunhouse:I love your Posts Chris!!! From all of us "Shoppers" out here it is a beautiful work of art every time and something to aspire to! Have you thought about putting together some of your best work in like a coffee book? I would love to flip through pages of your greatest restore jobs!
Thanks. Right now this is the best collection of my completed restorations but I will have new options coming in the future. http://christopherhutchins.com/gallery/Finished-Games
Quoted from Gatecrasher:I always liked the Globetrotters.
One of my prized Bally SS pins is a virtually-mint totally unmolested HUO survivor.
Why they don't receive the love they should is beyond me.
I wouldn't sell mine for $3000+.
I agree completely. They don't receive love because nobody plays them in the condition or operational performance that they need to be. My collection is now just about 40 80's pins between Bally and Classic Stern. I wouldn't change it. When people come to my house they get a unique experience because mine have all been restored and play perfect. Then when they leave......They get it.....
Quoted from High_End_Pins:The apron is sanded,polished then decaled,In the past I have had to clear these once decaled but the Pinball Rescue decals are nice and don't have a thick edge.I did trim all the clear borders off of them though.
Pinball rescue decals are great.
Quoted from terrapinmark:Just a shout out to Chris. I set the game up yesterday and it plays and looks fantastic. Believe it or not, it looks even better in person. Game fired right up and plays beautifully. Resides nicely next to Stern Magic and Stern Seawitch.
I just knew it. I am so Jealous....I figured as the HG pictures were floating around. Absolute perfection and you know how to get it done right.
same story, same as others, its always a real pleasure to just give an eye on what you're able to do !
it's even more beautifull when it concern these '80 babies... love it !
Quoted from BrianBannon:This game looks beautiful, outstanding effort! One other thing that some may not notice, Chris repinned most if not all of the connectors in the backbox. This is necessary work and will help keep the game working as it should. I have seen some other Bally restorations on Pinside that are cosmetically beautiful, but don't even address the connectors. Chris does the things that make the game play as well as it looks.
Agree Brian, These games need alot more attention to detail then most people have the patience for.... to get back into working order and playing right. There would be more love for these games; if they played them in the same condition as everyone fixes their DMD games. Alot of people don't have the patience to fix it right and some don't know how to do it. It takes years of practice as Chris mentioned. Just last night I made a comment to some friends playing one of my older restorations and I said "oh yea on my newer restorations you don't see that because I take care of that up front."....
Incredible!! I just picked up a harlem globetrotters a few weeks ago. This will definitely be my inspiration when I am restoring my machine. You pics will also help with some of the touch ups I need to do on the upper part of the PF and outlanes. Thanks!
Richard
Quoted from Gatecrasher:I just sold an NOS Harlem Globetrotters playfield, plastics set, and playfield parts to a guy on Pinside about three weeks ago.
Yes, that was me! (Thanks!) I have another post of fine tuning that was done to inserts and then cleared. Looks almost as good as Chris' HG play field.
Alright everyone testing my Playfield one more time before I dropped it in and my right side GI will not work at all.even got my test rig that I used to check each bulb during solder job and no bulb will light on the right side GI.i checked every single controlled lamp too too see if one maybe was touching the gi but nope.ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated as I'm so close to playing this baby
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St Charles, MO
St.gallen
Sana'a
Oshawa, ON