I am currently shopping out a very-very nice Card Whiz, pretty much an untouched original. Current owner bought it in 1978 & it sat in his basement until now. Virtually NO playfield wear or planking, all wiring is clean & unfaded. Looks like this one came out of Canada, as it has a pair of Canadian quarter mechs in the door.
The instruction card had a piece of tape over the match replay notice, & I wondered why. I pulled the match "AS" relay & the greedy operator had neatly cut the wire so the match feature did not work. I resoldered it back on & cleaned it up. I fought with it for an hour or so & finally got it working - had a couple of problems - the switch was tensioned too tight, & the spring for the ratchet was too weak. Adjusted the switch & replaced the ratchet spring with an good old used one and it works great now. I am using a very slight amount of Teflon gel lube on the gears & cam lobes of "AS" relays now & so far it is doing the trick.

Yeah, not too many EM heads around anymore. Most of the kids like the new-fangled digital pins.
I have a couple more lined up that need more serious attention - Gottlieb wedgeheads - "High Hand" & "Top Card", both are what I refer to as dumpster quality - wasted, but savable as player games.
My avatar is a pic of my dumpster Gottlieb "King Kool" - I worked a full year on that off & on. Was a real turd when I brought it home - it smelled like cat piss, backbox was broken, cabinet was broken, playfield planked & worn. Works perfectly now! (& smells good too). Repainted the cabinet, but did not touch up the playfield - just cleaned it up & clear coated it with varathane. Looks pretty decent even with the wear..err. patina.

I Hate when people vulture and part them out,^ nice to see one of the few who care about saving them.
They can keep the new pins as i would rather have Em `s .

I like it all. Hot-dogs and steak, beer and martinis, EMs and DMDs, hot chicks and fa... err... you get the idea... Why choose!

Well, yeah, I won't pass up play on the new stuff... but I really appreciate what they did with the limited analog hardware that they had to work with back in the day.
My buddy has an Stern AC/DC Premium with I really like, but there is something about the EM's......

I think you got a much better deal on the slick chick

Done this as well, but who says what is worth what? $9000 for a WOZ that in 20 years time will be hell to maintain due to pc components whereas the EM's will still be working just fine! All the good EM's are LE's as they are truly limited and rare. Only difference right now is that there is very little interest in EM's but this could change and prices would rocket.

Main thing is to play em, have fun........and erm, make em look good

glad it worked out for you dan... looks like you did a nice job on it...

Now its your turn.

yea, but i'm getting off easy... all i have to do is put a new sticker on it...

The original doors didn't have stickers on them.

Hey Dan,
I've had several games with the aluminum trim that had some idiot get into them with a screwdriver.....
What I do is take the whole thing out of the game, seperate doP2130051.JPGor from trim, (I know you already had it that way) and carefully file the offending mangled metal. I use a fine file and then various sandpaper as well to remove as much damage as possible, always sanding with the length of the frame. They always look much better when done. This Super Spin door frame was pretty bad, and as you can see, only a few small divots remain. You have to take a little extra off sometimes, but the overall effect is good, yes?

:confused: i was under the impression that all the doors that had the "circle" in the middle has a sticker? and the "flat" ones didn't? it wouldn't be the first time that i've been wrong though...

that's a good tip, and it does look like it came out real nice... almost every frame i've ever seen has been mangled...

You inspired me to put my Cardwhiz back together OP. Its only taken me a year to get around to it

yes, the circle ones have the sticker, the flat ones do not. I was thinking you were getting the flat one - never mind!

Mine is chewed up too.
Wonder if someone has found a replica/likeness of that extrusion?

ah, ok... nope, dan had posted that his had the "wrong" door, so i offered to trade him the "correct" one, since i had replaced one on my jacks open that was completely beaten to hell with the "wrong" one...

i'm liking stashy's tip, although i might butcher it in the process...

dunno... you would think there's something out there... if so, we could just get it and cut it to size...

never going to happen

did you get the card whiz fixed

Hard to take good pictures of that stuff, but here goes.
Kx in both positions, E from both sides.

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The only EM I wish I hadn't sold.

Very nice! Congrats.

Question on Card Whiz guys:

The instruction card states you are supposed to get your bonus for hands made after completion of the ball. But even if I have a bonus/hand lit, there is no extra countdown of bonus after the ball drains, ala Target Alpha, etc.

Is there supposed to be a bonus countdown for the hands after each ball drains? Thanks!

Yes, There is supposed to be a bonus countdown.

Look at the "AS" relay on the bottom side of the playfield. There are two there. The one that has two Jones plugs on the harness and is removable probably needs to be serviced. If in doubt, replace the spindle and armature.

Mike O.

Nice machine. I love Card Whiz / Royal Flush. Ahh.. Someday....