If you play these by the rules they are difficult and challenging. I had a friend told me he was going to drop off a gold rush for me to fix. When I got home I found it in the garage. It was a pile of parts. He said he paid $150 bucks for it and another game. (Gay Time) I said he paid too much! The head was ripped off the cabinet (most likely a large prybar) It took me about a month but I did get it back together and with some help from a friend, playing correctly. I ended up selling the game to a very famous Gold Miner. ( Freddy, I hope you are still enjoying it.)

My first EM restoration. Love the unpredictability of Klondike a great EM. Waxed? Fast as hell, as any modern pinball.
Replaced the small primitive chime unit with a Williams 3- Bar.Added some green LED at the Jackpot Unit at top and the drains.
The Pop-up ball block between the flippers got a Fire LED from Comet.
I hate that you rarely see the pop bumpers lit, the play field is really pretty when they are.
Set the rotary bonus unit in the head to Novelty, its great hearing that thousand unit clicking over, a special sound.
I must have done something right, still plays great 4 years later. It gave me confidence to refurbish 6 Ems.

I think it ups the scoring for each switch/ 10 points=100, etc. Some may call it cheating but unless you are a phenomenal player you will rarely hear the sound of that 4th/5th score reel combination.
I will try to Post updated photos soon.IMG_1622 (resized).JPG

Klondike, great game and fond memories!
For a couple years in the early 70's there was a Klondike in a Kmart foyer in Ottawa. We used to spin pennies in the coin slots and about every tenth spin chalked up a game. Well...us kids just moved into the place after awhile and played that machine for hours on end...and that's where it all started!
I remember keeping the three wagons aligned was the hot ticket but difficult to cash in on and that down post button right before the drain...many a penny game ended because of that!
Haven't played Klondike in forty odd years. It's on my wish list.

Nothing better than scoring those wagons and making the whole rest of the arcade look.

One of my very first pinball loves/addictions.

I changed the Bonus lights to LED, first solid, next two flashing, and Grand Bonus a color changing so you can see it. Now need to get the knocker working, set up for free play you don't win games, but when that 100,000 light comes on it would be nice to make some noise.

Hope to see some others machines, especially Yukon and Gold Rush.

Just in case there might be anyone out there that does not know, Pinball Rescue has plastics for these including the slot reel cover which you can buy separately however the shipping costs suck. (not their fault)

They also have the slot reel cover for Top Hand / Full House

Wayull thar Pintwinny.....
...ifn I do say so muself, she was jus a copper Kmar thang we gave lots a luvin an up postin to but we all figured she was settin on a lil ol gold mine!

2 green LED under the apron, one on each side. Double sided tape.
I used to "Fire" LED in the Pop up they look good but didn't really give the Campfire effect I was looking for. I bet your Red looks as good or better. Red bands on white flippers.

I bought one of the Slot Covers and its really good quality.

Since I plan on keeping this game going to get a new back glass (BGresto) and strip it down and clear coat. Hard to photograph LED, when I did it people were cussing about souping up an EM but got used to it. Would really like to find a way to light up the center field,which is really dark.

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Nice machine! If you get a chime unit try to find a Gottlieb, they sound better. If you want to try something different throw an extra ball in, this would have made a great multi-ball.
Hope Pinsiders will join in with pics/stories of their machines.

Daditude has a Gold Rush for sale in Texas for a good price if anyone is interested.

I missed out on getting the slot plastic cover before pinball rescue closed. Super bummed. I don't even have an old broken one. Its just naked. Does anyone have an extra or know of another source? Thanks.

Damn, didn't realize that they were the only source. Mine is in ok shape but I was meaning to pick up a spare.

After shipping from Australia that was an expensive plastic.
To the Owners out there, what is a GC Klondike worth?

I have just started to restore a Yukon and it seems that cosmetically it will be fine, except for that awful slot cover. I too missed out on getting one from pinball rescue, and there don't seem to be any available anywhere.

I would like to take a shot at creating it myself. I know a little about vacuum-forming and silk screening and with the right artwork it should be possible.

Does anyone know how pinball rescue recreated these covers? I know they are retired, any contact information so I could ask them myself? Anyone willing to help?

Thanks in advance. I am new (as of today), hope to get active soon as this seems to be a great site.

You would need a pattern (male) on the bottom and a heated (iron) pressing down on the plastic sheet.
We used a pattern maker (now retired) who made mahogany molds for specialty parts where I worked.
It would be possible to use High Heat silicone rubber to make the molds if you had an old plastic.
Basically this thing is a sheet of plastic with 1 bulge.
Need to do a little research as to what type of plastic to use (this is what I would ask the Aussie Guys)IMG_1292 (resized).JPG

If you are serious about reproducing the reel cover plastic, you might put a call out to other people who are interested in buying one. The more potential customers you have could seriously reduce the unit price (plastic stock, tooling, art etc). I myself would take at least one and maybe two depending on the final price. It's a really fun game and definitely worth the effort to keep it going and looking good

I would definitely take one and also, a possible second!

Currently restoring a Yukon now. My symbol reels are filthy dirty with black carbon dust, and they seem to be paper. Any advice how to clean them without damaging the symbols?
Is there a recommended S/I card for free ball score levels?
I had to put taller PF posts under my reel cover because it was dragging on the reels.
Bob/Vermont

I purchased new ones off Mr.Pinball classifieds, a little disappointed in the colors. Remember someone here Posted the images so you could print your own off but I don't have the link.
When you remove the old they are basically strips of card stock so you could print your own with a scanner.
Just remember to index the EXACT location where they start and end.
In the photo above you can see mine are a little off. The glue had set up so I left it.

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Maybe somebody in Photoshop can clean these up, I don't have it.

Hey, Phil...is that a flipper rubber you have around the rebound rubber? Cool idea.

Speaking of scanning and printing my own reel strips, the end product is never to scale. Always smaller, they would never line up.
Can not find setting in PC, printer or scanner to correct scaling issue.

I downloaded this from somewhere a long while back, I don't remember exactly where. It looks to be accurate. It is not my own original work. I hope this helps.

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Not my idea, I stole it from somewhere on Pinside.
Did this on several machines, looks cool to me.

There you go! When you click on your image the strips appear to be to scale. Look great.
At least I got my new scanner out and running.

Some years back Pafasa created and offered up some free. Good guy.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/klondike-slot-reel-stripsreproduced

phil-lee Thanks so much for the info and the excellent picture of the slot cover. You have me quite jealous. Take a look below at what I am dealing with and you will understand why.

I have enough info to get started on Step 1 which is the creation of a 4 layer vector graphics image of the slot cover. After I clean my cover (and glue or at least retape it) I will use it for measurements and color RGB coding, and I'll use phil-lee's perfect top-down image for the parts that are missing from mine. Then I have to play with level 4 - the light diffusion - to make sure that the GI lighting gets through and closely mirrors the original. I will deal with Step 2 and beyond when I get there.

In terms of selling them - first off assuming I make it to the end of the process, yeah I will make more and won't leave anyone hanging. Probably sell them in pairs, price would be reasonable. My target customer would be an owner that has a slot cover like mine and agrees with me that pretty much anything else would be better. My goal is 99% identical to the original. So an anal retentive perfectionist collector would not be my ideal customer. No worries, if I do end up selling them, I will post a ton of pictures of the cover inside and outside of the machine so that you can make your own informed decision.

I am really new to this site so I will post updates here unless someone tells me of a place that would be more appropriate.

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Wow that puppy is beat up! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

I bought this Gold Rush and it was a disaster. I thought I would have fun with it and painted the polar opposite colors. I was lucky enough to get the score reel cover from Pinball Rescue before Lee retired.

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If you get Yukon, do you add Jackpot?

I just got a Klondike this weekend and looking for some guidance on scoring. There are a bunch of times the scoring is about to hit 10k and it just starts back to 0 instead of 10,000. It’s the only digit that does it, but doesn’t every time. Is that a scoring thing or does the number roll have an issue? Also what are the numbers for at the top of the machine that light up at the end (00-90). Appreciate the help!

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First step is to tighten the small screws on the score reel assembly switch stacks. Always tighten the screw farthest from the wire tabs first, followed by the other screw on each stack. In this case, the ones on the "thousands" reel are suspect. But I would tighten all four of them.

For any Klondike or Gold Rush owners, I have some reproduction symbol reel strips made from Pafasa artwork that are excess from a run I did a year ago. You can get a set for $10 sent to you via USPS Priority Mail as long as they last.

Send me a private message and I'll get a set out to you.

I picked up a Klondike several years ago for $300 and the good folks here on Pinside guided me through step by step to help me bring it back to life.
I wanted it because it has a Canadian gold rush theme, and I was born in Canada. And I really like the embedded slot reels.

My plastic one-sided rollover covers at far right and far left of the machine are green, and every photo I've seen has them in yellow. I wonder if mine are original color? At any rate, green is no longer available at PBR. So I just ordered some yellow ones as mine are cracked.

Thanks guys!
-Karen

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