Glenelg, MD
Some killer work on this thread.
(Topic ID: 315249)
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Bank-A-Ball
Gottlieb, 1950-
Cow Poke
Gottlieb, 1965
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Cabinet portion of my quick and fast draw games. Both required panel replacements and extensive repairs. Made my own stencils. Curiously they were somewhat different from the factory. The detail on fast draw was better than quick draw so I used that one to model my stencils from. Oth got complete treatment with new clearcoated wade Krause reproduction playfields. Waiting for Shay to finish the new Fast Draw Backglasses with my preferred orange dress detail vs white to complete it.
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E2195D6D-E78D-40FE-AC19-F2EA29A9EB76 (resized).jpegQuoted from John_in_NC:This is an area where my confidence has grown (at least on Gottliebs) that I don’t hesitate to tear the mechanics down to the screw and spring level. I hate working on dirty machines. I used to try and get a game 90+% working before tearing into it. Now I don’t bother, I catch 99% of issues through the restoration process as you are forced to look at every contact, wire, plug, stepper and adjustment. Last game I did was fast draw, a complete rust bucket with every stepper seized. When I fired it up it worked immediately save a performance tweak or three.
Just crazy amazing work there!
Quoted from John_in_NC:Cabinet portion of my quick and fast draw games. Both required panel replacements and extensive repairs. Made my own stencils. Curiously they were somewhat different from the factory. The detail on fast draw was better than quick draw so I used that one to model my stencils from.
Here too!
Quoted from goingincirclez:Yeah. People say that pinball machines can be art, and that "old lady repaint" was far more intricate with evident skilled craftsmanship and artistic flair than any other period pin / factory paint job. I mean that original scheme is mere unskilled clipart by comparison.
Shame that old lady cab couldn't have found an appreciative soul willing to retheme a lost pf to match. Like you say, as if Zaccaria made The Munsters or something. I mean I get the appeal of "restoring" pins but in this case I truly feel a legitimate alternate artwork was lost there. Could have found another woodrail cab for the same factory pf and backglass effort, etc.
It definitely was a little painful removing that beautiful artwork.
Maybe today I'd have given it a little more thought.
After seeing some of the absolutely trashed cabs that you guys start out with, I feel bad that I sent a Bally Playboy to the trash heap for having the back of the cabinet ripped off. Totally fixable with anyone else's skills but mine.
Quoted from jibmums:After seeing some of the absolutely trashed cabs that you guys start out with, I feel bad that I sent a Bally Playboy to the trash heap for having the back of the cabinet ripped off. Totally fixable with anyone else's skills but mine.
I found there is no cabinet that can’t be repaired with enough glue, screws and Bondo. These are my favorite. Killer deals if you can see past wood rot, busted panels and missing wood.
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Quoted from jrpinball:Before & After:
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
WOW! You’ve done a good deed!
There was a thread posted years ago by @stevefury. He took a trashed old flipperless game called United "Singapore", and did a phenomenal job bringing it back. There's a YouTube video of the game he restored.
Quoted from John_in_NC:Well this thread seems to have stalled a bit. Keep them coming.
Here is my first one from years ago.
Was missing several major parts, back glass, boards, displays, roached PF ......)
Barn Find (resized).JPGClean RBG (resized).JPGQuoted from jrpinball:There was a thread posted years ago by SteveFury. He took a trashed old flipperless game called United "Singapore", and did a phenomenal job bringing it back. There's a YouTube video of the game he restored.
His YouTube video of his resurrection of a Williams Space Mission is an all time classic, complete with music from the top songs of 1976.
For some reason it’s not on there anymore.
Quoted from Sea_Wolf:His YouTube video of his resurrection of a Williams Space Mission is an all time classic, complete with music from the top songs of 1976.
For some reason it’s not on there anymore.
I remember someone restoring a really trashed "Space Mission", but I didn't realize it was he.
Possibly had to remove the video due to the music (protected content).
Quoted from jrpinball:I remember someone restoring a really trashed "Space Mission", but I didn't realize it was he.
Possibly had to remove the video due to the music (protected content).
Im in the middle of joining the Space Mission restoration club, progress has slowed a bit but still going. I plan on clearing the Playfield in the next couple weeks.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/handshake-in-space-space-mission-
Quoted from jrpinball:I remember someone restoring a really trashed "Space Mission", but I didn't realize it was he.
Possibly had to remove the video due to the music (protected content).
I’ll bet that’s exactly the reason. Too bad it was really cool. It was trashed before like a lot of us have dealt with but I remember it had Star Wars wallpaper pasted all over the cabinet and head before the restoration.
Quoted from mrm_4:Im in the middle of joining the Space Mission restoration club, progress has slowed a bit but still going. I plan on clearing the Playfield in the next couple weeks.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/handshake-in-space-space-mission-
Looking great. You’ve done a lot of work. I got lucky and found a very clean Space Mission on eBay a few years ago for $400 obo. Always enjoy playing it.
Quoted from Sea_Wolf:Looking great. You’ve done a lot of work. I got lucky and found a very clean Space Mission on eBay a few years ago for $400 obo. Always enjoy playing it.
Thanks its competing for time with my Strato Flite but theyll both get done one day
1 year later
Time to revive this thread. love seeing restoration pics. I was on my last project and stalled out on it. Crosstown is in several boxes and I need to get back to it. Picked up 4 more to restore since starting this restore so I need motivation. KOD,Surf Champ, Playmates and North Star waiting their turn.
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My first and most challenging to date refurb/resto. 1974 Williams Skylab. Knowing this pins not on 95% of collectors list of must haves, & rated like 264 +/- in rankings...i decided NOT to keep 100% original. I documented this project in the restorations thread for anybody who may want to shuffle thru all the pics. Im just going to highlight a few here.
First off, the left side entire motorboard was a rusted/corroded disaster...with fabric insulation fluffing off leaving naked wiring. Refurbishing these williams switch relays was impractical...so i decided to adapt some appropriate Stern/Chicago coin relays i had from a salvaged Stern Pinball Motorboard. Main thing here was reconfiguring the switch stack configurations to match what i was replacing. Rewiring was a guesswork on wire coding as i would go back as far could to see the color combinations and duplicate as best i could. But im sure i got some wrong as the wire colors have faded over the years.
Rewiring was straightforward. Remove one wire from old switch relay follow it back till you got back to undamaged (color code readable wire) clip solder heatshrink and paint pen or colored sharpe to correct colors on the replacement wire an solder it back to the exact lug on the replacement switch relay. Repeat this about 75 more times and your done. I had to rewire all the female and male Jones plugs at the front of the motorboard along with 90% of the wiring going to the coin mechs, tilt, etc.
Then i rebuilt the ass end of the cabinet because of rotten particle board. Also the bottom was 50% detached/ falling out so all the was redone. Whole cabinet repainted/ hand stenciled. Back box frame was repainted to my liking (non original) but stenciling as is factory.
Then came the playfield. EVERY skylab PF ive seen all looks the same, DULL, DARK, unappealing. So heres where i deviated the most from a "Proper" restoration. I Hand repainted the whole PF background a Neon Voilet instead of the Dull faded drab purple as all the other skylabs look like. I then added stars to the PF to dress it up. 95% of all the rest of the PF painting was matching the old colors. Then finishing off all the black detail with a very fine point Black paint pen. Then just for shits and giggles i hand painted a spaceman in the center of the large teal green colored area inbetween and above the flippers to break up all the open expanse and some character to this otherwise dull as F PF.
I finished the whole machine with LEDS (yup another NO-NO from hardcore collectors) But i figured piss on it... its mine and thats that. Its back again turning 25¢ tricks along with my budding collection in my business. Yup...back from the dead, earning a living again.
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Quoted from Silverstreak02:[quoted image][quoted image]
Yup ...been there done that. Looks intimidating to do but not as bad as it seems. Just a long drawn out tedious process. Those old dark grey dirty motorboards just look SO much better detailed like that!
Quoted from pevo:My first and most challenging to date refurb/resto. 1974 Williams Skylab. Knowing this pins not on 95% of collectors list of must haves, & rated like 264 +/- in rankings...i decided NOT to keep 100% original. I documented this project in the restorations thread for anybody who may want to shuffle thru all the pics. Im just going to highlight a few here.
First off, the left side entire motorboard was a rusted/corroded disaster...with fabric insulation fluffing off leaving naked wiring. Refurbishing these williams switch relays was impractical...so i decided to adapt some appropriate Stern/Chicago coin relays i had from a salvaged Stern Pinball Motorboard. Main thing here was reconfiguring the switch stack configurations to match what i was replacing. Rewiring was a guesswork on wire coding as i would go back as far could to see the color combinations and duplicate as best i could. But im sure i got some wrong as the wire colors have faded over the years.
Rewiring was straightforward. Remove one wire from old switch relay follow it back till you got back to undamaged (color code readable wire) clip solder heatshrink and paint pen or colored sharpe to correct colors on the replacement wire an solder it back to the exact lug on the replacement switch relay. Repeat this about 75 more times and your done. I had to rewire all the female and male Jones plugs at the front of the motorboard along with 90% of the wiring going to the coin mechs, tilt, etc.
Then i rebuilt the ass end of the cabinet because of rotten particle board. Also the bottom was 50% detached/ falling out so all the was redone. Whole cabinet repainted/ hand stenciled. Back box frame was repainted to my liking (non original) but stenciling as is factory.
Then came the playfield. EVERY skylab PF ive see all looks to same, DULL, DARK, unappealing. So heres where i deviated the most from a "Proper" restoration. I Hand repainted the whole PF background a Neon Voilet instead of the Dull faded drab purple as all the other skylabs look like. I then added stars to the PF to dress it up. 95% of all the rest of the PF painting was matching the old colors. Then finishing off all the black detail with a very fine point Black paint pen. Then just for shits and giggles i hand painted a spaceman in the center of the large teal green colored area inbetween and above the flippers to break up all the open expanse and some character to this otherwise dull as F PF.
I finished the whole machine with LEDS (yup another NO-NO from hardcore collectors) But i figured piss on it... its mine and thats that. Its back again turning 25¢ tricks along with my budding collection in my business. Yup...back from the dead, earning a living again.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
That's some fantastic work, and serious dedication right there!
-Paul
Quoted from Sea_Wolf:Probably my best as far as playfield repaints go. Williams 3 Coins.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Awesome...A daunting task, lots of patience required! Kudos!!!!....been there done that
Quoted from Sea_Wolf:Probably my best as far as playfield repaints go. Williams 3 Coins.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Beautiful work
Quoted from pevo:My first and most challenging to date refurb/resto. 1974 Williams Skylab. Knowing this pins not on 95% of collectors list of must haves, & rated like 264 +/- in rankings...i decided NOT to keep 100% original. I documented this project in the restorations thread for anybody who may want to shuffle thru all the pics. Im just going to highlight a few here.
Amazing job and transformation. Congrats.
Quoted from pinhead52:What once was a TeamOne is now a Wizard
[quoted image][quoted image]
Hah! That's the one I got for you near me. I recognize the spot where I got it from!
Quoted from Garrett:[quoted image][quoted image]
Wow. did you pop out the inserts and level them or polycrylic?
Quoted from Flipsteen:Wow. did you pop out the inserts and level them or polycrylic?
All water based Varathane. Just filled them.
Galaxy to Star Gazer...
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Quoted from John_in_NC:Love me some cabinet rescue. Great work!
That was a wreck. I've done a couple others that were equally bad, Sky Jump being one.
My first full restore was a Royal Guard that had been painted over and had screws and nails all over it. When pulled those the cab literally fell apart. New bottom went on there too. I don't have pictures handy of either of those but they were the equal of this one, maybe worse because I had to do the playfield on those too.
Repainted almost everything except the hundreds of little people. Creating the mask files and getting them placed just right was a real challenge!
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Brisbane
My college age daughter and I worked on this Ski Club over Covid. The game turned out nice but the memories are the real pay off.
Not perfect by any means and the cabinet color is obviously not original. I’m more of a purist, but in this case I thinks the new colors are an improvement.
Side note: She’s a mechanical engineer and listed “pinball restoration” as an activity on her resume. Prospective employers loved talking to her about it.
IMG_2844 (resized).jpegIMG_3539 (resized).jpegIMG_2845 (resized).jpegIMG_3538 (resized).jpegQuoted from pevo:My first and most challenging to date refurb/resto. 1974 Williams Skylab. Knowing this pins not on 95% of collectors list of must haves, & rated like 264 +/- in rankings...i decided NOT to keep 100% original. I documented this project in the restorations thread for anybody who may want to shuffle thru all the pics. Im just going to highlight a few here.
First off, the left side entire motorboard was a rusted/corroded disaster...with fabric insulation fluffing off leaving naked wiring. Refurbishing these williams switch relays was impractical...so i decided to adapt some appropriate Stern/Chicago coin relays i had from a salvaged Stern Pinball Motorboard. Main thing here was reconfiguring the switch stack configurations to match what i was replacing. Rewiring was a guesswork on wire coding as i would go back as far could to see the color combinations and duplicate as best i could. But im sure i got some wrong as the wire colors have faded over the years.
Rewiring was straightforward. Remove one wire from old switch relay follow it back till you got back to undamaged (color code readable wire) clip solder heatshrink and paint pen or colored sharpe to correct colors on the replacement wire an solder it back to the exact lug on the replacement switch relay. Repeat this about 75 more times and your done. I had to rewire all the female and male Jones plugs at the front of the motorboard along with 90% of the wiring going to the coin mechs, tilt, etc.
Then i rebuilt the ass end of the cabinet because of rotten particle board. Also the bottom was 50% detached/ falling out so all the was redone. Whole cabinet repainted/ hand stenciled. Back box frame was repainted to my liking (non original) but stenciling as is factory.
Then came the playfield. EVERY skylab PF ive seen all looks the same, DULL, DARK, unappealing. So heres where i deviated the most from a "Proper" restoration. I Hand repainted the whole PF background a Neon Voilet instead of the Dull faded drab purple as all the other skylabs look like. I then added stars to the PF to dress it up. 95% of all the rest of the PF painting was matching the old colors. Then finishing off all the black detail with a very fine point Black paint pen. Then just for shits and giggles i hand painted a spaceman in the center of the large teal green colored area inbetween and above the flippers to break up all the open expanse and some character to this otherwise dull as F PF.
I finished the whole machine with LEDS (yup another NO-NO from hardcore collectors) But i figured piss on it... its mine and thats that. Its back again turning 25¢ tricks along with my budding collection in my business. Yup...back from the dead, earning a living again.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
but hole wires?
Québec, QC
Picked up a fuzzy pic Wipeout with a much worse looking PF than I was expecting. Figured whatever I'll just play it and have fun with it, but that lower PF was turning my stomach I couldn't look at it.
Most of it was quite decent with the mylar. So I just did a quick half ass job on the bottom.
Now I can play it in peace.
Haarlem
Quoted from PinballPianist:I manually silkscreenprinted fresh graphics onto the original playfield.
[quoted image]
!
Is there a thread about this? Very interested in the process.
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