Very nice, love the artwork. Em’s are a labor of love for sure, Enjoy the journey!

Comments? Yes, C37 is one of the coolest looking pins ever made. I love the old B-movie Sci-Fi look. I just picked up a Target Alpha for the same reason. Well, and because it is a drop target dream come true.

Congrats, enjoy.

Nice looking machine... I hope you'll keep this one original - ie no sealing the backglass, no clear coating the playfield, no cabinet repaint. It's getting harder to find these machines in such great original condition. Enjoy the game!

Why did you not post a decent picture of the playfield?

As for the caps, you can check IPDB http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=480&picno=23202&zoom=1

But I think you should call Steve Young at Pinball Resource to be sure.

Play the snot out of it while you plan pop bumper/flipper re-builds and order parts. Yours doesn't look hurt.
I have only clear-coated and re-painted a play field that was shot, yours doesn't appear to need it.
Same with back glass, flaking will spread and a triple-thick coat gives peace of mind until restoration.
One without flaking doesn't need it.
I'm going to try Bleche-White to clean a cabinet much like yours, heard good things about it. As you
know there is plenty of great advice here.

Disagree. This backglass has marginal areas that are at risk of flaking. I would seal it. Better to retain ink than lose it. Nobody cares about originality when the flakes fall.

Here's another nice picture that shows them more clearly. I think it should be like this which matches right up with the manual.

http://www.ipdb.org/images/480/image-22.jpg

I looked at PBR, they have some of the parts listed on their web page but not all of them. Marco does have all of the parts on their web site. Still I would do like you said and check with PBR first to see if he has them all. (Lower price). Each one needs two pieces.

This is a great machine, hope to get one some day. Most of the ones I have seen have worse backglasses.

spinal is referring to this:

Pinball (resized).png

OK I getcha, maybe I should work on my reading comprehension!

How about the flyer? It seems to show it the same way as in the pics we have.

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=pinballdb&id=720&image=1

And every other pic I can find of the playfield has that same setup. I vote that the manual is wrong for whatever reason. Maybe someone changed their mind at the last minute and decided that the alternating colors would look cooler? And then the manual didn't get updated.

The good thing is that you could buy both color sets for the caps for pretty cheap and cover yourself if you want to be able to set it either way at some point.

(ADDITIONAL EDIT)

A few more pieces of evidence.

Marco kit for the C37 includes the 2 reds and one blue.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PCS1130

There are tons of pics from the C37 owners here. I didn't look at all of them, but quite a few. They all had the same configuration.

http://www.pinballowners.com/owners/480

An error in a manual if far from uncommon. It is actually so common you might be surprised. My first introduction was decades ago when I called Pinball Resource and Steve asked me - "Do you want me to give you what the manual says or what you need for your game".

There's a Facebook EM group I am a member of where the current trend is to repaint EM cabinet's when it really is not necessary. Just be cause you can, and have the necessary stencils, doesn't mean you should. Keep those EM's original!!!

Always thought the operator chic needed a cheeseburger.

Gordon Morison seemed better-suited to do free-flowing imaginative/psychedelic weird stuff versus sticking to realistic characters with traditional features. Her head and body are oddly out of scale. Similar to the triangle-surfer on the 2001 backglass... looks like he crapped his pants.

During my travels, a collector once remarked that a good portion of Centigrade 37's enormous appeal with guys is due to the theme:

"Lesbian Frankenstein"

*spit take* it might be true!

Anyway, congrats Spinal on a classic acquisition. Is this your first pin?

Someone took lit cigarettes to those flipper buttons.

Or a lighter.

looks like got a good example, most had much more wear.
i always like the art but the game play is SUB-PAR imo. it is a game that no matter how i set it up it was just to easy to beat ever time. believe me i really wanted to like it. if i had unlimited space i would get another (i had 3) just for the art but with limited space just can not justify the space for a ART game

It’s funny you should ask that question because I really have been wondering about the same thing, and it was triggered by some of the comments here. I have a few machines and while the cabinets are fairly decent they have the usual wear and scars from their years of use. I had been planning to do some spot repairs like you said. But after reading lots of different threads and looking at the cabinets closely, I am thinking that it will be nearly impossible to make a good spot repair that won’t be instantly recognized for what it is. Because of all sorts of factors having to do with the paints used, the age of the paints, the difficulty of color matching, etc it will be very difficult to do. If you don’t nail it perfectly then your new result will look worse than before because the repair will stand out and look ugly. So I have been leaning towards leaving it as it is, giving the game the vintage look and of course preserving its originality. Also, a good cleaning often makes a huge difference in the overall look and it’s easy to do and doesn’t affect originality.

The alternative is a complete cabinet repair and repaint with stencils. Maybe even clear coated afterward. Then, you have a really nice-looking old machine that is like new. But as some have pointed out, you have lost the originality of the piece. For myself, I see the value in both sides.

I leave nice originals alone because preservation is important. However, if they aren't nice (and a lot of them aren't) a full resto is the only way to recapture or exceed the original wow factor. Otherwise they are in danger of being forgotten or neglected as time marches on.

Personally, I prefer to turn ugly ducklings into enhanced restorations. Clear coat, stealth LED, cab repaint, tuned coils, polished metals, enhanced lighting, even subtle game logic tweaks takes everything to a whole different level of fun and amazement.

Chuck Dietch (@ckcsm) in Lansdale, PA owns an automotive body shop (I visited him during my original pinball tour). He has the techniques and equipment to do INCREDIBLE cabinet repaints which greatly exceed anything Gottlieb ever did on the factory floor. Chuck's clear coated Surfer cabinet was velvety smooth and dazzling to behold... just oozed quality from every inch. I'm still envious!

2d (resized).JPG

Remember to remove any #44 bulbs from the backbox and replace them with #47 bulbs or LED bulbs. Those #44 bulbs make the backbox feel like a toaster oven on full blast and they can do serious damage to the backglass paint. Also, remove any non-adhesive mylar trim platters around the pop bumpers. No need to replace the mylar trim platters - a few coats of wax around the pop bumpers will protect the playfield. And the game play will be a lot faster...

Looks great! Now you have a pin with a mechanical backglass animation. Less drop targets than you are use to but it should be fun to sharpen up your nudging skills with that open right inlane.

Mine has the same set up for the pop bumpers with only 14K plays

I do love the looks of this game and enjoy playing it even if sometimes is easy to get the score way over 100K

20171111_172849 (resized).jpg

20171111_172829 (resized).jpg

Thanks Nic
I'd rather do some good paint matching and blend into the original finish but sometimes you need to just bite the bullet and go for it.

Could you post a picture of the inside, where that nail goes through.

that pin is so when the coin door is open the pointy edge of the coin entry plate doesn't ding the wood. open the door all the way and watch what touches the pin head dead center.

Yes, factory.

Yea thats always a little bugger to remove while doing a cab repaint. Siderail nail etc