Surf Side original...
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After cabaret lights installed...
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?? lighted.

Go back a page and look at post #291. Cabaret lights installed under the top arch.

It requires drilling out the steel plate, drilling lamp socket holes in the playfield (7/16"), and wiring up four 1/4" bracket lamp sockets. Recommended to use 47 filament bulbs and plastic light tubes of complementary color. Typically, these were red/yellow but sometimes blue/green/orange works better depending upon the colors of the playfield art & nearby plastics.

I've added lights to some dark spots on my games too.

While I have no problem with it, does it affect the value of the game in any way?

Well... value is subjective. Strict preservationists won't like any changes but these are a small minority of pinballers.

Generally, if a lighting mod is professionally done "in the spirit of the original", it won't affect the value much either way. I've added extra lights to the backbox, added stealth LED's, all of my games get the cabaret light treatment around the top arch, etc... no one ever notices. If they do, they never mention it. *shrug*

Funny fact: Surf Side won best runner-up "original condition" machine at TPF in 2015 and it already had the cabaret lights installed. D'oh!

I'm not a fan of the whole crazy rainbow-changing, super bright, too-cold-white, unbalanced color matching LED thing. I'm pretty sure that kind of thing turns most people off, but hey, at least it's reversible if using drop-in replacements.

Snow Derby paint job on post 295 is excellent - I like the color change vs the original. Most wouldn't know if you didn't tell them - including me ! Same stencils and patterns but blue base looks really nice and matches that backglass, playfield and theme way better.

Two thumbs up .

What, you are allowed to do stuff other then clean the switches on EM's?

Well im kinda freshing up my Williams Jubilee (if i ever fix that darn problem) and have planning to fix the side art + have been thinking of painting the legs and/or coindoor and siderails and stuff.

Thanks man! Snow Derby is (so far) my best example of the "better than new" restoration philosophy which I'm pretty heavily committed to.

I could have done a straight-up repaint of the original cab colors but they aren't very "snowy", are they? I assume that's what the original artists had to work with... so that's that. "Yo, art department! No blue! We gotta use up that huge vat of Gottlieb white first! Whip up something snowy... I don't care... just get it out the door!"

Haha, but in general Gottlieb did outstanding work so there's rarely a need to improve upon it.

One cabinet I have NO QUALMS about sanding everything off is Paradise. The factory paint job sucks. It looks like it should decorate a bingo card from the Jetsons. Gotta go full custom pattern and colors on that one. While emulating the original Gottlieb style, of course.

Funny, see because I think it was a great 'disservice' to that game, in repainting the cabinet. Especially with 'that' good o' condition of original paint it had on it. Sure, the paint was faded because of age of course and probably more sunlight than would have been ideal but it still looked largely intact... and you don't 'see' that all the time.

But that's why we have these forums, isn't it? To get people's points of view (sometimes opposing) out there.

Even right here on Pinside... or 'Eurekaville' as I like to call it.

My high hand is getting the upper lights for sure. Nice addition IMHO

Awwww... can't please 'em all, but indeed, the diversity of opinions around here is a good thing. BTW, you are a true "Preservationist"!

BTW, it really helps to use a preexisting factory-drilled arch plate as a template for the new one. Stack 'em, mark 'em, drill 'em... much easier that way and maintains identical placement with the original spec.

It kinda reminded me of an old Frank Zappa song - that one about yellow snow.

"Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow!"

Noooo... you can't. This is a land of many beliefs.

And thanks for the true "Preservationist" thing... but I'm afraid I fall a little short in this regard, as I have a guy that does some cosmetic surgery for me on some of the games.

Lucky to have him so close, like having the highly talented Wade Krause in your area.

I added a surfer dude to my Surf Champ, an old beer tap. One wood screw holds the bracket under the head.

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Guess I need to get a tracing of an original arch plate.

Regarding 2001/Dimension, I suggest using the following optimized coil winding recipe. I've done this on two so far... works perfectly!

Unwind 18 feet of wire from each pop bumper coil.
Unwind 18 feet of wire from each top slingshot coil.
Wind 36 feet of wire onto each kickout coil at the top.

This will give you livelier action at the top and reduce the kickout hole strength enough to save your playfield and pops (stops the kickouts from flinging the ball so hard).

I don't recommend unwinding the lower slings. They're peppy enough as-is. Otherwise you won't get to catch the ball enough.

just installed a set of stainless steel blades on my gottlieb fun fair..will do to the swing along i'm restoring.

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Hi, I have a 4 square and noticed your comment about flipper shock? I know the post is a year old, but if anyone can fill me in on where the electricity leak might be and how to fix it, would sure appreciate it. I'm still new to pins so don't know these little things to check and correct.

Honestly, I thought ol' Night Rider here had a problem - that center bumper said "100 when lit" and it was always lit. The schematic shows that light wired to GI - no problem after all I just thought it looked odd.

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I did a red-yellow-green thing like a signal light for this here traffic-themed pin.

My RECEL Lady Luck is the same. I suspect that they used the same cap for all bumpers and did not change the lettering.
Besides, it makes it more exciting when you play and the stuff is always lit. You feel like it is more generous to you....

Yves

Hi pinsiders
the following "original post" is nonsense - I mixed up "Lady Luck Recel" with "Lady Luck Williams" --- and the snippet of schematics I show happens to be "Lady Luck WILLIAMS. Sorry, greetings Rolf

Hi Arcane
is the Number-Match-Unit not working / stepping in Your Recel-Lady-Luck ? See the snippets of schematics, greetings Rolf

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There's usually a "fish paper" or something between the flipper switch blades that's supposed to insulate them from shock if I understand right. Make sure it's not worn out or needs to be replaced. Others here with more experience can chime in and help you.

Bruce

edit never mind, I didn't read it fully.

I liked looking/reading this thread..now you got me contemplating on maybe bringing out my artistic ability..maybe of thinking of painting the bonus balls on my top score kinda funky colours..I think that it'd look cool, but I don't know if you can find original balls if I do sell 1 day to keep original...hmmm...

3 mods come to mind.
1. On the older small flippers, I put a 1 inch rubber in the groove, and 1.25 inch rubber just below that.
2. Gottlieb tilt bobs are cut off abruptly at the top so I put a small fishing sinker above that for more tilt adjustability
3. On an old Jack in the Box (http://ipdb.org/search.pl?any=jack+in+the+box&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick#1329) I rewired it so that after knocking down all the drop targets, the top flippers were reversed so the top left flipped with the bottom right. After knocking down a second time, the top left and bottom right were actuated by the left flipper button.

bump for a great thread

Rolf,

I found the issue: it was a cold solder on the Motor on 2C. It is now registering very well when you insert coins. It was not actually a Play Unit problem (that one had already been fixed) but simply a lack of credit when inserting a coin.

I also added a light to display the credits, which helps a lot as I like to play my machines in low ambient light.
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Yves

the credit light is a cool idea - can you take a photo of the backside so we can see how you rigged it?
Thanks!

It is basically a socket attached to the Credit Unit. I then pulled two wires going back to the GI circuit on the lighbox.
Clean installation that could almost pass for genuine, if I could have found electric wires coated with fabric.
Bulb is #47 to preserve the backglass as much as possible.

Yves

Not really a modification but how many nice coin doors have drill holes? So there's a guy out if MO who sells nickel plated plugs in EBay, 5 bucks for 4 plugs free shipping.

IMHO they really match up well with original Gottlieb coin doors (64-75) plus it saves them from being too crappy for a nicer Wedgehead. In my case I just saved a one hole door off an AAB pin, they are the hardest to find and are not being reproduced.

You can also find these in the specialty drawers at Ace Hardware and the like and buy them one at a time.

I have a gorgeous original door on my Quick Draw that has one of these plugs where they drilled and installed a switch and wired it to put credits on the game instead of just closing the switch on the credit unit.

As you say, saved another nice door.

Love Gottlieb's TEAM ONE rule set except for one thing:

Once max WOWs are reached (5), if a lit for special drop target is hit, obviously the player isn't rewarded another WOW due to the advance unit being maxed out... and that's certainly fine. HOWEVER, my view is that if the Special continues to stay lit (and it does until the ball drains), the player should be awarded SOMETHING!

So I played around with this last night, ran a connector from the 1000 pt. relay switch to the 7B index relay switch, thereby allowing 5000 points when a WOW is awarded when drop target lit for special when WOWs are at Max... thought this was just too easy, and sure enough it didn't quite work the way I wanted it..the player is also awarded 5K when WOWs are NOT maxed as well. That doesn't match the ruleset (states "5000 points OR Wow").

To get this mod to allow for awarding 5k scoring on lit for special DTs ONLY when Max WOWs reached, I'm going to set up another switch on the Advance Unit EOS that trips an additional relay called WOW MAX... from that relay I'll include a switch that connects the 1000 point relay to the 7B index relay, and an extra switch or two.. one for HOLD and one for anything else that might come up when I find out I have issues!

Will post back as progress continues.

This mod is now complete and works perfectly... also posted here:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/who-wants-a-gottlieb-wizard-conversion-kit/page/2#post-5542952

Aloha!

I have a two player - '61 Gottlieb Aloha. I would like to make this game a better 'shooters' game. The double bonus lite make a huge difference in the gobble hole points and getting replays. Currently the Double lite is wired into 1 point stepper that comes on 7/10 times, way too much. Disregarding the difficulty setting. I would like to make it more of a skill game by removing the 'random' Double bonus lite, and make it a goal by completing shots.

I'm thinking to use the side 1point rebound switches (indicated with arrows, not the inlanes) to turn on the Bonus lite. Make new metal covers above the 4 switches, with the position marked. Two possible scenarios. Hit 1-4 in any order 'or' Hit 1-4 sequentially, to lite bonus. And reset the progress each ball / or not? Each rebound switch has a light next to it that could be rewired to indicate a hit or un-hit switch.

I believe I would need 4-6 relays depending on the scenero selected. Any suggestions on what type of relays to use, or maybe a mini stepper if sequential? Would this be a candidate for a Raspberry Pi?

I'm looking for other possible suggestions to add 'shots' or improve the goals in this beautiful game.

Thanks
-Glenn

I would love to be able to put in an on playfield special...

aloha entire PF with arrows (resized).jpgaloha entire PF with numbers (resized).jpg