I am working on a 1959 Gottlieb Queen of Diamonds for a friend. I got it working well and shopped the play field. Now I want to turn my attention to the Backglass. For it's age it's actually in decent shape except for the light blue color, see photo. That color has peeled off adjacent to the replay reel and the card table on the lower part of the glass. Plan to seal glass and then touch up the light blue where it peeled off. Hoping this will work out since no light passes through the areas that need repair. Adjacent paint that has not peeled off is painted over with black paint on the backside of the glass. There is some peeling in areas where light does pass through. But based on what I have seen on internet I plan to just seal it to limit future damage.

But my immediate problem is how to remove the back glass from the back box. Doesn't look to me that Gottlieb made the process easy. Can someone please help? Thanks Dale Schulz.

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I was excited to learn about the possibility of a slot in front of the insert that would allow the glass to be lowered below the structural wedges at the top of the back box and then slip out parallel to the tilted insert. But alas the excitement was short lived, no slot.

So removal of the light insert is the only solution that I can see. Here is my plan. I am going to remove the back box from the game and lay it face down on a blanket. Then I will remove the light insert. This will require unfastening the three Jones plug sockets as they are fastened to a piece of plywood below the light insert that is not part of the insert. Then I will remove the tilt bracket hinges so I can pull the light insert out straight up. Then I will lay it face down on the blanket. I was concerned about the spinner face, but it is recessed slightly below the plane of the face of the insert and should be ok. Then finally I should be able to lift the glass out of the box. Plan to temporarily replace the insert back into the box for safe keeping while I work on the glass. I don't think GTB planned on operators to ever remove the glass. Probably figuring that game would be retired long before a need to work on glass. Please comment on my plan. Thanks.

I got the back glass out. Didn't do it as I posted above. Decided the safest way to do it is to remove the two brackets attached to the back box sides that constrains how far you can tilt the insert back. Disconnected the three jones plugs and detached the three jones plug sockets mounted on plywood just below the bottom of the insert. Then I was able to lay the insert back and slowly removed it from the back box. Set the inset aside. With insert removed I was able to easily remove the back glass panel.

I have painted the large areas where the light blue paint flaked off and over painted it with black paint. So now I am ready to seal it with Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze. BUT I read somewhere that sometimes using the Krylon TT can cause the paint to lift off the glass. Any thoughts??? I really think the glass needs to be sealed. If I don't I am sure that other original sections of the blue paint will flake. It's not my game and the owner would not know what to do if/when it happens. But I hate to potentially ruin a decent, for a 1959 game, glass. I used the Krylon TT on the back of the four plastics on the play field. They were flaking when I got the game in and now they are sealed with no more flaking. However, after I sprayed the stuff small areas in the center of the two large plastics remained sticky. Even after weeks of dry time. Installed them on the play field without issue. Don't know if they have fully cured because I can't reach the areas now after installing them.

I could really use some advice here, this is the first back glass that I have worked on. Thanks

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