It looks complete, and the wiring doesn't look awfully bad.
With a little help from your Friends, she'll be set up in
the garage this Winter..

You should definitely strip that transformer board, light sand, paint and clearcoat it. Does wonders for keeping it clean after. You can just wipe it with a rag. I do it on all of my games now.

Plus it makes the game really happy.

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Spent the evening putting the Fireball rollover buttons back in.

Little by little.

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I bet it does help. Those look great. It seemed daunting, but I suppose if you just carefully unbolt it all and then slide it onto another board temporarily it should be easier than I first though.

Since this is my first EM (and I'm learning as I go... Goat Shed and Joe's Classic on YT mostly, along with PinWiki and other sites) I told him I'd do the work for a donation (whatever he feels like) and he pays for all parts. He asked that I not go crazy on the physical cleanup as he wants to do some of that. Just all the electrical and mechanical things. I still cleaned up some things but I'll let him decide if he wants to do the transformer board or not.

Spinning disc and kick out holes!

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Roller Coaster head is coming along pretty well. Used the Montana canned webbing. Got about the right amount, but definitely a little thicker than the original.

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Anyone know what size wood screws are used to screw the pop bumpers down? Also what size machine screws hold the Bally apron down? I’m missing a few.

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I have 3 of the 5 Flipper Series games set up and was going to first do the
other 2, but I thought I'd bring in Williams first AAB and get started on it
once the cold weather hits. Never played one, so looking forward to it..

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#2 x 1/2” on Bally EM.

Some bodies take #4 x 1/2”

#8 x 3/8”

That game is looking real nice.

Did a ball trough lighting mod with incandescents on my Strato Flite
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Before
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After
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Here is how in case anyone else wants to get zapped and or burn your game down!
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/my-dy-no-mite-strato-flite/page/5#post-7185740

Thanks for the screw info Colsond3!
Rats! Looks like I’m two posts short!

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How many posts are you short, and how many screws for the apron? I may have some of both.

And I think I might have a much better condition apron somewhere. I don’t think I got rid of it, but can’t remember for sure. I can look around my basement if you’re interested.

I'm assuming that's a repro backglass? Most are found as "Skill Ball", but the original backglass was repopped.

Yes. The original glass is Skill Ball. I wouldn't mind the machine being one with the
original Add a Ball name.
Years back, this was my 1st repro glass I bought. I believe he produced 12 of them
and was convinced to make it Add a Ball, which is fine for a true AaB, but for me, I'd
prefer it saying Skill Ball like the machine was meant to be..

About to start on a friend's Prospector. This will be my first Sonic repair attempt.

Basically like working on a Williams. You'll be fine.

Just pulled it out of storage. Almost runs but why would someone do that with the lights? I do like to use LEDs, but only 1SMD warm whites.

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I restored this game, it’s a stunner. There are repro Backglasses for this title!

I restored this title a couple years back. Ron Webb made a repro backglass for it!
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Rare 1927 french driving game cabinet rebuild and refinish. Rocket III cabinet restore (to go with playfield shown previously)

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Driving game looks interesting, looking forward to seeing it done

What did you do to paint the Rocket iii cab? Stencils? I have one I need to do and most of the original art is gone.

Yes, I made my own from the remains of the graphics. Pink is Montana Pink Panther. Webbing is also a bit custom to make it a bit more like original.

El Toro. Why? Because it was free. =)

It may some time......there is a real Bugatti steering wheel that controls a small toy Bugatti that you steer back and forth on a moving belt with hazards to avoid including a cat! The mechanisms are extremely deteriorated and will need someone more talented than me to get it going again.

It looks great.

Here are before and after pictures with retro LEDs added.
I think I might go back to incandescent bulbs. The nip it lettering has blinkers behind it. So it looks out. But it's not. Thoughts on switching it back?

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erak

Typically e.m pinball look better in my opinion with a soft glow antique bulbs such as incandescent bulbs. You can find a version of that glow in led's but it's hard. Led bulbs will be kinder to your backglass and playfield inserts since they don't hear up as much, keeping everything more stable. I would keep led bulbs in for that alone, but yes incandescent bulbs look better 9 of 10 times. Pinball designers/engineers used incandescent bulbs output/lumens /and glow to utilize the original playfield at the time to come up with the best placement of the bulbs usage. That's why supper bright led bulbs can be very overwhelming for e.m pinballs.

erak
Never seen or played nip-it by the way. Hopefully it's fun and a keeper. The very top photograph is best. Last photo seems a bit to bright.

I got lucky once, with led bulbs that had that antique glow, I never found them again. I obviously didn't buy enough

Yeah. I have better comet retros in my RCT and MM. These titan bulbs are close, but not quite as antique looking. I'm thinking I'm going to switch it back. Or at least most of it. Nothing like the warm glow of playing an EM in the dark.

erak
But on the other side, the led bulbs won't harm the backglass on nip it. Backglass looks pretty sharp. Also the led bulbs won't heat up under the playfield inserts are cause cupping of the inserts. Maybe leave led bulbs under those inserts, or any where else where any additional heat from incandescent bulbs may cause premature aging.

To be honest it doesn't look bad at all.

Goodnight

It looks nice. Some games just don’t have enough lighting or good light placement and benefit from LEDs and some do and look great with 44s.

My solution to the former problem is Warm white frosted LEDs from Comet. I tried the Sunlite bulbs from Comet but they are a tad too bright and white.

I like the sunlights for the score reels. It makes them pop. I’ve also used them on the darker BgResto backglasses.

In general, I do stick with incandescent 47s or 44s.

Dave

Still chipping away, but making progress. Happy with the results so far.

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Started working on the Exposition. Playfield is crazy nice for 80+ years old.

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1946 Marvel Opportunity.

This is going to be a major challenge. Rusty like it's been on a lake bottom.

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Nah, you just need some Marvel Mystery oil!

I have a few eye drop containers with mystery oil in it and put it in my gas tank every time i fill up.....I have a 1965 harley servie-car with a side valve flat head engine .....putting that in the gas helps lube the valves.....just sayin

1976 Bally Old Chicago
Lower kick out bonus hole not working. No bonus and ball stuck in saucer. This had happened before and I remember the repair was on the lower relay board. I thought it had to be a normally closed switch and the schematic showed it on the 5000 relay. Cleaning the switch on the kick out itself did nothing. Cleaning the normally closed switch on the 5000 relay fixed the problem.
1971 Bally 4 Million B.C.
Droopy left flipper repaired by tightening the set screws. New problem with this game is the red, green, and blue skill shot to light the bumpers are not resetting between balls and at end of game. Sometimes 2 of the 3 will reset leaving 2 or 3 of the bumpers lit instead of extinguishing between balls. I’m not sure how to fix this one.
1977 Bally Black Jack
Top lanes illuminate bumpers. Very simple circuit and relays that would not stay fixed. Cleaned and adjusted contacts to repair the bumper light problem only to have it fail again the next day. And the next day, etcetera. I finally noticed some sort of greasy lube appeared to be sprayed over those 4 relays. Used a spray-on degreaser several times on the relays and contacts, cleaned and burnished the points. Repair has been bulletproof for a couple months.

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Great looking lineup there.

The real mystery here is if this thing will every fire up again.

No schematic, but the schematic is kinda sorta printed on the underside of the playfield and the back of the lightboard.

I've never worked on anything like this, it's like dropping me in a forest somewhere and telling me to find my way home without a map or compass.

I agree. What a set of pinball machines that atpcfiaim has in his collection. Super cool and inspiring.

Bow and Arrow. Playfield finished complete. Problem, ball count unit coil and reset relay will not unlock. Hit credit button for player 2, advances player 2, game over.
Sigh....might start a thread on it. More to it than described.

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Nice work... Your flippers aren't aligned quite right, they need to be angled down a bit lower... see https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=362&picno=3960&zoom=1 for proper alignment.

Thanks, I'll tweak em'.

Bally put small divots in the playfield as flipper alignment guides. You can see them on that Bow and Arrow playfield. The centre of the flipper tips should align with the divots. See here:

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You mean the ones I filled and painted over

Any zipper flipper experts out there? I wired up my Fireball zipper flippers and they flip, but do not zip closed or open. Any thoughts on what to look into? I checked the blue mushroom switch and it appears clean and to make contact when hit.

Thanks!

Kinda strange to be working on a 50s single player after shopping so many 4-players. This one is from 1951 - a reverse flip game - Gottlieb Globe Trotter. Only 2 relays on the bottom board; so much easier and quicker to go through. Nevertheless this one has some weird hacks and suffers from cold solder joints EVERYWHERE... already fixed 3 on the 2 separate relays. I always go through the mech panel and backbox with a light pull on each relay wire to make sure I've dealt with all of those buggers.

This game comes from the collection of Mark Niemkewicz from PA. He had just started to purchase/organize parts for this game prior to his illness (new plastics, new wood legs, tray liner, beautiful s/i card) and extra coin door). I'm glad to take on the completion of the work he started and will be showing this game at Atown in the spring, along with my other reverse flip woodie (GTB Hit N Run - 1952).

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It's more likely your problem is with the coils or the switches on the actual mechanism itself, or on the relay for that particular mushroom bumper.