Marathon Gottlieb arrived yesterday.
Still has old dust on it, but it's not gonna last
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Great work! Wanna do mine next?

Nice looking touchups but may I suggest you completely clean the playfield before doing touchups. You risk ruining your good work cleaning more now. And pull out the nails and rollover wires, anything protruding so you can clean thoroughly. Looking good though.

That looks great. Your touch up skills are incredible. I can’t wait to see this finished.

I’ve moved this 1956 Williams Crane over to the workshop for an overdue tuneup. The “gravel” that the crane moves around is actually lentil beans. It seems that dust from the beans has caused friction in the scale bearings such that it’s not smoothly registering the weight of each new load added to the hopper. Thankfully, I have the actual factory pencil drawing of the scale pointer assembly to reference during the overhaul!

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wow i used to play that when I was a kid at the arcade up the beach....when a dime had value

was there a goal to it? Usually those types of games want you to try and scoop something to win it, but winning a pot of lentils doesn't sound like much of a prize

Finishing Ice Revue playfield. My restoration partner cleaned and touched up the playfield and cleared it. I did all the metal polishing, and all the rebuilding of the top and bottom. Just the flippers left and the upper arch and apron to install.

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Looks beautiful!

Those metal posts are cool when all shined up like that!

There is nothing prettier than the jeweled post and brass plated games.

Check out my partner's work on the kickout holes. Can't do any better

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Decided to start restoring my Target Pool yesterday. Its been sitting in my garage waiting for over a year. Its been about 8 months since I got the Playfield back from being restored and cleared. I figured it was time. This will be a big job since I am going to try and do the stencils myself, as well as all new Pool Ball Stand Up targets need to be painted and installed as well as all the hex bullseye targets need to be replaced. Unfortunately PBR does not have the pool ball stand ups since his hotstamp guy passed, so I have to make them myself. Ugh. Also I'm going to try and make new plastics since the old ones are super yellowed.

I also picked up a repo back-glass from Ron Webb. here are some pics of the beginning.

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Gook luck with all that work.

Those stickers are history, I guess, but most of the time they got stuck on aprons and look like shit on there.

yeah I feel bad about the stickers, but it is what it is I guess. I've restored worse cabs, so I'm not really worried about that. Never made plastics before so that's the thing that I'm more concerned about.

the PF did come out really nice. I'm very happy about that

EMsInKC That ice revue looks great. I’m waiting on my extra Ice Revue playfield to come back from being restored. I’m really looking forward to it. I got the game from my wife’s 93 y/o neighbor she knew really well growing up. I hope I can show her the end result.

Oh another game I’m looking forward to getting to with a great back story. I found a body in NJ and was able to find a head in MI. Delivery of the head to the Allentown show in May! One of my favorites.

It does look great! What product did he use for the kickout putty material? How about the finish on the sanded surface, is that some kind of tinted poly?

Maybe you can just buy white stand up faces from PBR and have someone print you some labels to add to them. Pinsider djblouw created his own labels for Stern Nine Ball. Maybe he can print some decals for Target Pool/Mini Pool striped stand up targets. I have a Mini Pool so I'd buy a set.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nine-ball-club-all-welcome?tq=decals&tu=djblouw

Thanks for the tip. I already got the white faces, and I downloaded the target files from the virtual pin site. (Those guys have so many high quality art files for their pins. ) Now I'm just gonna clean them up in photoshop and have them printed on vinyl. Should work just fine ( I hope)

Hell yeah! Honestly I encourage anyone looking for art assets to check out the VPin community via https://www.vpuniverse.com/ as there is a heavy focus on preservation there. Lots of scanned and recreated resources (for free!) and very friendly and helpful people, so if you're not able to find or extract what you need there will always be someone willing to help out.

As you scoop the beans and drop them into the hopper, the scale pointer indicates the tonnage that has been collected. If you move approximately 50 tons, you achieve “Expert Crane Operator” status.

No prizes, but what little kid doesn’t dream about operating a crane?

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I can't remember the filler name, I'll ask him. The finish is amber shellac. If you look at the shooter lane groove, he sanded all that and the ball track out and stained it with that and cleared. I did the wooden rails and cleared those. Perfect match.20230124_170352 (resized).jpg

JB Weld Kwik Wood epoxy stick. On the amber shellac, covered with two coats of Varathane then urethane auto clear. The clear reacts to the shellac but not Varathane.

Bally Wizard CPR playfield swap. Doing this for a local collector. This is my 7th swap, and by far the most challenging. A lot of the dimples on the top of the pf are off. Underside marks for drilling holes are etched, not dimpled(auto centering punch was a great investment), and key component location marks off as well. Lots of measuring old pf and new with a square and decimal scale ruler.
Did wood rails first. Had to Dowel left and right rails, inboard rail good. All arch dimples were off, and now drilled correctly using arches as a template. Currently checking etch marks underside of pf, almost done so I can start drilling. At the end of it all it will be completed-correctly.

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1977 Williams Wild Card

Match not awarding replay. I had gone through the 00-90 unit previously and it appeared to be cleaned and functional. Inspected 10’s unit and found one of the horseshoe contacts not making contact with the pcb. Took the unit apart and adjusted the horseshoe contacts. Reassembled unit and match still not awarding replays. Went down a few dead ends on the schematic until I came back to the 10’s unit. I must have knocked the horseshoe out of alignment when I reassembled the unit. Repaired the match while the 10’s unit was assembled with a switch adjuster.

1977 Williams Lucky Seven

Restored playfield wiring harness reinstall. I managed to knock two wires off their lugs and chewed up a section of ground braid during disassembly or storage. Lots of photos taken so recovery should be easy.
I’ve done a few other playfield swaps and was always let down by my inability to neatly clamp down the ground braid. I bought a long nose pneumatic stapler from Amazon to tighten up and short circuit proof my harness installs. This pf about 10% complete.

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You guys have some great looking and clean pinball machines. Your stuff is in way better condition than all of mine. Mine work, but have lots of cosmetic wear. Nice going everyone.

Drop Target Saturday. Broke this down today and installed all new springs and targets. Moving along on this Pin-Up, thanks to PBR. (Not Professional Bull Riding)

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Is that from a Gottlieb? I have a Far Out which has a couple hacked springs which are too strong. Do you know what part numbers to order from PBR.

Alberto

Yes that's from a Gottlieb Pin-Up.

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The assembly also takes 2 of the #A-13455 springs. Sometimes these are missing or broken.

Coin door for Williams Travel Time. Dents removed and polished by my partner

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Howdy. I’m working on my 1963 Williams Swing Time AAB machine and I’m a bit stuck.

I was chasing down an issue with the controlled playfield lamps that were intermittently working about 5% of the time.
I cleaned and adjusted the switches and finally got the lamp issue remedied, but now I have an endless ball issue. The final trough switch that allows the ball to pass by and into the inlane always allows the ball to pass and never removes the ball from the ball count.

I’ve gone over and over the switches without finding this issue. Any help forward is greatly appreciated!

Online schematics:
https://www.ipdb.org/files/2483/Williams_1963_Swing_Time_Schematic_Diagram_continuous.pdf

Thanks!

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1977 Williams Lucky Seven

Finished up the underside of the playfield tonight. The new pneumatic stapler is great for keeping the ground braid away from from the other side of the electrical circuit but I was hoping it would improve the underside aesthetics better than it did. I guess I’ll have to practice more on the next of swap. The good news is that when I plugged in the pf it lit up and started a game with no smoke, fire, or blown fuses. All the pf functions operate as designed, special, extra ball, bonus, double bonus, and all pf switches, bumpers, and targets. While the step up side of the pf functions seem okay, I was unable to test the step down functions as the outhole switch is not operational at this time. Also, when the pf is lowered from the service position the 10 point relay pulls in. Of course everything looks okay so I got the easy part of the diagnostic out of the way. I’ll start the hunt to get the rest going tomorrow.

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1977 Williams Lucky Seven

Visual inspection failed to find source of 10 point relay short. Still no outhole functionality except at game start. I do have a copy of the schematic but a copy of the manual, if there is one, would be handy right now. I have not referenced the schematic yet and will try to make do with the manual from Hot Tip as it is a similar release date game. Playfield lighting installed as a test. Depending on the location I am using the following bulbs: 44, 47, 51, and 55. Installed the outhole coil assembly and lower apron to protect the playfield better while in the service position.

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1977 Williams Lucky Seven

Outhole functionality restored. I noticed when installing the outhole switch the tension spring was contacting the opposite switch leaf. Adjusted the pair so it would not make contact then added a fish paper insulator which somehow rendered the switch inoperative. Diagnosed by shorting the switches across the lugs after the first ball was played with a point file. All game functions now operational.
I am still unable to trace the 10 point short. I’ll have to pick it up again tomorrow.

Stuck 10 point switch found under right slingshot. This resolves the last of the reassembly problems for now. All functions now working 100%.

With TPF just over a month away I decided I’d assess any issues with my Star Pool. Cleaned the steppers, replaced a couple burnt bulbs today. Have a few flaky sockets to address. A quick clean, wax and new ball and she should be ready.

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I thought this thread might be a good place to ask about advice on a 1970 GTB wedgehead I'm finishing up. Got everything playing and looking great, except the cabinet. I don't have the space or facilities to repaint it myself. How does one find a painter with pin cab experience? My 2-hour drive window to drop off/pick up stretches from Louisville to Evansville IN to Cincinatti. Or further. Thanks.

Cool game, looking good, you could shave in that coin door!

1977 Williams Lucky Seven
Starting to install plastics after straightening with heat gun. Unfortunately I broke a post fastening screw while tightening up one of the plastics. I tried to drill out the broken piece with no joy. I also managed to install the top arch and get it screwed down, which took a surprising amount of time. Spinner installed as well.

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Added CF to the lineup over the long weekend. It has been playing great, and at some point I said “clean enough.” (Special thanks to ejg.) Playfield is beyond repair/retouch but the game is so fun and appealing I’ll be doing an overlay once the weather allows me to sand off the playfield outdoors. I’ll do cabinet retouches then. In the meantime I’ll be playing it into the ground as-is (with a cash bounty to any of my kids that go over-the-top).

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Happy I started going through the Star Pool. While the machine has its cosmetic issues, I still like to bring a machine that presents and more importantly plays well to TPF. Fixed a couple flaky sockets. Began play testing and found the center spinner not spinning all that well. Took it apart to find the shaft was spinning in the bracket that attaches to the plastic disc. This created dull, slow, erratic spins. Fixed that up and it spins great, not sure how long it’s been like that. Found that the player up and ball in play lights would flicker, then the game over and match lights quit altogether. Cleaned the appropriate switch on game over really seems to have fixed both issues. More testing, the hopefully just a wax and new ball.

Working on a Flip Flop, playfield was fully stripped, posts were cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner, hardware was polished in the tumbler. Now for rerubber and reassembly. Will have to fill the holes for the left pop bumper housing and redrill, as the hole is blown out.

Game flips and plays, but needs a full flipper rebuild, and will probably have to work out a couple bugs. When I was cleaning the score reels two of the EOS switches were all bent out of shape, one wire came loose, and one switch stack was loose.

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I've done a couple of those. The backglasses are always perfect.

What did Bally know that Gottlieb didn't? I have a Nip-It that looks perfect, most Gottlieb's not so much.

Many Bally backglasses are always found in perfect condition.
I've never seen a flaking "Old Chicago" glass for example.
I don't believe backglasses were manufactured in the pinball plant itself. It could be that they had a different vendor who prepped the raw glass in a way that the ink would adhere better, or perhaps they just used a better quality ink, or maybe both.