Getting close to the finish line on a nearly planked-to-death Pit Stop. 95% repainted.

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Wow, you have a great talent.

Looks fantastic... Is your mask material cricut-type work? What's your masking product? Also interested in how you were able to flatten out the planking so the airbrushed colors look nice and even.

Looks pro!

Great work @a_bord! I agree with Dono’s questions about masking for the airbrush!

Dono Thank you. The mask material is Gerbermask ultra. The yellow is $100 cheaper per roll and works as well as the white. Art prep is scan, vectorize by color (manual vector is key, autotrace never looks good), cut stencils with Silhouette Cameo. Playfield prep is clean (after scanning), clear coat, sand, then paint. It will get cleared again after paint, then some of the high detail areas will get waterslide decals, then a final coat of clear. Painting on a flat surface is critical so flattening everything with clear is the way to go. I've tried getting clean edges without clearing first and it was a nightmare.

When I get a little closer to completion I'll start a restore thread with more photos. It has been a very rewarding project.

@a_bord, I don’t know enough about the scanning and silhoullete cameo, what’s involved, what equipment is needed? Is it a big $ investment to get set up?

DanMarino Definitely a bit of startup cost involved. You need to dig up an HP 4600 series scanner from Ebay ($75?), a used Silhouette Cameo v2 is probably good enough for this ($150?), plus the Gerbermask material ($150 for a huge roll). You can use inkscape (free) or any other vector-based software to trace the scans. I use Adobe Illustrator.

I purchased a Cameo 3 new and have used it for all kinds of projects. Its value extends well beyond pinball restoration. There is a whole thread on Pinside about using the Cameo. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/silhouette-cameo-pinball-restorers-club

Excellent work!
Would really like to see before and after photos when it's done.

Wow. Looking very forward to your restoration thread.

Working on a 51 GTB Globe Trotter... my 2nd early 50s GTB game this month. When shopping out these vintage woodies, at least from GTB, I strongly suggest giving a very slight pull on all switch stack wires, on the mech board, backbox, and underneath the PF while on your rotisserie... my bet is you will find between 10 to 25 wires that require resoldering. Thanks to JT Amusements for this tip I've heeded for years. The attached pics show exactly that... five wires on the bank (3 unattached on their own), and 2 on one switch stack. On this game I had a total of 14!

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1977 Williams Lucky Seven

Just a couple items left on the punch list. I like the apron light to illuminate when a replay is awarded. Replaced bulb in apron after adjusting credit unit switches. Also removed a free play jumper and adjusted credit unit switches to do the same thing as the jumper.
Match unit not awarding replay. Previously cleaned and adjusted 00-90 unit. Cleaned 10’s score reels horse shoe contacts to repair problem.
Slingshot switches not pulsing 10 point relay. I gapped these before I installed the playfield in the cabinet? Fixed now.
Game still plays pretty tight but is starting to loosen up and play faster. Time to push it into the Williams row.

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How is it for game play?

That is outstanding work.

LOL, wow, that's a dirty one. I've seen some bad ones but that might be the worst I've seen.

It is pretty early in the post-restoration process but I think once it loosens up after a couple hundred plays it will play Williams fast. It is already showing signs of that after about 30 plays. I’m still tweaking and adjusting things like flipper angle and slingshot switches to optimize gameplay. Still have LIB/CONS adjustments to consider as well as 5 ball rules on 3 ball game.

1978 Gottlieb Strange World

Cabinet repaint. Except for some minor touch ups, the head is done. I was hoping to finish the body today but it is a rain day here in Tacoma.

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Hi All,
New to pinball restoration and just starting my first project. Picked up two 1948 Gottlieb Cinderellas from Ohio. All of the mechanics seem in pretty good shape but only have one backbox and the glass is pretty rough. So we will see what we can do with it. Figured they were cheap enough for a first attempt. Look forward to checking out everyone's projects. Seeing some pretty impressive stuff.

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Welcome! No harm in posting here, but you may want check out the wood rail sub forum where more folks may have favorited that topic(s) and can offer advice on these earlier games/restorations.

Nice work!

Playdium would know. I bought his and the cabinet paint work is outstanding.

A bit of initial cleaning on the Cross Town I picked up last week… Cleaning up nicely!

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Thank you for the kinds words. I enjoyed the process.

You made it easy to follow in your footsteps with your Strange World cabinet restoration postings. Thanks for the help!

I add informal toppers to my wedgeheads that are theme appropriate. Mind you, they are just velcro'd to the tops so they dont fall while playing and I dont actually mount or wire them up, however this is what I put on top of my Subway and my Central Park:

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My Bank a Ball is getting a Magic 8 ball topper as soon as I dig it out of my closet... but King of Diamonds is still probably going to get a lit Roto Target Cover plastic mounted on a improvised stand (the image is the "King" and the two women framing him left and right thats covering the roto target)

Scored an original 1 owner King of Diamonds…
Really want Diamond Jack, but this should do.

Picked up this ‘61 double barrel, but needs glass..

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I have a restored copy of this pin. It’s a great game.

That "King of Diamonds" is super nice. Get all white rubbers on it though, and I noticed the funky numbers on the roto unit. Original style stickers are available for it.

Had to put aside my Pit Stop project while I wait for better clear coating weather. Moved over to my Moulin Rouge playfield restore. It had wear in all the usual places when I bought it a few years ago. Paint got worse the more we played so it finally got pulled from the lineup. Tremendously fun game.

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It also head some melted purple paint that stained the yellow field.

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Starting with yellow, the worst color to get good coverage with. Might as well get the pain over with.

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Tough decisions. Do you go with the color it faded into or the color as preserved beneath the rails?

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Yellow is down and looks perfect. Aged white is up next.

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Very nice work. I love that game. Very good player, and an attractive art package.

Thanks! Anxious to get this playing again. It really is a great game all around.

So, I continued my cleaning and had a surprise…. My Cross Town is a sample game! It’s serial number 01003S and came with the official sample game paperwork and feedback forms, confirmed sample game inserts and alternate playfield text:

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Nice, tell me those aren’t led’s

Guilty as charged… I use frosted Comet Retro 1SMDs in warm white. For me, it’s close enough to the incandescent look and keeps heat away from the plastics.

Love that sample game sheet requirements! I would assume they gave their best operators these games no charge but expected full timely reports so they could make adjustments where needed before the full run.

That is so very cool! That letter from Gottlieb is priceless!

There are a bunch of the test reports, too. They are postage paid and addressed back to Gottlieb. Whoever received this sample didn’t hold up their end of the deal, by the looks of it.

I've never come across a sample "Cross Town". The game itself is a treasure, but the paperwork with it is incredibly awesome!

Congrats on your Cross Town.
I'm happy I was able to blind luck my way into finding a Subway.
For years I figured I would end up with a Cross Town since Subway was the one everyone else was looking high and low for.

Now I'm kinda getting an itch to find a matching replay machine like Cross Town, or a matching AAB Hurdy Gurdy, Diamond Jack/Solitaire, or a Flipper Pool to place side by side next to one of their replay counterparts in my collection just to let people experience what a difference a ruleset can make on scoring, gameplay, and strategy.

The "same but different" aspect is really contrasting when you look at how your play changes based on if your looking for AAB's so you get to play longer, score higher and possibly turn it over, or you're looking for replays and feature specials to play more games (which IS playing longer, it just doesn't help your current score.)

This can make the machines so strangely different between titles that, though designed to play on physically identical playfields, some love the AAB version, yet hate the replay, or vice versa. Or some, like me, who like both because I grew up around both. And sometimes, rarely, (and yet I'll say it,) I HATE both

We had an "Ice Show" and an "Ice Revue" side by side at Pintastic last summer. A woman walked up to them, and was quizzically eyeballing both games, trying to figure out why they were so similar, yet different. I then walked over, and proceeded to explain the mystery to her.

That's a great piece of history there. I've never seen that paperwork for a Sample machine.

I have an extra of all 3, but in New York.
Shipping's a killer.
My space is limited, but if I had a bit extra,
I'd double up on the Pleasure Isle/Paradise.
Nice looking machines..

I just checked ipdb, and there are photos of another sample "Cross Town". That one is serial number 01017S.

I was quite fortunate re the pf condition on mine. Just waxing it for now, but since this is definitely a long-term keeper, I could see springing to have it well cleared. One advantage should be that it's a simplistic design, so all the reconnects after ought to be a lot more straightforward than most. That would typically be a main concern.

If one managed to obtain an original in good condition, I'd say that is likely more collectible. However, I have played the SS remake of KOD many times, and it surprised me as to how good and practically interchangeable with the original it was.
The remake had a limited production though, and the company did not stick around for very long it seems. Few EMs were redone that way in SS, many years after the fact, although in my view there were plenty that deserved such revival. Probably a reflection of the older games commercial viability in the more modern era -- for new sales at least.

Opinions on this: do you suppose that SS remakes on C37, Cross Town, or Abra Ca Dabra, or Blue Note (to name just four, for starters), and assuming they were done as well as the best remakes we've seen, could engender enough sales to have justified the projects ? (They were able to turn the SS KOD into a 4-player, if I'm recalling this correctly. That would seem to be an imperative update.) But the inherent commerciality of this notion remains rather iffy.

There is a KOD remake 4 Player SS at PHOF for those wanting to play it. Compared to my original KOD, it played nearly the same, but the coils were a little bit more "poppy" so action was up.

I talked with Herb Silvers of Pinball Fantasy recently when buying a backglass repro for mine as an insurance policy, he is one of the people responsible for getting 55 of the remakes made. He thought there was a market but the investors kind of got there copies of KOD and got cold feet and left Herb sitting on a bunch of KOD parts. He is a little bitter over it, but he will ship you some extra plastics that replace the chromed playfield pieces, which was a cost savings move on the BOM, but now he has no use for them. He sells the other plastics as repros and spare parts depending if going in a SS or EM version.

As for other titles, I believe that ship has sadly already left the dock... finding the investors to pony up startup cash to produce a 60 year old EM pinball machine is LONG gone.

Peace, BH.

I got my first EM a few months ago - 1976 Bally Night Rider. Non-working when I picked up this project, I got it working 99% before I started tearing down for restoration.

Hear are some Before and After photos of my work so far....playfield, EM board, Chime Box, and Tilt Board. Swapping the old playfield for a CPR was slightly daunting to me as it's only my second swap, and the CPR playfield was for the SS version of Night Rider. CPR dimpling is haphazard at best anyway, but I had to be really careful in making the EM harness fit and route properly. Pretty much all of the mechs and topside parts installed easily as the EM and SS versions of Night Rider line up in those respects.
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Backglass is probably a 9.5/10 which is a good thing, because the EM version of this is pretty hard to find. The scoring mechs in the backbox will get a nice cleaning but I likely won't go to the extent I went with the bottom EM board.
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Most everything is working spread out on my workspace (our pool table with a ping-pong topper and a mat!). While waiting for decent weather to begin work on the cabinet, I'm triaging a few scoring anomalies I've found during my initial bring-up tests. Last in the queue will be getting the coin door looking and working like new again.
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The cabinet is structurally sound, just dirty, faded, and a few scratches and dings. A previous owner put on a metal bottom that covers the entire underside of the cabinet, I assume to protect against break-ins for the cash box. The bottom floor is filthy but in good shape so I'll be re-using it, but I've got to fill in the holes used to secure the metal bottom (the bolts go all the way through the cabinet walls) as I won't be putting that back on.
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This is a fun project! Hopefully will finish up before summer!

Sadly, I tend to agree on this one. I think the main audience is aging, and the younger kids desire more over the top entertainment of solid states and modern games.

As a guy on the younger end of the EM spectrum, every game I own from the 60s was born before me. I tell my dad, I’m hanging out and chewing the fat with the Bill, Bob, and Gary’s of the world, enjoying, learning about, and fixing up these old timers. I absolutely love 60s wedgeheads, but feel like I’m a square peg in a round world.

When I go, my kids will have the honor of offloading their Dad’s century old games, which is pretty cool thought. I hope they keep a few. I have Gigi for my daughter, and desperately looking for a Diamond Jack in honor of my son. I want a Capt. Card to trade for a Diamond Jack available out East.

That’s part of my wedgehead collection, and a picture of me with a Gary of the world

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Is he the Gary who was on American Pickers?