My recent buy from an eBay seller a month or so a 58, Williams Deluxe Short Stop Baseball Game, 2 player. Picked it up last week from Maxwell, Nebraska and brought it to Sugar Land Texas. Three day one way road trip. Maxwell is not near any major airport so was an additional 300 mile drive from Denver. The game has been with the seller since 1976 but probably has not operated since the nineties. Randy the seller said the back box door was never part of the game since he owned it. How usual is that.

Game safely in my workshop.
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Back Glass and running men
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The cabinet paint is still mostly intact. It is very dirty but overall in very good condition. All parts are present but everything is gummed up. Original back glass paint is holding on barely but flaking in critical spots and needs a Mylar backing to save it ASAP. This is an excellent restoration candidate will restore very well.

Original Batting Unit and Pitching Unit that’s unusual.
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Internals are all in place
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The game’s history seems to be that there were two owners the operator and then Randy the seller. Randy, got the game as a graduation gift in 76 from his parents. He is originally from LA and he remembers being told the game came out of the Pike Amusement area in Long Beach. His parents dealt in antiques.

From reading Wikipedia the Pike amusement zone seems like an interesting area that was very popular with the public before Disney and Universal Studios siphoned away interest. As it is part of the game’s history I dug into the Pike Amusement area as a back drop to the game.

Pike Amusement Zone
a Cyclone Racer 3 (resized).jpg
After World War II it was renamed Nu-Pike via a contest winner's submission in the late 1950s, then renamed Queen's Park in the late 1960s in homage to the arrival of the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach.

1979 was the year Long Beach city council refused to renew the land leases and demolished all of the structures and attractions it could that weren't trucked away. The 58 Short Stop game was probably already not a premier attraction by 1976 and now having no further long term future was sold off.

Further descriptions of the area include entering the park at the "Walk of a Thousand Lights". You could very well have walked through an arcade archway entrance to the Ocean Center Building that contained the Hollywood on the Pike cabaret and an amusement arcade.

Ocean Center Building Today.
b Ocean Center Building (resized).jpg
One could then stroll west along the midway past storefront games, such as ball-pitch and shooting galleries, as well as outdoor amusement machines like the ever popular fortune predicting weight-scales, and several large indoor collections of coin-operated Electro-mechanical amusements - pinball, skill-prize merchandisers, penny-pitch, nickelodeon viewers, love and strength testers, fortune tellers, the House of Mirrors and more. Among the most popular coin-operated amusement machines and devices were the redemption games which dispensed tickets, such as skee-ball.

People enjoying the amusements 1950’s.
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People enjoying the amusements 1960’s.
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Miss Universe Contestants.
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One of the best-known historic coasters, the Cyclone Racer was built in 1930 to replace the Jack Rabbit Racer. The Cyclone Racer was a dual-track (two trains could launch side-by-side at the same time), It was a racing wooden roller coaster and the brain child of Fred Church.

f Cyclone Racer (resized).jpgCyclone Racer
To increase the thrill, the new coaster was built on pilings over the ocean, several hundred feet beyond the shore. Eventually the entire pier stood over sandy beach, not water, because of sand deposition due to the slowing of water caused by the new harbor expansion and breakwater. Over 30 million riders rode on the Cyclone before it closed in 1968.

It was removed to clear space for a Shoreline Drive road cloverleaf to the Magnolia Bridge in anticipation of the RMS Queen Mary's imminent arrival. This was found later to be not required proving the Cyclone Racer was removed unnecessarily. The Cyclone Racer was the last remaining seaside dual-track roller coaster of its kind in the United States until it was disassembled and cataloged in September 1968 with the promise to Long Beach citizens that it would be rebuilt elsewhere. Which it hasn’t.

Amusement Area looking back at the Ocean Center Entrance late 70’s.
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Arcade Entrance to the Arcade area late 70’s
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Queen Mary at its final Berth.
It now needs serious refurbishment or taken offshore and scuttled.
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So what started this muse, Randy the guy that I bought the 58 Short stop restoration project said I should look up the history of Pike Amusement area. I found it very interesting and thought you might too.

1958 Short Stop Flyer
1 58 SS Flyer Front (resized).JPG
2 58 SS Flyer back (resized).JPG
I was finally able to get some time to look at my recent game addition. I needed to see exactly what I had bought and see what it would cost to bring back to mint so I need to strip down the game and examine everything. I wanted a 2 player baseball game as I currently have one player games so it may add more interest when playing.

But first …I was side tracked with some Radio Shack drawers and how best to use them. I went with a minimalist build out idea.
3 Radioshack (resized).JPG
I made a base with wheels (I put all my stuff on wheels) and added a bamboo top and located into a workshop corner.
4 Radioshack (resized).JPG
Surprising how much pinball stuff we can amass and equally surprising how much I was able to store away in the readily accessible drawers for restoring future projects. It’s all looking a lot neater now and I got rid of all sorts of storage bins and shoe boxes. It didn't make me any more space for future games so I now need to think about letting some games go...groan.

The condition of the game is typical for being ignored for 20 years; steppers are frozen and game is extremely dirty.

The first thing I noticed when taking the play field out was these green balls.
5 mothballs. (resized).JPG
They went straight to a plastic bag and then the trash. Don’t think these were mothballs maybe something worse like a rat poison?

Only part MIA was the 3” bell coil and the assembly part it locates to.
6 Bells (resized).JPG
The games back door or doors were missing as usual. So have to remake them …as usual.

The next thing that caught my eye was the saddest thing, the backglass. It suffered this last two winters being in an unheated shed open to the elements. I will need to replace. Whether a Mylar overlay could be applied is remote possibly I fear.
7 Backglass (resized).JPG
Close up Damage
8 BG Delam (resized).JPG
One more sad pic
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Moving on, the cabinet paint is not that bad for its age except it is now chalking being in the barn so it may also need to be repainted. Try not to if at all possible.

The light box does not need painting if the lower cabinet is acceptable.
10 Upper light box (resized).JPG
The Lower cabinet is marginal as when you touch the paint it is flaking in some parts. So cleaning further is not going to be easy if at all possible.
11 Cab paint (resized).JPG
This close up tells the story. The grime is not coming off without the paint coming off with it.
12 Cab paint close up (resized).JPG
The front door is in good condition and I expect a perfect restore on it. Any idea what the leg colors were? I received the correct legs I think so they may have been black originally.
13 Front door and legs. (resized).JPG
The front moulding is OK, showing its age and has wear to the bat slot that needs repairing. Will review later whether to make a vinyl overlay and clear, certainly an option.
14 Moulding (resized).JPG
The bat assembly is interesting.
15 Bat lever Assembly (resized).JPG
It has a spring that tensions the lever, not the usual later simple spring that pivots off a post that is shown in the Williams’s part books and picture below.
16 Bat Lever Spring Replacement (resized).JPG
This original spring I have seen before on a couple of later games and I have replaced by adding a spring post and have fashioned a stronger spring. However, on this game the original spring is working well and I will stay with it in the restore. I guess after this game rolled out the lever assembly was upgraded by Williams with the different spring arrangement, I believe this as shown is the original assembly for this particular game.

I need to review the electro mechanical parts next and see if there is a smoking gun pointing to an operational problem that stopped this game being played.

I sometimes wonder when I get non-working games why they stopped and were never fixed. A possible clue or not of when it stopped being played was the coin mech’s had trapped a bunch of coins, $1.80 in total. Their dates were between 1966 and 2000.

The op told me he received the game in 76 and stopped playing it in the middle 90’s. The 2000 coin could have been dropped in as an optimistic attempt to make it work.

On investigation a couple of odd signs may point to the culprit. The out unit stepper step up coil is looking toasty and this if not working would have made the game less fun.
19 Out Unit Coil is Toasty. (resized).JPG
However, it still would have reset so the game may have worked but never finished.

Looking at the underside of the playfield the bat relay was quite toasty. Ah ha! This may be it.
20 Bat Relay Coil Toasty (resized).JPG
This would have stopped the game operating in its tracks. I need to check the above coils with my meter this weekend and see which the killer is.

At the bottom of the game was a broken off switch leaf roller so maybe when I strip the running man and score motor down it could be a clue. We will see.

The running man assemble was reviewed next. The relay switches shown in the picture below are in a bank as shown on all running man games. These relays are easily accessible from the back of the game and are critical to controlling the operation of this marvelous feature. On review as usual the some of the switches were somewhat bent and would have stopped the running man operating.
17 Running Man Relays (resized).JPG

A Baseball arcade game golden rule reminder; Probing with ‘fat fingers’ rarely fixes problems, especially in the running man area. This fat finger probing is a constant issue in all the baseball games I have restored. However, not the cause of the game stopping I think, just a result.

Also the underside of the running man playfield had burn marks emanating from a man release coil incident.

On view this maybe a older incident as the black return wire to the coil was replaced with some brown plastic colored wire to replace a couple of inches of burned wire. As this was a repair of sorts this was not the reason it stopped being played. I still need to put a meter on this coil.

Looking at other possible game operation killers the various motors are still to be tested but look ok so I think the coils above will provide the killer answer.
21 Pitching Assembly (resized).JPG
Moving my thoughts to motors the pitch mechanics and motor seems in good condition. However, the motor is a sealed closed model and I am leery to leave unchecked. When I get to the playfield I will drill out the gearbox rivets and check what the grease is like inside. I recommend that all closed motor gearboxes that have not been turned for a bunch of years are opened, cleaned and the plastic cogs re-greased with some Magnalube.
22 Meters (resized).JPG
Does the meters tell us anything about the game? Condition wise I don’t believe this game has had a long hard life. The reason is the contacts are not worn like the 60’s games I have restored to date. It seems to be the original parts and the labels are all in good condition.

Been busy lately travelling for work and not getting to be home working on this project.

I finally got back to the game and checked the suspect relays with my multi meter. I snipped one relay wire and checked all suspect coils and relays. Found that all the coils and relays were OK so no smoking gun why this game fell out of favor. I guess as the previous owner told me the game was forgotten as life activities take over. Eventually the steppers gummed up as it was never played and shopped.

So time to get this thing properly reviewed and make my plan to restore this puppy.

On further examination of the cabinet I checked the serial numbers and …ah heck it’s different to the light box number. Bloody op probably switched the head to sell it or keep the game making money, did he not know in the future people would start collecting and obsessing over them!.

Cabinet stamp serial # WM 31337
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Light Box Serial # 30984
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Another bother for me was the cabinet paint condition. I still need to make a decision of the level of restore. Although the paint was in place overall it was flaking away from the wood and beyond saving in many places.
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Further review of the bottom of the cabinet damage indicates the game was damaged when slid around without its legs. So need to re-glue overnight to start this repair.
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The underside edges are almost all de-laminated after 50 + years but with wood glue and some clamps this is an easy repair.
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I re-glued the edges to stop further damage and none of the damage is ever beyond repair so really no real issue for a game this old.

Another problem was the glass would not slide out over the front cabinet wooden edge. Somehow the wood had become raised over 1/8”. Unless this game’s glass was meant to be removed sideways after taking of a side rail this makes zero sense.
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I had to take the side rail off initially to get the glass out. On closer review there are nails in the sides indicating the front was once separated from the cabinet. I removed the nails and the front piece and tried to realign correctly but no dice. Why? The wood front is slightly too large and does not fit. The fix appears to be to cut the bottom board slot 1/8” wider so it drops slightly and then to open the leg holes slightly. Unless someone can correct me this is what I will do.

The review of the back glass is next. It does not look good, it’s separated from the glass and very fragile in many places. It will not survive removal from the game intact. So I need to plan the removal and how to protect it as best as I can.

In the center of the glass the paint has all lifted and started to break.
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All the corners and edges of the paint have separated from the glass.
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So fragile.
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Following a search here on Pinside, RGB archives and Mr. Pinball Repairs ‘Tips of the Day’ http://user.xmission.com/~daina/tips/pub/tip_archive.html archives I see that using a pieces of 10 Mil thick Mylar is recommended for saving basket case back glasses. The Mylar should be adhesive backed. I was able to find the Mylar in an art store and sprayed the back with some adhesive so just as good, I think.

I cut the Mylar an inch bigger than the actual glass, sprayed on the contact adhesive and put a side. I gently slide out the glass but could not save all the paint however considering how bad it was I was amazed I saved 95%. With help I laid the glass on to the Mylar it and smoothed out and this saved the paint that was left. One thing that was irritating was when the Mylar got within 3“ of the glass, static lifts more paint flakes and stuck them in the wrong place.

Glass now protected with a Mylar backing. Hoo…Hoo!
Overall considering what I had to work with the Mylar repair was a life saver. On further review the glass colors are so vivid and this is definitely a Bgresto restore candidate.
Front View
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Back View
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Next review was the cabinet and decision time on to leave as is or a repaint.

The bottom cabinet is in really bad shape. The paint is lifting off the wood. If this game had of been stored in a dry location without being exposed to the Nebraska elements over the last two years it would have been a perfect game to leave as is, but alas not, so sad.
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The paint is flaking off the base wood in layers
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More flaking and paint layer separation.
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So I will need to make stencils and repaint the cabinet bottom at least.

It’s no secret that as time went on the manufacturers spent less time and cost on paint. This game has four colors and the hairy webbing is a blue and white combination. Later games in the 60’s went to three colors and one color webbing or splatter. The older the game the better the original manufacturer painting of the cabs is found. There are so many fine examples of 50’s Woodrails with superb painting schemes and paint condition around it is obvious as the number of games sold increased shortcuts from previous years were made.

I guess it’s still the same today if you listen to people on other sub forums that as the number of games made increases again the quality appears to be falling. The price of the game seems not to be a factor.

Nico Volta in his epic US thread “Nic's North American Pinball Tour” epilogue part 1 of 2 made an interesting observation that I totally agree with.

“In my opinion, every EM needs to be rebuilt top-to-bottom, down to the last screw, in order to be “gold standard certified”. We have reached the point in time where every EM is at least four decades old. This is much longer than they were ever intended to run and the issues we encounter today are often much worse than what pinball techs had to deal with many years ago! The time has come to reset the odometer and save them for another generation”.

15 (resized).JPG
I do not know exactly how I will achieve this hairy webbing but I saw a thread from Leckmeck mentioning success with Dupli-color auto lacquer paints so will research this further.

The last item to review is the Front moulding. This is a wooden control panel that has a laminated surface over unique art and has a handle and buttons to control the pitch and bat. Over fifty years they take some abuse.
16 (resized).JPG
However I have developed an effective way of refinishing them using a vinyl overlay and then clearing with a thick coat of auto clear.
Front Moulding Art (resized).JPG
Here is the art I will use for the overlay

Absolutely is Dennis. Another ground up restoration. Hard to better the Major League but there is different components and challenges so worth documenting.

Hurricane Harvey interrupted my restoration as I was starting the cabinet restoration phase. I was not able as you can imagine to work outside in that downpour. Even though where I live is protected by a levee and pumps the 35” of rain we received at my location over the week nearly over whelmed the system. The levee is in place to protect us from the Brazos River that as you would expect crested at a record high. Not all my friends were so lucky.

So once the house was put back in order I was able to get back at the cabinet work.

The paint was easily removed with my new Rigid sander, however, with this sander you have got to be careful or you could remove wood along with the paint very quickly. Largest HP and RPM I could find. a Rigid Sander (resized).jpg I finished the sanding with my palm sander and this all takes a long weekend to prepare.

What I noticed on this game is that the aged cabinet wood quality is never the same quality on every game. This time the wood edges seem to be very weak and splinters off more than usual. Possibly as this was originally a west coast located game in a drier environment not an east coast located game that I usually find to restore. No science in that thought just musing.
b Cabinet repair (resized).JPG Always surprised how much filler I use considering all that remains when finished. We must eventually sand 99% of it away during a restore.

The game had plenty of damage and nicks plus the front panel needed re-fixing with glue and screws. I used the half and half filler and it all eventually feathered out well and it turned out fine.

The head in pic above had a bunch of damage on the back where it must have been dragged about. But a bunch of glue and clamps to fix the delamination issues, followed by much more filler and it’s ready for paint.

The cabinet side rails were in bad condition, they had a lot of unnecessary screw and nail holes and were so ugly. c Side Rails holes (resized).JPG Side Rails with many ugly screw holes

From game pictures and examining my other Williams games they were nailed originally on top and sides with small head nails and the holes filled prior lacquering.

This lazy, ugly fix may have been because removing the one rail was the only way to get the playfield glass out due to the raised front panel stopping the glass sliding out the front.
d Front Panel Lip (resized).JPG Raised Lip Issue

I removed the front panel and deepened the depth of the bottom panel slot so it could sit lower and flush with the cabinet sides and the glass will slide out now.
e New flush lip (resized).JPG Flush Lip

I used an oak wood filler to fill the holes and smooth out other warping of the wood. It’s still a bit early in the restore process to see how all this will come out. I painted some wood lines on the smooth filler.
f side rails filler (resized).JPG Side Rails and Filler used.

g side rails with filler painted. (resized).JPG Rails ready for Acrylic Lacquer

g1 New Back doors (resized).JPG
As usual no back door or with this game no two back doors.

Painting

I use auto paints as I am a little particular to get the colors correct and this is the easiest way for me. I find the closest Pantone color swatch and bring to my local AJ Foyt store for the girls to mix accordingly by eye and they are usually spot on. I screwed up this time, don’t know what I was thinking when I ordered the paint I asked them to mix twice as much as needed and it is really expensive. I have enough to paint another machine. I think my recent double game Major League restore confused my quantities me and I repeated the double order.

So as not to do what I did if you are ordering more than the quantity for a baseball game. Typical amount needed for one game is;
• 1 quart Primer epoxy and a pint of epoxy hardener
• ½ gallon Base color and equal amount of Urethane Reducer
• Color, red white and blue 1 pint and equal amount of Urethane Reducer
• Clear 2pac 1 quart and Medium Hardener
This all in is about $350 per game. Getting too expensive from what I paid a couple of years ago.

The paint goes on beautifully and dries in minutes. Beautiful to work with. It takes a while to paint a cabinet using stencils and waiting for the paint to be fully dry.

Here is the process in pictures:

h Wood ready for primer (resized).JPG Parts glued, filled and sanded ready for the primer.

i Cabinet ready for painting (resized).JPG Cabinet ready for priming and painting the base yellow coat.
First the 2 part epoxy primer on all wood surfaces is completed and then the parts can be left to fully cure

j Parts epoxy primed (resized).JPG Primer dries in minutes to the touch.

k Cabinet primed and painted (resized).JPG Lower Cabinet primed left 30 minutes and then painted
This game as mentioned has a blue and white ‘hairy splatter’ that needs to be applied after the base yellow.

l original splatter (resized).JPG Original ‘Hairy Splatter'

m Hairy Splatter (resized).JPG New ‘Hairy Splatter’

I was able to add the splatter but with some difficulty. I added blue and then white to some Kyron silver marbling spray and thinner and sprayed with rapid sweeping motions otherwise I got perfect webbing.
n 1 White Stencil (resized).JPG Stencils cut out and tacky glued in position.

2 White Stencil removed (resized).JPG Stencil removed after 5-10 minutes application of 3 or so white coats.
3 White Stencil front (resized).JPG Same process for front. The original paint stencil was skewed about 3/16”. As I have to trace the original art I am now trying to fix this manually.

4 White front stencil removed (resized).JPG Stencil removed after 5-10 minutes application of 3 or so white coats. Most of the original misalignment is removed and edges are sharp.

5 Blue lower stripe added (resized).JPG Added the bottom blue strip to 3 sides and made them line up not like the original.

6 Blue Stencil paint (resized).JPG Traced the star positions on to cabinet wall then tacky glued the stencils in position.

7 Blue stencil removed (resized).JPG Used alcohol later to rub out the star pencil location marks. Not the best lower blue edge, but will touch up manually.

8 Red stencil (resized).JPG Orangy red stencil covers the blue and sprayed.

9 Red stencil removed (resized).JPG Stencil removed and it’s not too bad. Original stencils in the day were better.

10 Front finished and touched up (resized).JPG Finished the front. Used some frisket, an exacto knife and red paint a day or so later to nail the white, yellow red transition. Very happy with this and better than the original for once.

11 Side art nearly complete (resized).JPG

n 11 a Back doors (resized).JPG
New back doors.

Coming along just need the blue men and some more stars, then clear to gloss out the colors. You have to be patient during the painting but the results are very good for another 25 years at least.

I am still too wary to paint over with another color the same day due to use of tacky spray to stick on my stencils could lift of the first color. So with the making stencils and 4 colors on a 50’s game, it takes me a second weekend to finish out this phase.

The use of stencils is still a work in progress as the quality can be impacted for a couple of reasons. The Grafix 0.007” clear plastic material comes on a tight roll. o stencil film (resized).jpg

You need cut it so the curvature is concave against the surface to be sprayed. This means the edges won’t fight the tacky glue and lift away from the surface. Secondly cut the material (especially if using an electric heat cutter) on the side that will touch the work. This is because the melting process can leave a burr, so we want this on the side away from the surface being painted. You can sand the burrs and edges away.

Upshot is I needed to still do some manual repairs prior clearing. Using scissors this time was OK but if there is a lot of curves the electric stencil cutter is still the way to go. I still hate making stencils as they are so time consuming but also so critical.
p Blue Batters out to Play (resized).JPG That’s the painting done finally.

I have this time got an additive to add to the clear to lessen the clear gloss. See what you think. It is more a semi-gloss and looks good.
q All cleared (resized).JPG

I like animated games. Baseball, horsey or bingo all cool.

Ready to fix the legs and lacquer the wood edges and this phase will be done.

The legs were originally black I believe. I think what I got with the game where the correct legs. However, there were traces of the cabinet paint on the inside of the legs and they were plated so makes me wonder. The black paint was chalking and looks quite sorry so off it comes. I removed the feet and tossed and gave the the legs a bath in Evaporust prior priming. I will repaint black and clear along with the front moulding later. Need to check the leg color. Will pm Novaguy he will know.

The bare side oak wood needed reconnecting to the cabinet sides and all the wood sprayed with acrylic re-lacquer a bunch of times and they will look very good. This time as the humidity has got so high I got a milky coat when spraying. I resprayed when not so humid and the lacquer all clears again and looks fabulous. The original rails not so good due to what I started with.
Sides re lacquered. (resized).JPGSide rails firmly nailed to the cabinet.
Wood oak trim looki (resized).JPGThat’s the cabinet finished and looking a lot better.

I believe I am wrong with black legs, should be red, almost positive. Guys here on Pinside have red legs on their games.
DSC06111 (resized).JPGAuto Cleared with a semi-gloss. Let the paint harden up for a week or so before placing on the game.

Sent my money and the original back glass to Steve Azzam at Bgresto so now in the queue for a new glass hopefully by the end of the year to finish of the game.

Pitching Motor Gear Box Overhaul on 1958 E5613 Pitch unit; Spec 14A-7726A, 50 Volt, 17 RPM

This early pitching motor gearbox is a lot less robust than the pitching gearboxes a few years later. Williams increased the motor size on the Official Baseball game in 1960 with a larger armature and a beefier gearbox. This game has a pressed steel gearbox closed housing as you can see.
1 DSC06001 (resized).JPG
It currently cannot drive the pitching mechanism and barely turns. So need to drill out the rivets and see what is going on inside.
2 DSC06002 (resized).JPG Drilled out rivets
3 DSC06003 (resized).JPG
All good inside, that’s a relief. Possibly the pins that hold the cogs in position were not properly aligned in the holes in the casing. I re-lubed with some Magnalube and closed it up ensuring that the cog pins were placed correctly and secured with new rivets.

4 DSC06006 (resized).JPG
I powered up and it purred.

I took the Pitching unit apart next, cleaned it and rebuilt it ensuring the pitching spring was as well positioned as I could. I added the motor and it all worked perfectly.
All overhauled ready for another 25 years.
5 Pitching unit Assembly (resized).JPG
If you want to overhaul your pitching unit here is a link to later game, it’s exactly unit as this game. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-1963-major-league-restoration post #33.

Pitching Unit Fast Ball Coil

Also something I was not aware off. Later games have a fast ball coil plunger return spring, this game has not. And it works fine without it. Try to get the later games to work without the spring. I can’t, go figure.
6 no spring plunger return (resized).JPG

Yes I know but it is plexiglass I believe and there is detail missing. For the same money I can get a bgresto glass and the detail included. Just got to wait a while.

Thanks Phil,

I want these old games restored and the devil is in the detail.

I have found the parts have changes year by year too subtle sometimes for even the parts # to catch. Also a lot of parts have been switched from different games to keep the games going.

Regards Steve

Saw your post and went to the bgresto site and Steve has just completed the art and put up on the site. Looks real good. See what you think.

http://bgresto.com/?p=1962

Bgresto New Backglass. (resized).JPG

I am looking forward to getting this Backglass from Steve. Your right the bg makes so much difference. I enjoy the full restore as much or more than playing. Part or the hobby for me. Glad you guys stopped me painting them legs black.

The door restoration is next. It has a hammer finish.

Nico Volta commented to me at the 2016 Houston Arcade Expo last year that there was a better hammer finish recommended to him than than I was using. It’s actually by Restoleum, it’s not cheap and here is the link. ebay.com link: 3 Pk Hammerite Rust Cap 12 Oz Gray Gloss Metal Hammered Finish Spray Paint 41145
1 Hammer Finish Can (resized).jpg Recommended Hammer Finish Product, comes in a 3 pack.

To be clear the original game hammer finish is not that impressive as I was able to find the original paint under the William’s logo plate.
2 Old door hammer finish (resized).JPG Existing door hammer finish.

3 New Door Hammer Finish (resized).JPG New door finish

Here is the result you judge. It’s a little darker but the finish is superior to products you find in a box store.

Home Run Plate

The Home Run metal plate has seen better days. Time to repaint it. I made a decal for the home run wording and it’s available as a pdf for anyone that wants it, just pm me.
4 HR Pre (resized).JPG A little tired now after many ball hits

5 HR White (resized).JPG Home Run sign re-painted and ready for the decal

I learned that you need to clear prior adding the decal as the decal needs a flat surface to stick to. The white paint was not as smooth and you can see that through the yellow decal. However you need to put your face in a foot of the decal so no need to redo.

6 HR PL (resized).JPG Decal added and cleared.

Last item to be restored is the front moulding. As stated earlier I scanned and cleaned up the original moulding and made an overlay. It was made in a matt this time but after it was cleared it pops.
7 Moulding Overlay (resized).JPG Overlay applied.

8 Moulding after clear (resized).JPG Overlay applied and cleared with 2PAC

The 2 Pac will be carefully worked in a couple of weeks from 1000 thru 2000 grit and finished with a swirl remover polish and it will look similar to the original laminate.

With the painting largely done I have a few directions on what to tackle next. I have still to take apart the light box parts and clean and overhaul the running man.
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This will involve both painting of the running man ‘park’ and cleaning and overhauling of the mechanical parts. Each will take a couple of weekends.
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I also had a pm from a fellow pinsider trying to rewire a hacked game so the third option is to rebuild the bottom board and assist in that games rewiring. As I do these detailed restore write ups to help others to fix these old games that is the next thing to tackle in this restoration.

Hi Joe,

Ha Ha,
I have got three games from Nebraska now. Maxwell is hundreds of miles from anywhere.

I question that motor Gearbox as a correct substitute motor. When you take it off (4 screws) check what the motor rpm is. If there is another part # let us know. It needs to be have a 17 rpm or close speed.

To your question

Are you talking about the 1st Reduction gear? See pic below.
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If so Steve at PBR will fix for you. About $100 + parts. He turns around quick. See link attached and scroll to the bottom of the page. http://www.pbresource.com/motor.html

If you are handy and the part is the first reduction gear and you have a rivet press that can handle 1/4" rivet size then go that route. Steve charges $36 for that kit. See the correct kit below.
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Last pic is a parts list that 'Newmantjn' posted to help people a few years ago.
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Either way you have to call Steve Young (number is on the link) so he is sure that he gives you the correct parts and you can do the repair yourself if you go that route.

As I believe the problem 'replaced' motor has not the correct rpm. Instead of going to pbr for repair a cheaper and faster solution is to use a similar Williams 50v score motor. There is an NOS one on ebay by a good seller and free shipping.

See link ebay.com link: Williams coin operated pinball baseball motor 6738A Spec 440 Score motor

The E-5613 pitching unit actually is designed for 17 rpm. See the attached link that gives a lot of info for these baseball games. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-baseball-game-motor-coils-and-bat-assembly-information#post-3147457

The game voltage for motors on your game is 45Volt so the ebay motor will work.

Just sent Matt Ward a bunch of Pic's of the bottom board so he can sort out his hacked Short Stop. 3 games being restored/repaired now, very rewarding.

Here the board all restored and ready to drop into the game once I add a new power cord.

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1. Meter Board Wiring
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1b Relay Row
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2. I clean the grease of as best as possible with my Ultrasonic cleaner using any de-greaser on hand and water. I dry off and if not to big a part it goes in the tumbler. Bigger pieces I clean by hand and polish with what metal polish is again at hand.

3. ha, again a red spray paint from a box store. The transformer needs wire brushing with a dremel so it is clean. I paint them as they are ugly enough that they need it.

Your game looks in nice condition, hope you get it going again soon.

Question 1: Is the bat relay a Hold relay? Example: Pitch a ball (do not swing) and when the ball goes down the Strike trough it fires the bat relay and it stays energized), does the same when I swing the bat. However, after making another pitch, the relay turns off.

Answer; The Bat relay is a Z-32-2300 so it can be on for a while, you could step away from the game for a time and the bat relay coil is fine. Edit: However, as described below the strike switch should re-energize the bat relay once the ball hits the trough strike switch. The energized bat relay 'appears to stay energized as the this enables the bat lever to strike only once.

If you do not swing the bat on a pitch its a strike. The bat relay should energize when the bat EOS closes or the ball goes past the trough strike switch. So look at the pitcher unit make break switch first it may be closed when it should be open.

From a review of the schematic, the strike stepper has 4 positions. I believe it is 0 ‘out’ through 3 ‘outs’ which ends the inning. So if you swing and miss and it’s a strike you get penalized an ‘out’. As usual if you hit the ball you can be out depending if the ball ends up in an out hole.

The snippet below shows the switches:
• Yellow highlights denote the power source via the strike relay to energize the bar relay and the trough switch that energizes
the Strike stepper step up.
• Mauve highlights denote the power source from the Pitch unit that energizes the bat relay.
• In blue pen cloud are the Pitching Unit switches. This is where there could be a switch that is staying closed.

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Question 2: The machine only had two of the meters and they were totally removed with the wires capped off. Does this affect the match play, name replay if they are not connected/installed?

Answer; No.

Question 3: In regard to the Match Rotating Stepper Unit - Is there an exact homing location on this?
Answer; No. It has no reset coil.

Question; Does the yellow wire from the Reset Hold relay connect to the third leaf on the 25c Relay?

Answer yes it does.
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Question; Does the yellow wire connect to the Index relay connect to the 8th leaf on the bottom row of the same relay?

Answer; yes it does along with the blue/red wire.
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I have not seen any pictures about reviewing and lubing these older pressed steel gearboxes. I added the Pitching gearbox earlier. This is the score motor; 50 Volts and 17 rpm. A few years later Williams moved to open frame gearboxes. Same part # but probably the spec # was changed.

Similar to the pitching motor outside not sure inside.
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Original Gearbox with motor.
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Score Motor Gearbox removed from frame along with coil, Rotor Assembly, spring and rotor shaft.
Remove the motor and armature. Don’t lose the little spring on the shaft as this is very important to Williams’s motor operation.
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I put in my vice and drill out the rivets.
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Open up the shell, and cross your fingers that all teeth etc are present. They are! We don’t want a problem here as anything inside is made of ‘nonobtainium’. If you do you will need to find a later model open frame, they will fit perfectly just won’t be original but at this age of game that is a small potato issue.
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Why is it wet? …well I throw everything in my ultrasonic and give it a heated bath. I cleaned up the parts and reassembled. The nylon gears do not need lubrication. I may have smeared on some Teflon lube but it is not needed, just can’t help it.
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New rivets and gearbox is ready for another 25 years.

Wiring seems OK. Yes the two redissh wires both go to the same right side of the micro switch if you had one.

Attached is my door with the wiring I believe as original.

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It's actually a red/black wire and yes its the door anti slam switch it is in series before the two door coin switches that powers the 25c relay.

You need to get a schematic, it will assist you greatly.

I got my schematic on eBay. A few bucks more but there was a red small schematic that seems to be original and another copy like Steve at PBR provides. There was another item too. Have a search on eBay the seller has multiple copies.