The Aussie Pinball Arcade

Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: goodolddays on December 09, 2011, 09:26:40 AM

Title: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: goodolddays on December 09, 2011, 09:26:40 AM
Thought I'd better start a new thread here to capture my work on my Old Chicago that I picked up this week.

Made a start yesterday afternoon .

Replaced the original power cord.  Started stripping the playfield . Playfield is dirty which is a good reason not to play this game yet.  Also looks like pretty much every plunger has been lubricated   @.@  so will be stripping and cleaning all mechanicals (which I planned to do anyway).

Here's a couple of pics of where I'm up to so far . The wear above the flippers is much more evident now in the 1st pic.
Hoping to remove most of the inground dirt with careful use of ME and Eucalyptus oil . Will be attempting to touch up the wear areas . Fortunately all inserts are pretty level so won't have to remove/reseat those.

Flippers are original so a new flipper kit will be installed (I do this with every game I buy now) and all bumper skirts need replacing .
I will be trying to spend no more than $100 on replacement parts (fingers crossed)
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on December 09, 2011, 10:06:25 AM

I hate lubrication on coil sleeves. I know ops had to do this to keep the games earning, and I suppose it is a good excuse to rebuild all the mechanisms. Games always play 100% better when this step is taken.

Great start  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on December 27, 2011, 10:36:10 PM
Progress update .
Finished under the playfield last week and finally finished all the score reels today . $#$
Have decided I will be repainting the cabinet  ::)
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on December 28, 2011, 12:15:17 PM
Progress update .
Finished under the playfield last week and finally finished all the score reels today . $#$
Have decided I will be repainting the cabinet  ::)

Creating your own stencils ? I think this title always needs to be repainted. Mine is completely faded. Nice game BTW  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on December 28, 2011, 08:25:11 PM
Creating your own stencils ? I think this title always needs to be repainted. Mine is completely faded. Nice game BTW  ^^^

Thanks Nino . I have done a few small playfield touchups too (will post some pics soon).
Yes , will be creating my own stencils .. in fact I traced most of the artwork this afternoon.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 06, 2012, 09:37:58 PM
Stencils are done and just finished removing the siderails  #*# (one of my least favorite jobs)

Will continue tomorrow

Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 07, 2012, 04:58:07 PM
Past the point of no return .. now for some sanding
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on January 07, 2012, 10:51:58 PM

Glad to see you removed the siderails for the repaint. It has been a long time since I've seen a NICE Old Chicago cabinet, so I'll be taking notes for mine  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Retropin on January 07, 2012, 11:19:41 PM
Surely noone leaves the side rails on? Take em off and the true base colour is underneath, plus look at the real colours that were hiding behind the door trim!! Pinballs were VERY vibrant when new..
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on January 07, 2012, 11:43:14 PM
Surely noone leaves the side rails on? Take em off and the true base colour is underneath, plus look at the real colours that were hiding behind the door trim!! Pinballs were VERY vibrant when new..

Some do, some don't !
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Mr Pinbologist on January 08, 2012, 12:09:21 AM
Surely noone leaves the side rails on? Take em off and the true base colour is underneath, plus look at the real colours that were hiding behind the door trim!! Pinballs were VERY vibrant when new..

Some do, some don't !

Many yrs ago I used to leave them on, out of fear of destroying them.. that and i didnt know where to get the twist nails to replace the old ones, and as a result i got real good as a siderail masker upperer  :D :lol

but now, having gotten pretty good at removing them I always remove them on any cab i'm repainting  *%*

EDIT; looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, will be great to see the before and after pics  *%*
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Steve2010 on January 08, 2012, 09:48:43 AM
Dave, looking forward to this one.  I remember putting many a coin into this machine in my youth.  From memory I didn't have much success winning games on this one, but it kept me coming back.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 18, 2012, 05:40:00 PM
Well I'm getting there with the repaint , just have the purple left to go on and a couple of mistakes to touch up.
Unfortunately I lost a bit of paint on the RHS when removing the contact so am now using Franklins contact (a bit less sticky)

Do you think I should leave the neck purple or paint it black like the factory job ?

Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on January 19, 2012, 11:10:45 AM

Repaint is coming along nicely. I've never seen an Old Chicago with the original paint unfaded.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 19, 2012, 06:29:03 PM
Almost there now .
Got a few touchups to do and unfortunately , despite sealing the edges 1st I still managed to get a bit of bleed with the Maroon (eg on the front LHS). Then need to spray the whole thing with some gloss clear.

I didn't notice a mistake with the pattern till right at the end .. can anyone spot it ?
Its not a perfect job but heaps better than the original faded cab.
I think all the hours of work (at least 24 hrs) was worth it.
Can't wait to get it all back together again and see how it looks (let alone plays )   #@#
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Olivia_jason on January 19, 2012, 08:25:42 PM
i thought this was a tidy up, i expecting some dirty machine with a few metal parts needing a clean, this is a resto, great work
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: ajlaird on January 19, 2012, 09:11:36 PM
I guess the cabinet pattern and backbox pattern are sort of meant to be lined up?
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 19, 2012, 09:48:54 PM
I guess the cabinet pattern and backbox pattern are sort of meant to be lined up?

Nice try but no, thats not it .. you are warm tho  #@#
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Retropin on January 19, 2012, 10:56:51 PM

Lovely job... looks bloody great!

But i think the mistake is...


The cream stripe from cabinet to header is meant to be cabinet base colour
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Mr Pinbologist on January 20, 2012, 12:45:33 PM
Thats coming along nicely!! well done  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 20, 2012, 01:56:21 PM
Thanks guys .
For those interested , the mistake is that somehow I left out a small circle on one side of the head.
I might try fixing that with a touchup job  !@#
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 22, 2012, 03:08:55 PM
The playboard wasn't too bad , but thought I might as well clean it up while its out of the cab.

I'm waiting on a couple of parts orders anyway.

I stripped everything off, laquered the timber, cleaned everything and reassembled .

Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on January 27, 2012, 07:51:06 PM
Before and after of the front and door of the cab  :D
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Steve2010 on January 28, 2012, 09:51:14 AM
That is simply night and day difference!  Beautiful work, keep it going!  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: swinks on January 28, 2012, 10:01:07 AM
What a beautiful difference, nice work.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on January 28, 2012, 11:41:09 AM

massive difference ! Well done !
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on February 07, 2012, 03:58:11 PM
PBR order came today so now I can finish this game  #*# and get by Gottlieb Thoro Bred done finally  #*#
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: punter on February 07, 2012, 05:43:15 PM
Great work it has come up real nice.Looking forward to seeing the end result  @@*.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: Strangeways on February 08, 2012, 06:08:10 PM

It's like Christmas day when a PBR order arrives !
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on February 11, 2012, 07:01:09 PM
Finally got this game back together .
It looks great but unfortunately doesn't work yet  !!!. Looks like switches out of adjustment on one (or more) of the 16 score reels  &^& .. maybe something else wrong too .

Anyway, here's a pic of the playfield now .
 I really should do something about the 1,000 point writing on the bottom outlanes but its a bit hard for me .
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up
Post by: goodolddays on February 11, 2012, 07:09:15 PM
Forgot to mention PBR made a mistake with my order . They are sending me a 3rd 10 pt bumper cap.
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: goodolddays on February 15, 2012, 05:55:34 PM
Fitted repro side rails and door sticker today and finished debugging the faults .

Just need to make a few adjustments to Pop Bumoer switches and this game will be finished.

Here's a couple of pics .

Next up is Gottlieb Thoro Bred
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: goodolddays on February 15, 2012, 05:56:25 PM
Forgot the door pic
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: Strangeways on February 15, 2012, 09:11:07 PM

Stunning. That is one sweet restoration. I've never seen an Old Chicago with decent original paint - all of them are faded. Well done - very pleasing effort.

 @@*
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: Steve2010 on February 16, 2012, 11:58:38 PM
Beautiful machine, and a very top notch effort and result.  Well done, she's a beauty, backglass and all!!
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: Retropin on February 17, 2012, 12:05:12 AM
looks stunning!! Nice to see an Old Chicago looking like it should.. ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: pinnies4me on February 17, 2012, 08:55:44 AM


Boy that came up nicely, well done!  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: ktm450 on February 17, 2012, 11:22:33 AM
Nice work  ^^^
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: StuartT on February 17, 2012, 01:10:55 PM
Looks good.
Where did you get the repo siderails?
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: goodolddays on February 17, 2012, 02:29:45 PM
Looks good.
Where did you get the repo siderails?

Thanks .
Siderails came from Rail-Ways on AA . Contact Jeff (JPD on that forum)
Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: goodolddays on February 23, 2012, 12:26:04 PM
For those interested here is a list of parts that went into this game

New Repro side rails (and nails)
New Pop Bumper caps, bodies, skirts, springs and spoons
All new 1inch white playfield posts
New rubber ring kit
Full Flipper rebuild kit
New Flipper shafts and bats
New coil sleeves
New flipper cabinet switches
New lane guides

Title: Re: Old Chicago tidy up finished
Post by: faza on February 23, 2012, 06:26:56 PM
Gotta be happy with that result looks great