I seem to have a few restores going on consequetively, but i like that. As i get tired of working on one, i move to another. If i get stuck with one problem on one, i move to another rather than sitting down wondering where to go next.
Ive had this machine for a few months now. i bought it unsighted. I knew though that several collectors had already gone to view this machine but had walked away from it as it needed too much work to get going.
This title is a CLASSIC Gtb wedgehead - meant to be one of the best made.
To be completely honest, i took one look at this machine, groaned and also put it into the "too hard basket".
heres what i got;
cabinet graphics are very worn and tired
Front door is rusted and needs some serious work
The PF is in pretty good shape. It has plenty of grime embedded in it, but just above the girl is a test area of a quick clean - she'll come up good but will also need some touch up and a clear coat afterwards
Inside the cabinet is where i REALLY groaned. previous owner had taken off the Q relay coil and also the leaf switches. Without this the game will not work. But closer examination reveals that the wires from the leaf switches are missing also. I thought this would be a much bigger headache than i thought, but then i got thinking. Q relay is really an open or closed switch that determines game start and game finish. Without the wires and contacts its really a permanantly closed switch, which would allow a game to commence. So i reattach the power to the coil and also slot in a new SERIES coil as this was missing. PBR sell all these coils and this is where is sourced it from. As you can see from the pic below, coil is attached and SERIES coil in place
Now i knew when i bought this machine that the BG animation had been removed, but it was all still there.
This is what greeted me;
All leaf switches are loose and the ball drop down arms are missing. I found those inside the cabinet in a box..
.... here its is.... WARNING... This pic aint pretty!
Ho Hum - how the hell does all this go together?
This is a 1965 GTB and so NO MANUALS WERE EVER MADE! Im completely on my own here ( now you know why ive put this off for a while!)
The balls drop down in the BG at the top as you go round the PF hitting appropriate targets. BG has a little fade, but other than that is in good nick
.
Now the first thing i ever do with a restore is get the game working. Then i can pull it apart, restore it and any subsequent faults in know are of my making and i can retrace my steps to erradicate them. All coils MUST be in place as missing ones on an EM lead to further problems as the power is daisy chained. I need to know everything is working before i can do anything.
With the coils in, game starts, but i have a locked on stepper coil. A quick check with an anologue meter reveals that the 1 point switch is reading closed, a close examination shows that the leaf switches have been bent out of whack and are touching. I seperate them, but this does not get rid of the fault. So now im scratching my head - maybe a shorted wire??
The game did come with a schematic and looking at this i see there are 4 X 1 point switches not 2.
For the life of me i could not find them until a full day later - right at the top of the PF is a small rubber before the rollover switches - 1 on either side and yes - they are touching!
Ok, so now we have a working PF - a deep breath and i haul out whats in the box of bits - all balls are there, but most are broken, ill need to make new armatures for them and some serious glueing.
I swing the animation mechanism down and try to work out how it all goes together. Actually, its not that hard to work out and whats not broken i put into place
.
The ball armatures drop down as its associated coil is energised from the target on the PF. Armature comes down and makes contact with the leaf switches, this then is registered in the cabinet through the 1-7 relays or 9-15. Once these are made ( either one will do) the 8 ball relay engages and SPECIAL is lit.
Now with the animation unit swung back up, the armatures ive put back in place SHOULD drop down.
SUCCESS!!!!!
Every single screw that holds the leaf switches down is missing so it wont register in the 9-15 bank. I need to get all these back in place, but all in all, i have a potentially working machine.
So where am i going with this one?
PF will be restored
Door, legs, lockdown etc will be cleaned and then chromed or zinc plated
Header and cabinet will get full respray using my computer cut templates.
BG animation unit will be rebuilt, armatures will be CNC routed and balls attached.
Pastics?? well some are cracked, so ill look into some repro ones, but what i have is still useable.
Watch for more updates - but this machine will shine when finished and will take pride of place in the collection