The Aussie Pinball Arcade
Aussie Pinball Forums => Restorations => Topic started by: goodolddays on September 26, 2010, 10:29:13 PM
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Gday all.
Decided my 1st cab off my resto queue will be Gulfstream.
Chose this one cause its a Williams, so easier for me cause I've overhauled a few of these now and its a game I've never played (except for a couple of balls when I was buying it from Rob.)
The playfield on the game is in better shape than the spare that came with it, so will be fixing this playfield up.
Started stripping the PF tonight . Here's a pic of where its at so far
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All inserts are sunken so will have to be removed and releveled, plus touchups of course.
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This pic shows how much the ball shooter cover, ball arch cover and apron have faded. I intend to repaint these (and redecal) as well as paint the timber rails in , hopefully, a close match to the original pinky/purple colour.
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Gday all .
I'm still working on stripping this playfield down and have now hit the hard/hassle part.
This game has a huge reset bank mounted directly in the middle of the underside of the playfield.
I have to remove the reset bank to be able to remove the sunken inserts above it on the topside.
To do that I will have to remove every component on the underside that is attached to the reset bank.
What a bastard of a mechanical design !*!. I haven't come across an EM with a reset bank mounted in this position before.
Wish me luck !
Cheers
Dave
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WOW.. You're right that reset bank is in a bastard of a spot!! I'm faced with a similar problem with the Travel Time im currently working on, i need to remove a HUGE reset bank just to get the timber side rails off the PF to paint them!
Looking forward to seeing your progress with this restore ^^^
Cheers..
Mitch
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Good luck with your fun with Travel Time Mitch !
Just looking at my PF again , really looks like I will have to remove Everything from the underside , including every light socket .. cause of the way the wiring looms are !!! !!! !!!.. This has just added many more hours to this project . Ah well, sitting here whinging about it ain't getting the job done *.*
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Dave,
I got the inserts out of GF when i did the rebadge without taking the bank off. I taped some hose over a hairdryer and got it as near to the inserts as possible, then tapped out with a wide screwdriver on the edge of the insert.. got them all out this way1 by 1.
Good luck matching the yellow also.. its a transluscent ink thats used so most of its colour comes from the base underneath. The yellow you will have to mix with a clear to come near to matching it and have white base underneath
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That bank is bloody massive good luck mate
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Dave,
I got the inserts out of GF when i did the rebadge without taking the bank off. I taped some hose over a hairdryer and got it as near to the inserts as possible, then tapped out with a wide screwdriver on the edge of the insert.. got them all out this way1 by 1.
Good luck matching the yellow also.. its a transluscent ink thats used so most of its colour comes from the base underneath. The yellow you will have to mix with a clear to come near to matching it and have white base underneath
Gday Gav. Thanks for the tip re the inserts .. I'll think about it .. keep in mind though I am a Noob at this .. only removed inserts once before and that was scary for me .
Re the PF touchups .. kinda get what you are saying .. but again I am a Noob at that .. looks to me like I won't need to worry about the yellow , or have you seen something in my pics that I haven't noticed?
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That bank is bloody massive good luck mate
Thanks Mate .. yeah she's a big bastard eh? Lot of relay logic going on in this one. Ya just gotta love relay logic I reckon ^^^
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That bank is bloody massive good luck mate
Thanks Mate .. yeah she's a big bastard eh? Lot of relay logic going on in this one. Ya just gotta love relay logic I reckon ^^^
Yep there pretty amazing how did they work it all out back in the day pure genius
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That bank is bloody massive good luck mate
Thanks Mate .. yeah she's a big bastard eh? Lot of relay logic going on in this one. Ya just gotta love relay logic I reckon ^^^
Yep there pretty amazing how did they work it all out back in the day pure genius
Yeah , and then drawing up those schematics .. oops.. maybe the schematic was first !@#
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That bring up the life long question?
What came first the pinball or the schematic LOL
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really looking forward to seeing this resto!!!! good luck with it mate!
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Those buttons went in the post today ^^^
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Those buttons went in the post today ^^^
Thanks heaps Daniel ^^^
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Decided I am going to remove the relay bank from the underside of the playfield cause I'm not comfortable trying Gav's method of removing the inserts underneath it.
So.. the plan is to desolder the 48 wires connected to the various switches on the relay bank .. and at the moment I don't have a schematic for this game either .
Wish me luck getting those wires back in the right places @@^ :lol
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Looks like a few hours work ahead of you. %.% I have never done this but is it possible to leave the wires attached and unbolt the relay bank as a single piece. Could you suspend it via wire or rope underneath the playfield so you had enough clearance?
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Looks like a few hours work ahead of you. %.% I have never done this but is it possible to leave the wires attached and unbolt the relay bank as a single piece. Could you suspend it via wire or rope underneath the playfield so you had enough clearance?
Its an diea .. but having done this once (removing inserts) I found it much easier to have the playfield out of the game and upside down to heat them up and tap them out . Your suggestion though has made me realise the easiest way is to cut each wire, then resolder them with some heatshrink tubing over them ^^^
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Could you flip the playfield inside the cabinet then only inlolder the wire stopping you from leaning the bank to one side surely most wires are attached at one side?
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Thanks for your suggestion Daniel . In fact I have managed to get it out of the way by disconnecting wires to the solenoids and main earth wire to the relays, and unscrewing the brackets holding the wiring loom in place #*#
Now onto the tricky part of removing the inserts intact
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Gday all.
Unfortunately this project has to go on hold for a while as I have a very keen buyer for my 2nd Lady Luck so have to pull my finger out and get that machine sorted out.
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I've finally got back to working on this game.
Cab artwork has been painted over (DOH!) 3 times by the look of it as there are 3 different colours over it, top layer being black.
Rob (Ford Fairlane) had scratched off the paint on the sides to reveal the original artwork before I bought the game from him.
With careful application of paint stripper I was able to sucessfully strip the front back to reval the original artwork there and have now made stencils. Still wondering how to cut them out though .. will be a bit tricky .. I might have to make one stencil for each colour .. not sure yet.
Today I also finally finished removing the siderails .
The left rail proved very difficult and time consuming and 3 nail heads broke off in the process , of which I was only able to successfully remove the body of one nail , so will have to decide how to get the other 2 out (also have one nail body stuck in the right hand side.
Here's a few pics of the cab as it is now and one of my tracing of the side art. More updates coming as I make some more progress
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Each color will have its own stencil. VERY time consuming. I use acetate sheets from the hobby shop and a scalpel to cut the lines marked out from a long sheet of tracing paper. It is more "old school" that the current method of vinyl low tack screens, but it is still fun !
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Gday Nino.
Yes I also think this time I will need to make a stencil for each colour .
With the 2 Lady Luck repaints I've done I managed to do both colours using one stencil .
As I don't have access to a compressor/spray gun I will be using the "Millsy method" again with this one .. ie cardboard stencils, trace the artwork onto the cab, cover with contact, cut out artwork with stanley knife for colour 2, seal edges, paint with roller, rinse and repeat for colour 3.
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Another challenge with this restore will be touching up the BG .
Unfortunately all the paint along the bottom has flaked off , the rest is almost perfect !!!
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+1 for different colour stencils.
I used thin MDF and cut it out with a jigsaw.
This allows you to file the edges of the artwork outlines to get the right overlaps and create smooth lines.
Just take note of what sequence the original colours were painted so you can do the same.
If you dont have access to a compressor you can use spray cans, automotive acrylic lacquer is the easiest to use as it dries quicker and is less likely to bleed at the edges than enamel.
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A bit of progress .. got back into this today .. have finished the hard part of the repaint (and the part I hate the most) .. sanding, filling and primer .. I've got a couple of weeks holidays coming up so expect to get a lot more done then.
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Holidays $#$
You lucky bugger Dave, look forward to seeing the updates.
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Some more progress . Cab and headbox have been painted in the base colour (Dulux white on white) and I have just finished putting the artwork on them . I made cardboard stencils (which I used on the headbox) but there is too much detail on the cab (for me anyway) so decided to trace it on. to do this i went over the original tracing in pencil , then taped it on the side of the cab, went over it again, removed (which left enough of an outline) then went over the outline again in pencil . Rinse and repeat for the other side.
Here's a couple of pics .. time permitting, I will get the 2nd colour done tomorrow.
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looking good so far ^^^ I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
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I've been working on the cab repaint over the past week or so .
Here's a couple of pics of where its at now .
There are a few mistakes which need touchups and unfortunately (and annoyingly) I lost some of the white in places when I removed the contact. 1st time this has happened .. not sure why .. so again, will have to touch up those areas too (mainly on the side not shown in these pics. Original had silver speckles, but I don't like those so have left them off.
After touchups are finished I will pull it out to spray with gloss clear so will take more pics then.
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How's this for a floating earth ?? and the bare wires on the 240V winding of the stepdown .. I'd like to replace the stepdown but am at my $$ limit already for this game
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How's this for a floating earth ?? and the bare wires on the 240V winding of the stepdown .. I'd like to replace the stepdown but am at my $$ limit already for this game
Why replace the transformer?
Just solder some leads on the existing and insulate them with a few layers of heat shrink, beats the expense of a new transformer.
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How's this for a floating earth ?? and the bare wires on the 240V winding of the stepdown .. I'd like to replace the stepdown but am at my $$ limit already for this game
Why replace the transformer?
Just solder some leads on the existing and insulate them with a few layers of heat shrink, beats the expense of a new transformer.
Yeah mate .. exactly what I will be doing
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Here's how the rewire turned out
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I finally had a chance to get back to this today . Next job is to finish removing the PF inserts as all had sunken . For those following along I had started on this around August last year but hadn't made much progress.
Today I decided it would be much easier to get the inserts out if I removed the underplayfield wiring .
Have done that and got all this inserts out without breaking any . Have also started on PF touchups.
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missed a pic
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try again
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Here's a couple of pics of the playfield at this stage .
Have cleaned it with Eucalyptus oil, then a light going over with ME and Isopropyl alcohol.
Have reglued the inserts nice and level and done most of the touchups (which is mostly around the edge of the inserts).. all edges were worn.
Still a bit more touchup work to be done yet.
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Love the artwork. Coming along nicely !
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Looking great Dave, the playfield looks very tidy ^^^
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PF looks "alive" with the vivid colours - great work. ^^^
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Took a break from the PF to strip and clean the door and trim today. I polished the bolts in my drill with some wet and dry (still have one to do @.@)
Here's a before and after pic of the front of the cab
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Update .. 2 marathon sessions later over the past couple of weekends and now have the underside of the playfield all back together and most of the topside back together .
Still to do :-
Reassemble pop bumpers
Clean up and reassemble lock down bar parts
Install flipper buttons, start button , new flipper kit
Clean up and reinstall ball guide etc
A few other bits and pieces
Touchup and seal backglass (may leave that till after i've played some games)
So .. getting closer and will post some more pics soon .. this one will have taken almost a year to do
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This game is almost finished . Played my 1st games on it yesterday .
Seems like it will be a great player and may well be a keeper.
A few stats.
Purchase price $ 600. Parts and paint approx $200.
Time to restore .. in excess of 130 hours over 11 months. (did another restore in between)
Work done .
Make stencils of cab artwork , then strip and repaint cabinet and head.
Full mechanical rebuild including:-
New flipper kit
New coil sleeves all round, new coil stops as needed.
New spring kits in steppers.
New pop bumper bases, bodies, skirts, rod/ring assemblies , springs and plunger springs.
New eject hole covers. New flipper cabinet switches
Strip underside of playfield , remove and relevel all inserts and reassemble.
Cleanup of playfield , polish all posts , reglobe with 47’s and instal new rubber kit.
Still need to do backglass touchups and decide what to do about the apron and ball shooter gauge. I want to repaint them in purple , same as the top apron, but as yet Pinball Rescue don’t do decals for this era of Williams EM’s.
I repainted the rails and top apron as these colours blend much better with the playfield and backglass than the factory pink.
Thanks again to Daniel for the start button .
Here’s a few pics
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A couple more pics .. I really like the backglass on this game
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Looks great @@*
How about waterslide decals for the apron & shooter for now (Can be removed later)
Let me know & I can do some for you
Kev
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wow that came up nice ^^^
The pf looks great, sorry if i missed it elsewhere but did you have to do any touchups on it?
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Looks great @@*
How about waterslide decals for the apron & shooter for now (Can be removed later)
Let me know & I can do some for you
Kev
Gday Kev . I completely forgot about that option .
Will have a read of your older threads about it and PM you with any questions .
Cheers Dave
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wow that came up nice ^^^
The pf looks great, sorry if i missed it elsewhere but did you have to do any touchups on it?
Thanks Mitch . Yeah , had to touchup around all the inserts , mostly just the black luckily .. towards the beginning of this thread you'll see a few before pics of the playfield showing the wear around the inserts.
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That looks like a great machine brought back from the dead. Nice cab repaint - well done - you would be VERY satisfied with the result !
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mmmmmm... how good do you need the apron and shooter gauge?
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Not sure what you mean Gav ? I intend repainting them the same colour as I've done the top Apron then apply decals. I already have an Apron and ball shooter gauge , both in pretty good shape , just faded (which doesn't matter)
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Aaaah.. OK,
I have a faded one here you could have had... i was going to block out the yellow and spray a pink tinted clear over it to give the faded more depth.
mate.. had you needed it, it was yours
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Appreciate the thought Gav, Thanks ^^^
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This is a pretty cool game to play now that I have fixed all the faults .
After the 1st couple of games I realised there were problems.
Because most of the features rely on either a set of 8 relays, or another set of three (the number matrix) to trip the respective feature relay you need a lot of switches to be clean and adjusted correctly.
Examples .
To spell out S P E C I A L means 8 relays need to be tripped and an earth passes though 8 sets of switches to the relevent feature relay .. found a number of switches either out of adjustment or dirty on most of these relays, which meant game wasn't paying out for completing special etc.
To get a payout for 3 numbers in a line means all switches on a set of 9 relays need to be clean and correctly adjusted.
Game was paying out for 3 not in a line , eg 1,2, 5 or 2,5, 7 etc and not paying out from some lines of 3.
Found switches closed instead of open on 3, 7 and 8 relay as well as other dirty switches stopping payout for spotting corner numbers .
There were a number of other faults too due to out of adjustment switches
eg. ' On Bumpers' feature didn't work because
a) both target switches that light the bumpers for 100 pts instead of 10 were way out of adjustment + there was no earth for the hold cct for the on bumpers relay because of a NC switch on the eject relay was open.
Its also fun fault finding all this without a schematic .
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Finally got round to sealing and touching up the backglass .
I tried painting in 'Balls to Play" freehand . I've just used my $2 shop acrylic paint.
At least it looks complete now .
Before and after pics
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Well done! great game and im so glad you saved her!
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Now that's commitment sir. @@*
Following this tread starting Sept 2010 and now Feb 2013, I can now see, I now have no hope of giving away this hobby. $&&