El Dorado

[goodolddays]

Gday all.

I've made a start on the El Dorado I picked up on the Easter long weekend .
Looks like playfield will only need a few small touchups .
No cabinet pics as yet but will post some later.

[goodolddays]

Playfield before strip down .. all plastics are warped .. only one broken (the one behind the standup target near the lower bumper

[goodolddays]

Playfield stripped .. not too bad, just dirty

[Strangeways]

Some areas have paint flaking. You need to be careful cleaning these areas. What's the plan to protect the areas ? You could use mylar or clearcoat some of the areas ?

[millsy]

Should come up nicely Dave 

[goodolddays]

Some areas have paint flaking. You need to be careful cleaning these areas. What's the plan to protect the areas ? You could use mylar or clearcoat some of the areas ?

Not sure which way to go yet Nino

[goodolddays]

Should come up nicely Dave 

Yep .. going well so far Kev 

[goodolddays]

Here is the PF now after cleaning with Nifty and a toothbrush, followed by ME and tea tree oil .
Have touched up the insert wear and a few other spots .
The purple is a hard colour to match , it looks better to the eye than the camera shows.
I really need to relevel the inserts but thinking I might just wax it and play it for a while first 

[oldskool1969]

Great game and looks like you are doing a good job.
Play it ASAP

[Strangeways]

Purple is the hardest color to match. You can see the original purple and then the natural fade around it. So what do you match ? The original or faded ? If you match the original, you have to do the whole playfield.

I'd say was the playfield, but keep an eye out on any dislodged paint or original varnish. If the playfield start to lose artwork, then something needs to be done.

[goodolddays]

Purple is the hardest color to match. You can see the original purple and then the natural fade around it. So what do you match ? The original or faded ? If you match the original, you have to do the whole playfield.

I'd say was the playfield, but keep an eye out on any dislodged paint or original varnish. If the playfield start to lose artwork, then something needs to be done.

Thanks for the advice Nino .
I will probably reattempt the touchups on the purple again, ,matching the fade.. which was what I had already attempted  .
I am just showing the stages as I go along .
Cheers
Dave

[Strangeways]

Purple is the hardest color to match. You can see the original purple and then the natural fade around it. So what do you match ? The original or faded ? If you match the original, you have to do the whole playfield.

I'd say was the playfield, but keep an eye out on any dislodged paint or original varnish. If the playfield start to lose artwork, then something needs to be done.

Thanks for the advice Nino .
I will probably reattempt the touchups on the purple again, ,matching the fade.. which was what I had already attempted  .
I am just showing the stages as I go along .
Cheers
Dave

You are doing a great job - keep up the good work. This title is VERY sought after.

[pinnies4me]

Top player, thanks for the pics, love watching restores of the classics.

[goodolddays]

Finally got back to working on this game over the past week and now have it up and running  .

This is my first time fault finding a Gottlieb EM (have mostly worked on Williams and one Bally) so now I feel a lot more confident with them than before (my main problems were the schemetic layout and the score motor).

I only got it going yesterday but have already found it to be a VERY addictive game  .
The play meter still works and is showing a tad under 105,000 plays .

Some of the faults when I initially powered it up were

Drop target lights not working .. cause :- out of adjustment score motor switch
Both 100 and 10's reels scoring when making 10 points .. cause :- 9th position switch always closed on 10's reel
Drop target banks conintually resetting .. cause :- hold switch on 'G' relay always closed
10 and 1000 point chimes not working .. cause :- out of adjustment switch on 10's relay .. haven't fixed 1000's chime yet
Score reels not resetting .. cause :- out of adjustment switch on score motor (always open)
Weak flippers .. cause :- flipper return spring too tight and EOS gap too large .. still have some fine tuning to do on a couple of these

New parts that have gone in include
New flipper kits all round
New Pop Bumpers including rod/rings
New playfield plastic set .. splurged because PBR had it available
New coil sleeves throughout
New playfield posts
New metal acorn nuts

I have stripped cleaned and rebuilt the drop target banks and all steppers

Outstanding faults to still track down are ..
10,000's score reel not working
Score reels not resetting to 0 every time a new game is started
Not lighting bonus when all targets are down
Not awarding 5000 points when it should
1000's chime not working
A couple of flippers still a bit weak
Overhaul the credit unit


Outstanding cosmetic work still to be done
Cab repaint .. someone has painted over the original artwork in the wrong colours
Back glass touchups
Repaint apron and shooter gauge and apply new decals

Here's a couple of current pics of the playfield and back glass

  

[Strangeways]

Very nice - did you touch up the purple section near the flippers ?