Gottlieb Canada Dry Restore

[Strangeways]

I have a few EM restorations in the Q - Here's the first of many

Back to my roots for the next restore. I've been looking forward to the opportunity to restore a rare and collectible machine. This particular game originates from one of Child's early EM/SS containers. I'm restoring it for an AP member. The playfield layout was one of Gottlieb's finest, shared by "El Dorado", "Gold Strike", "Lucky Strike", "Target Alpha" and "Solar City".

Although there were over 2000 units produced, I doubt there are many in Australia.

Objective

To restore this game both cosmetically and mechanically. At this stage, the cabinet will be repaired, but not repainted. The original backglass is poor, so a NOS has been sourced, but will not be part of the thread until the end.

Condition

Cabinet - 7/10. Not too bad. Has had a repair in the front RHS corner which I will address. The artwork is in good condition, with the only problem being an attempted repaint of one of the sides with house paint !

Backglass - Will be replaced with NOS

Playfield - 8/10. Contact has been applied. Very poor condition and it will be removed. More like a patchwork quilt. I will remove it from several sections as a "test", but it is so thin, it should be easy to remove. New plastics set, targets, posts, rubbers, lane guides etc have been sourced.

Mechanical - 9/10. Really nice. No signs of lubrication or "hack" jobs - Really pleased that I should have a working game fairly quickly.

Initial Pictures

Delivered to my Garage and I start by taking 120 pictures !

















Teardown to begin shortly !

[johnwartjr]

I dig this layout. Always enjoy playing it, regardless of which title I find.

Kinda neat to see the merchandising aspect of things.

Looking forward to watching the restore, but I don't see 120 pictures?

[shansta]

Never seen one of these - cool if you drink CD as well! Better theme than "Raven" 

The mechanicals look very deja-vu (my cavie is propped up behind the screen I am using).

They didn't change much on the early SS's did they?

[Strangeways]

I dig this layout. Always enjoy playing it, regardless of which title I find.

Kinda neat to see the merchandising aspect of things.

Looking forward to watching the restore, but I don't see 120 pictures?

Teardown is always around 100 pictures - I think a full resto is close to 200 pictures. I backed up my restoration folder on my hard drive last week and it was over 4 Gig !

[Pinfan]

Looking forward to this !

[Strangeways]

Teardown

Time to take lots of pictures and remove the playfield parts. There is contact lifting, shrinking and looking just plain ugly.











Have a look at those "stretch marks"





Contact Removal


Looks like at attempt had been made to remove the contact previously - and paint has lifted - around the "Same player Shoots Again" between the flippers. Not a good sign for me.





But with some applied heat to the playfield - it comes off EASILY. Notice I'm heating the area where the contact is still applied. This warms the adheasive, and I pull the contact towards the heated area.


Contact is totally removed





It looks like this - now I have to clean up the residue with Shellite and then isocol/magic eraser





Then a quick clean with Novus 3 and then Novus 2 ;








I won't be trialling the Treasurecove Polishing kit on this machine, as there is some fine cracking in the paint, so it would be too risky. Next step os to wax the playfield.

 

[Greg]

actually saw this with the contact still on


so nice job getting that off Nino as I thought a lot of art would of been removed when you removed
the contact

[shansta]

Love the "tan lines" from the flippers! Canada Dry at the beach... 

I would like to see what you do with the chrome on the ball guides? Mine has rusted/flaked off - so I am doing your re-graining thing... Looks okay - but not as nice as the chrome?

I think you mentioned in another resto thread (Galaxy?) - that you had a different idea for these?

[MartyJ]

Looking great thus far Nino.  Wow.  You sure can pick machines.  I suspect this will clean up like new after the 60+ hours you will put into it.  I will be following this with great interest.  I'm still yet to touch an EM but who knows..This might inspire me..!

[ktm450]

Nice PF, look forward to watching your resto mate 

[Strangeways]

Love the "tan lines" from the flippers! Canada Dry at the beach... 

I would like to see what you do with the chrome on the ball guides? Mine has rusted/flaked off - so I am doing your re-graining thing... Looks okay - but not as nice as the chrome?

I think you mentioned in another resto thread (Galaxy?) - that you had a different idea for these?

What I did for the Galaxy was replace the ball deflector with a Gottlieb equivalent. Not original, but looks HEAPS better.

Looking great thus far Nino.  Wow.  You sure can pick machines.  I suspect this will clean up like new after the 60+ hours you will put into it.  I will be following this with great interest.  I'm still yet to touch an EM but who knows..This might inspire me..!

This machine was hand picked due it its brilliant artwork and rarity. I really enjoy doing the "first" of any title - and I'm 100% sure I won't see another Canada Dry !

Nice PF, look forward to watching your resto mate 

Cheers Matt - and there will be 4 - 5 rare EMs to follow. Bally Star Jet, Bally Aces High, Bally Mariner and a WMS A-Go-Go

Stay tuned if you like EM Restos !!

[Strangeways]

Now that the top of the playfield has had some work done to it, we need to move to the reverse side and start the rebuild. The two BIG Drop target assemblies need to be rebuilt, and this machine has 16 targets in total. The game "revolves" around the targets so they must be working 100% - nothing worse than a GREAT machine not having responsive targets.

Here's a picture of the underside of the playfield





Here is some of the assemblies removed and ready for cleaning and tumbling. Some of these parts will be replaced.





Drop Target Rebuild


Sorry if these pictures are too large - I'll resize if need be. Here is a "before" picture. The "action" of the DT is poor as it has been lubricated - which is "good" in the short term - but causes more problems than it is worth.





The unit has been disassembled and soaked in degreaser. Then I clean with windex and let it dry in the sun. I use scotchbrite pads (green, red then gray).





Reassembled and ready to install back into the machine





A comparison between the cleaned drop target bank and the filthy drop target bank - An hour's worth of work makes a HUGE difference.





.. and we start the large Drop Target bank..





 

[johnwartjr]

I was looking at all the parts Pinball Resource has for Canada Dry

I'm thinking I may have to get one of these.. and I don't own any EMs, and I don't 'speak' EM.

A few years ago, at Pinball Expo in Chicago, I snuck down to the play area in the middle of the night. This is really the best time to play. On Saturday night, they don't close the hall, and there are lots of games that you just can't get at to play during the day when the hall is busy.

I spent an hour playing 'El Dorado, City of Gold', the SS game with this layout. It sucked me in, and I played and played and played.

I found out the playfield was used for El Dorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, Target Alpha, Solar City and Canada Dry.

So, I wondered why I've never seen a Canada Dry? Apparently, they were all sent to France!

So, the love of the layout, combined with the rarity of the title... makes me think this is the one. Of course, now how do I find one?

[Strangeways]

I was looking at all the parts Pinball Resource has for Canada Dry

I'm thinking I may have to get one of these.. and I don't own any EMs, and I don't 'speak' EM.

A few years ago, at Pinball Expo in Chicago, I snuck down to the play area in the middle of the night. This is really the best time to play. On Saturday night, they don't close the hall, and there are lots of games that you just can't get at to play during the day when the hall is busy.

I spent an hour playing 'El Dorado, City of Gold', the SS game with this layout. It sucked me in, and I played and played and played.

I found out the playfield was used for El Dorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, Target Alpha, Solar City and Canada Dry.

So, I wondered why I've never seen a Canada Dry? Apparently, they were all sent to France!

So, the love of the layout, combined with the rarity of the title... makes me think this is the one. Of course, now how do I find one?

John - Would be great to see you pick up an EM and restore it to its former glory - especially to your standard. Canada Dry was only an export machine, and I don't know of another in Australia, but I've heard of a few in the USA. They should still be in collections in Europe.

Wait until you see what NOS parts were sourced by the owner !

[Redback]

Excellent Thread.

Thanks for sharing.
Been a while since I've drank some CD.

Red