Old Chicago tidy up finished

[goodolddays]

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)

[Strangeways]

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 

[goodolddays]

Progress update .
Finished under the playfield last week and finally finished all the score reels today .
Have decided I will be repainting the cabinet 

[Strangeways]

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 

[goodolddays]

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.

[goodolddays]

Stencils are done and just finished removing the siderails  (one of my least favorite jobs)

Will continue tomorrow

[goodolddays]

Past the point of no return .. now for some sanding

[Strangeways]

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 

[Retropin]

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..

[Strangeways]

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 !

[Mr Pinbologist]

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  

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  

[Steve2010]

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.

[goodolddays]

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 ?

[Strangeways]

Repaint is coming along nicely. I've never seen an Old Chicago with the original paint unfaded.

[goodolddays]

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 )