Assembly came together very quickly, but I was not happy with my playfield touch up work. I decided rather than attempt to match the small areas that needed the touch up, I ended up repainting the entire section. Less effort for a better result. So the areas below (purple and light blue) have been air brushed, allowed to dry and then clearcoated. Purple is almost impossible to match, and you have to match a lighter color, but it will darken once the clear is applied. I kinda like the idea of repainting entire sections and them clearing. Much better that mylar (as I did on the Skateball). All the posts, rubbers, flipper bats, post caps and target faces are NEW. The flipper bat artwork was completed be either Wotto or Marco's cousin - I cannot recall - but let me know so I can credit
Here's that section lit. Looks much better.
The playfield is reassembled
Under the hood - The flipper kits are new, but I noticed a difference of 4 mm with the bakerlite links from hole to hole. That meant slightly more travel (or less travel) for two of the four flippers. I solved this by moving the flipper link rests 4 mm towards the bottom of the playfield. All flippers now have the EXACT travel and the EXACT strength. You can see that they can be adjusted quite easily.
At this point, the game is playable. It does have several issues which I repaired - all minor adjustments. The 6 point advance relay was rebuilt, but I didn't adjust it properly, so the 1000's score reel kept advancing after a touch down. The game would not pay high score, high point or match replays. Ended up being a switch on the credit stepper that was slightly out of alignment. Here's a picture of the game after I had it working 100% one (late) night.
More pictures under the hood - The cards were all laminated and returned to their original location within the cabinet. All relays and the score assembly was rebuilt (not the actual motor).
More of the inside of the cabinet - Tilt mechanism was nickel plated (my in house setup), new flipper switches and everything cleaned and polished. The original cash box is included with the game as well as the original 20 cent coin acceptors. EVERYTHING works - so this could easily be put on location (but that will never happen).
More inside cabinet pictures
At this point, the game has not missed a beat for a week or so. I'm waiting on Gottlieb original legbolts, and the original flipper buttons (transparent, not opaque). The spinner artwork is almost done (thanks Wotto
) and then game will be 100% complete. The legs will be polished as a last step.
The game itself is not a world beater in terms of playability, but I really wanted the original wreck (just look at the first page of this restoration) to improve my restoration skills and see if I could restore it to "Nearly In Box". I think I've achieved that. How many hours ? Got NO IDEA and I don't really care, because I just wanted to enjoy the process.
Thanks to ;
Wotto and Marco's Cousin for the artwork (flipper bats and Spinner)
Retropin (Gav) for the stencils
All parts sourced locally from RTBB, or game specific partsfrom Pinball Resource
I'm off for a couple of beers to celebrate and play this beauty !
