Gottlieb Rocky Restore
BackgroundAnother machine destined for Mark's Collection. This is his "Holy Grail" pinball machine, so it will get the "full treatment". Rocky is a rare and very sought after System80, probably the most sought after Gottlieb SS machine built. I think Mark spent about as much time looking for a Rocky as I did, when I was looking for a Fathom.
ConditionBackglass - 4/10 - Poor. Will be replaced at a later date
Cabinet - 8/10 - I didn't see the cab when it was purchased - But Mark's in house team did the touch ups & repairs
Playfield - 8/10 - Day 1 Mylar on the bulk of the playfield. One wear area around the ball kicker at the top of the playfield.
Electronics - 6/10 - Some real ugly "route" repairs done by a bushman mechanic....Ground mods need to be done
ObjectiveTo restore the game - not recondition. The cabinet will has already been done (externally), the electrical section will be rebuilt, electronics "bullet-proofed" and the playfield will be rebuilt with replacement parts. Hopefully, with the impending purchase of a NOS Backglass it will be a solid 9/10 all round.
Starting pointThe game was delivered after the touch ups were completed. The front door is removed - no point in re installing it as it will be cleaned and rebuilt. Here's some pictures before I started;
As mentioned, the door is removed so the front section could be touched up.
Playfield "Before" shots - There is one broken plastic that resides above the Top Drop Targets
The wear spot is at the very top of the playfield, just above the "when lit" writing.
New targets will be installed to replace the worn out set
Artwork has been redone in sections and looks very good.
"Mix and match" the flipper coils ! All are worn and need rebuild kits. EOS are from a different game on one of the flippers.
Playfield Stripped - Most of the easy to remove parts have been removed. The factory mylar is in great condition, just very dirty. Should come up really nice.
FILTHY - Thats all I can say.. Years of dirt and filth have accumulated. Needs a good clean.
Power Board - Will be removed and cleaned. There have been a few dodgy repairs here. There should be FOUR Bridge Rectifiers, not three. Two sets of wires have been connected to one BR !! I'm waiting on the Schematic from PBR to work out what's going on here. There's also a different capacitor mounted, so I need to check that out as well
The playfield is stripped topside and underside. All the mechanisms will be rebuilt, playfield parts polished and cleaned etc.Once the manual arrives I'll place the first order. Here's a list of what I need to do;
* Rebuild 5 X Flippers - Flipper Rebuild kits to be installed
* Rebuild 3 x Target assemblies - New Target set
* Rebuild Bumpers - New bumper bodies & Caps
* Rebuild every mechanism and install coil sleeves. Incorrect coils will be replaced
* New transparent posts
* New Rubbers, globes etc
* New flipper bats, lane guides, post caps...
Cabinet work will involve a total stripdown, check for breaks in the grounding, clean and polish metal parts and check the power board. At the moment the body is stripped and components are ready to reinstall - except the power board will need another BR and Capacitor.
The upper and lower playfield have been stripped and placed in boxes for now. I'll sort through what needs to be retained, and what needs to be replaced.
CabinetEverything is removed. Earth straps included. The cabinet is returned to an empty shell. First, all the parts that have been removed are washed and then polished. The screws are 1/4 inch hex heads and they will not
be cleaned in a tumbler. So each one is cleaned with the wire wheel mounted on my bench grinder.
Then the inside of the cab is washed several times. After drying, the cleaned parts are returned back into the cabinet.
The powerboard was disassembled and everything is washed, including the wiring and the cable guides. The transformer and wires are all checked, as well as the connectors. Then it is re installed. It will need a new BR and Capacitor.
The ground strap from the power supply is bolted on the earth point from the mains filter, and the main loom is fitted.
Knocker assembly and fuse "box" - again, cleaned. checked and reinstalled.
Lock down bar assembly - Free of rust and crap.. Nice and clean. A drop of machine oil in the mechanism and it is installed.
Power supply board installed and it looks alot better than before !
and finally - the bell ! Polished and installed ;
Front DoorThe Door was filthy and it had a few scratches in the front skin and the inside of the door was the usual, ugly dirty affair.. I stripped all the parts off the door, washed and cleaned with scotchbrite on the rusted
and corroded areas. I polished some of the parts with the buffer. I tried a new technique in cleaning the skin;
- Wash with windex and an old paintbrush, with the end trimmed so that the brush is "harder"
- Wash again with windex and hit the stubborn dirt with a toothbrush - again, trimmed
- Let it dry
- With a different toothbrush, scrub with Brasso and leave it dry for 5 minutes. Polish with a rag. Will look great
- Here's a trick - scrub the skin GENTLY, in a circular motion, with a small square of green scotchbrite.. WOW.. All those years of scratched and marks - gone forever. Buff the doorskin and here are the results;
HEADThe head was removed and EVERYTHING stripped out of it. Earth straps were checked and the hardware was washed and or buffed. Its really clean.. (I hate rust, corrosion and dirt)
Here's a picture of the head and the lower cabinet..
Finally, the door and tilt mechanism from inside the machine. The tilt mechanism was rebuilt. All I have to do is double check the ground points and tighten everything up.
Like the FLASH restore - This game is now waiting for parts. Heaps of them ! I deliberately waited until I started this game so I could double check the Electronics and order parts for both games..
Three months later......
The parts arrived from PBR. Mainly parts specific for Rocky - Pop Bumper Caps, Targets etc... and
Three flipper kits for the Five flippers that have to be rebuilt.
Under the playfieldWhat a mess. This machine was kept "on route" by squeezing oil into the coil sleeves and onto the plungers of EVERY coil. Coils were in the wrong place, coil stops were broken... It had A LOT of problems. Yet it
was still playable..
All moving parts were removed. The underside of the playfield is basically bare with the exception of the wiring loom and light sockets. The FILTH was stubborn, the oil was still wet inside the coil sleeves, and coil wires were clinging by a thread of wire. All the base plates were stripped and washed in hot water and nifti. Plungers soaked in Isocol all night, coils were washed and sleeves replaced.. Nearly everything was thrown into the tumbler in disgust
Target assemblies were stripped and rebuilt with new Targets.
After everything was cleaned, the bumpers were rebuilt, slings rebuilt and the flippers had NEW kits installed with the correct coils. Switch contacts were cleaned and gapped and the underside is almost done...
Playfield - TopsideFactory /Mylar was left intact and came up well after some attention with Novus 1 and 2. The edges of the mylar were tidied up with "Goof Off". The playfield metal was installed after spending a day in the tumber. There was some wear around the bumpers which I tidied up with a sharpie. It is not seen when the Bumper bodies are in lace and I've used some non adhesive mylar disks so it should be fine..
So as of today, the playfield is almost complete. All that is left is a few rubbers and the plastics. All the posts are new and they have made a big difference. The Apron is done and just needs to be installed.
