gottlieb dragon ss

[phil196]

hi all :)
iam new to restoring pinball but I have recently got a gottlieb dragon for my first restore project ,and before any 1 says oh they are shit ,I just want to say it was cheap and it runs ,but in real bad need of restoration , and great for a first project  ,it had been chucked in a shed that was damp for the last 3 years and had bird crap all over it ,but it is a pinball machine and like any machine it deserves to be restored ,I know its not the best machine to play but dam it looked good in its day , surprisingly it is complete and original and under all the dirt its in pretty good shape .
what iam looking for is a good back glass scan because the back glass is so badly deteriorated that the picture now is no longer visible and I don't want to go to the extent of replacing the back glass with an original unless it is good and real cheap and thought after watching some resto work that replacing it with a scaned copy would be my best option .
I have found some pics on the net but after enhancing and  resizing they loose colour and become a bit blotchy, so iam hoping some one can point me to some were I can get a good scan on send me a file of 1 ,
anything at this point would be appreciated  :)

[Boots]

Welcome to AP
Yeah Dragon might not be the best game but it has some great art on the backglass.
Not a backglass that comes up for sale much but you never know you might get lucky.

[Crashramp]

Welcome to Aussie Pinball!

Nice looking game is Dragon. You never know when a glass may come up on eBay. Good luck with the search but if you get sick of waiting another option is a reproduction glass. They're available here http://bgresto.com/?p=1174
I have a Asteroid Annie glass from a group buy that was organised here on AP and it is very nice. I think the guy who makes them can be hard to get hold f at times though. Well worth the effort when you see your glass though.

[phil196]

thanks guys , yeah the art is great ,and crashramp ,that web sight is where I snagged the pic I have from ,it was the cleanest pic I could find but unfortunately when blown up and enhanced it is a bit blotchy ,but if it comes down to it I will have to go with it :)

[4_amusement_only]

I played about 20 games on mine today actually and enjoyed it more than Stargate  
It's all in the subtleties of the design - that small gap between the spinner post and the pop to bring it up to the top rollovers when on the right flipper - the vari targets are designed just too far to the left and right to get easy full shots onto and in saying that, good for strategy when you need to bring down the bonus back one or two to relight the extra ball & or special.

Looks straightforward but it's all in the detail of the placement of targets and posts.

[Strangeways]

  and  to AP !

Awesome to hear you are restoring a Dragon. I have high res scans of the backglass that i had to send to Gav years ago. They are BIG files and you will need to stitch them together. Keep an eye on fleabay etc - it may pop up.

Keep us posted with your resto progress.

[phil196]

that would be great if you could email me the scans strageways ,I don't think I would have much problem stiching them together and its the last thing I need to get ,iam currently working in the playfield ,it dose have a bit of damage that I will touch up and it also had Mylar on it that was easily removed just by putting to spotlights over it for about 15 minutes and it peeled of as easy as winking ,didn't pull any paint what so ever ,it seems to be cleaning up well with the magic eraser and alcohol ,iam only doing a bit at a time as to not get to carried away being my first try at this ,seems patience and not rushing in is the key to all this ,I hope to post some pics of my progress soon ,cheers guys and happy pinball   

[Strangeways]

that would be great if you could email me the scans strageways ,I don't think I would have much problem stiching them together and its the last thing I need to get ,iam currently working in the playfield ,it dose have a bit of damage that I will touch up and it also had Mylar on it that was easily removed just by putting to spotlights over it for about 15 minutes and it peeled of as easy as winking ,didn't pull any paint what so ever ,it seems to be cleaning up well with the magic eraser and alcohol ,iam only doing a bit at a time as to not get to carried away being my first try at this ,seems patience and not rushing in is the key to all this ,I hope to post some pics of my progress soon ,cheers guys and happy pinball   

Send me a PM with your address for LARGE files and I'll shoot through the scans.

[Brettski]

Good luck with the Dragon restore, love system 1 machines and if you need any advice just ask.
I have a similar problem with Backglasses, I have a Cleopatra and a Charlies Angels that need new backglass.
I have placed cellophane behind them to tone down the light coming through but ultimately would like to replace them.

If you have scans of these two backglasses Nino and can share them I would really appreciate it otherwise I will go the path of photographing and Photoshopping them myself just no need to re invent the wheel if there is another way.

I have found a local printer that prints to clear vinyl but I was also thinking of approaching the guy's at Pinball Rescue as they have the equipment to do this and are also local to me.

There is quite a bit of work in this process but I have a Wacom Cintiq which should help make the final output more accurate.

It's a shame there are so many hours required to prepare these for print otherwise I would create as many as I could then have them on a website for download.

Now that I have 2 machines restored but dodgy backlasses I might have to pull my finger out and have a crack at it!

I will be following your thread with interest.

Cheers: Brettski... :)

[pinball god]

Great sentiment re set up a website to download your graphics but I remember a guy called balls of steel that had scans of plastics and got shut down. It was a great site but no more to his disgust.