Williams Strato Flite Reconditioning

[Strangeways]

This machine is different from what we normally do, it is a resto, but not "High End". It was meant to be done inbetween High End Restorations, so it dragged on for a while. The major issue was a lot more work was required than planned - I'll address that during the course of the thread. This game was started almost 2 years ago and was finished recently - more on that later !

The game was sourced in 2008 ish from a private collection in Germany. Just to be clear, it was a genuine private collection.

Condition Report ;

Cabinet - 9/10 - For a 43 year old machine, it was really good.

Playfield - 8/10 - Planking and some wear around the saucer.

Backglass - 10/10 - Absolutely perfect

Electrical - 7/10 - Some nasty transformer hacks

Mechanical - 7/10 - Never tested the game prior to the work commencing. I never do that with EMs. Steppers were sluggish.

I lost a lot of photos of the teardown, so the photos are not consistent in size and there are "gaps" in the documented resto.

Starting point ;





Inside the cabinet






Transformer hacks !





Decided to start off rebuilding the base board - rebuild steppers and relays - attend to the Transformer issues. Each Stepper is stripped, cleaned and rebuilt with new spring kits. They start off looking like this ;







Reassembly ;




Baseboard fully overhauled ;





On to the lower cabinet. Remove the siderails with their rusty nails





Clean the inside completely.





The Door is rebuild - The "before" pictures" ;








Regrained (not polished) as per factory ;





Inside ;





Repaint some of the metal cabinet parts with Chrome paint - which looks great and is durable ;





Painted the bracket the same - looks good !





Rebuilt internal cabinet ;





So far so good. The "fun" starts soon !

[Strangeways]

I don't have the "before" pictures of the playfield or the teardown thanks to a dead hard disk.

Here are some progress pictures of the playfield. The scope was simply to clean and protect the playfield with wax. I ended up doing a small touch up near the saucer. I used a paint pen to fix the insert borders ;




All the inserts had to come out as they were either loose or dropped to far ;





The touched up area in front of the saucer ;





Completed playfield ;





So here's where the work took a turn - and the time blowout starts ! All the globe holders were rusted. Head and playfield. This was not factored into the job, but I could not just leave it.







Replacing the bonus area lamp sockets.








The targets were all stripped and claened. Re riveted back into place. Makes a huge difference !








Playfield side rails repainted and all other hardware installed ;





A close up of the detail - looks great !

[OziMoose]

Looks great. Never seen a pin with so many targets.

[Strangeways]

One of the reasons I don't restore a lot of EMs is due to the amount of unforeseen work that I don't mind doing, but the time lost always seems to spiral out of control. I ended up having to replace all the sockets and the GI wire throughout the entire machine. Not factored into the initial scope, but I cannot leave a machine with green GI braid !







All the steppers and relays are rebuilt in the headbox, and the time consuming rebuild of 20 X Scorereels ! At the end of this process, I know all the hard work is behind me !







Pop Bumpers !



 

[Strangeways]

A real find with this game was the condition of the original documentation. Everything was intact !





Playfield reassembly complete.








Lit up and being tested





Backglass is perfect !






Game complete and ready for the new owner (pickup up and been in it's new home for a couple months at least !)

Inside the cabinet and mechanical sections ;













Final outdoor shots of the finished machine !

















There were a few teething issues and the first Transformer I've ever seen died - Thanks to Daniel for his spare that he had which worked perfectly !

Definitely a FUN game and challenging as well !

[4_amusement_only]

Wow top job - might not see customer EM reco from you for a while after this one :(. Always really liked the colours and design of this game. Space exploration and air travel was advancing fast by 74' - anything seemed possible. Nice Norm Clark design as he was finishing up his design career.

[Strangeways]

Wow top job - might not see customer EM reco from you for a while after this one :(. Always really liked the colours and design of this game. Space exploration and air travel was advancing fast by 74' - anything seemed possible. Nice Norm Clark design as he was finishing up his design career.

I have a few I'm doing, the "high Hand" which is awaiting playfield stencils for the card section, a "Bow and arrow" that's had a cleared playfield, two "Old Chicago's", a "Jet Spin", a "Soccer" two "Sky Jumps" and a "Free Fall". There are others, but these are next. There's a lot of work that goes into EMs, and the return is minimal, so I spread them out.

[pinnies4me]

Very nice, love these aviation themes - nice US Concorde copy on the BG (Boeing's never got past being a mock up).

[MSchuetze]

Outstanding photos. I have been doing repairs on a Strato for a few month and I can say with confidence your internals look far better than mine.

[Maycle]

Need top left plastic, or entire plastic set for a 1974 Williams Strato-Flite. Any suggestions of where I can find this? Thanks.

[Strangeways]

Need top left plastic, or entire plastic set for a 1974 Williams Strato-Flite. Any suggestions of where I can find this? Thanks.

Try EBay USA - I found a missing sling plastic from a Bow and Arrow recently. You never know your luck !

[Top Card]

Hi Nino, beautiful work as usual. Were you tempted to try to touch up the some of the areas where the white shows through the dark pink of the main playfield colour

[Strangeways]

Hi Nino, beautiful work as usual. Were you tempted to try to touch up the some of the areas where the white shows through the dark pink of the main playfield colour

Touch Up work was outside the scope of works on this restoration. The original condition was to be left in original condition. The only section I touched up was the saucer eject, as that was worn to wood.


Not all restos are "High End". Some collectors - especially EM collectors - like the game to be as original as possible in certain areas.