Gottlieb Surf Champ Restoration

[Strangeways]

The external side of the door was complete, but it was missing most of the internal parts.





I have a heap of spares that I had re plated months ago that will be used ;





Most of the parts are installed. I need to locate the other box of smaller parts I replated ;








The plunger and assembly have been polished. The lock down bar assembly was also removed and polished.





Now to the sections that require a lot of time. The baseboard is placed on the bench and stripped. I carefully remove the original labels and laminate them. The timber baseboard is sanded back and the labels stapled back on





All the relays are checked, cleaned and gapped. Steppers are rebuilt and adjusted. Coil sleeves are always replaced and the springs checked for tension.








New power cable is wired into the main loom. Just waiting on the EMI filter which I will add to the circuit.





Before ;





Completed ;

[oldskool1969]

love it when the engine is clean! nice work 
wish I had your skill set.
I noticed you used beer foam for the cushioning of the chimes plungers, I never thought of that, those grommets are a bastard

[Strangeways]

Headbox Work

This is where a lot of time is spent rebuilding 20 scorereels and the important "Player Unit", which is the most important assembly of the game. Here are the assemblies as mounted in the head. The entire headbox board will be removed.





Stripped. Artwork is REALLY good for an original game.





Assembly parts are cleaned and tumbled.





The PLAYER UNIT - This stepper is responsible for routing the game through each player (1-4). It is simple in design, but it needs to be running perfectly for the game to work for each player.











Stripped, cleaned and the springs are tested for strength and then I re assemble.








The Match unit is also a stepper unit. The smallest stepper, but this is often seized. This is the unit after being rebuilt ;





Here is the most "time consuming" part of the restoration. Most of the issues with "fully shopped" EMs is in this area - the score reels. It is really EASY to simply clean the reels and be done with it. These assemblies look VERY clean already, but each one will be totally dis assembled, cleaned, checked and then re assembled. It takes around 25 minutes per score reel. So there's a day's work in this area.





The assebly will have some old lubricant which now can act as an adhesive ! I always soak the parts in degreaser, then water, then metho. The board needs to be cleaned with scotchbrite and then I use a drop of oil and smear it across the contacts ;





Parts are soaked then I use the air gun to remove any remnants of water.





Then I can re assemble





Here's what the parts look like from one of the units ;








In the picture below, the bottom row are rebuilt. There does not seem to be a huge difference, other than they are rebuilt, and should be "trouble free" for the next 20 years. That's around 5 hours work JUST on the bottom row. I always replace the coil sleeves and clean the contacts. I'll post pictures of the filthy contacts and also the coil sleeves and it become clear how these units can develop problems.





A "close up" of the rebuilt bottom row ;





The key to these GTB 4 Players is THIS step I've almost completed. The PLAYER UNIT and the SCORE REELS.

[oldskool1969]

So metho is the key to cleaning the contacts!
I need to do this on my other old girls. More tips required 

[4_amusement_only]

You can now understand why there isn't much money in dealers selling EM's. The hours would add up very quick and make it uneconomical

[Strangeways]

So metho is the key to cleaning the contacts!
I need to do this on my other old girls. More tips required 

I clean the contacts with a thin piece of cardboard. Most of the crap comes off easily. I then clean with Metho and a toothbrush - gently. Then compressed air (45 PSI - you don't want to damage the contacts).

You can now understand why there isn't much money in dealers selling EM's. The hours would add up very quick and make it uneconomical

EM restoration is definitely a hobbyist's domain, and that's the way I approach EM restorations. There's no way an hourly rate can be charged for this level of work. I get a LOT of enjoyment restoring EMs. But doing it on a commercial level to obtain a profit just can't happen. That's why I mainly do the EM restorations "in between" jobs, or on weekends - I treat them as the "hobby".

[elkor-alish]

I love your work Nino.

Thank you so much for taking the time to take and post all the pictures and commentary.

[Strangeways]

I love your work Nino.

Thank you so much for taking the time to take and post all the pictures and commentary.

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. I still look forward to working on EMs, and I hope that others can learn from the details I post here. It is not that hard, but it takes time and dedication. I call it "therapy" 

[dealers choice]

Your an artist in your field Nino. excellent job on all the machines ive seen you restore on ap. im about to start my first em restore and im sorry it wont be up to the standard you display.

[DSB]

Some unbelievably good work there! Love the theme as well. If fact I think I need a surf right now 

[oldskool1969]

Have 1 for me!

[Strangeways]

Here's an example of the typical dirty contacts and the damage lubricants can do to moving parts.

This is a score reel EOS switch. Now keep in mind all the score reels looked to be in excellent condition, but the underlying problems are still there. This is simply a piece of cardboard wedged inbetween the contacts, and swiped once !





Coils sleeves - the leftmost one is filthy !





The MAMMOTH job of rebuilding all the score reels is finally completed !





Moving on to the backglass. There is minor lifting that needs to be fixed before I mask out the individual score reel windows. So rather than risk removing more flakes of paint (simply by cleaning them), I'm going to seal the lower sections - but I mask out the entire score reel section. I will mask these correctly once the surrounding areas are sealed.





The sealing of the backglass will need 3 coats. this will be the first - and the reason for this quick seal is that I don't want to lose any more artwork.

[oldskool1969]

Cardboard hey? What are your thoughts on when to use the contact file?
This is looking really sparkly and some great advice for us wanting to restore and maintain these oldskool treasures.

[Steve2010]

Very thorough and excellent work Nino.  Gotta love the workings of an EM, especially the score reels.

[Strangeways]

Now that I've sealed the areas that were starting to flake, I can mask off the scorereel area and give it another 2 coats.





I'll probably go back and do some minor touch ups later on.

Now back to the playfield. The mechanisms etc under the playfield need to be rebuilt. Lamp sockets are checked and I generally remove all the parts in sections and give them a clean.





More steppers to rebuild !




















The Drop Target is rebuilt with new DT from PBR








Completed and ready to install






The next update will be the playfield preparation prior to installing mylar.The playfield is really nice, but it needs insert leveling and some minor touch ups.