You would think it would be easy to keep up to date with monthly news.  I don’t know where the Summer has gone.

We’ve been busy with a lot of custom orders and will have some restoration articles coming very soon on the following machines:

• Prototype F-14 pinball
• Full restoration of a very very bad Kiss pinball.
• Update to the Gottlieb Playball blog – did another restoration, this time with LEDs and a couple more items.  It’s certainly worth the look.
• Another WWF Royal Rumble restoration – will update the respective blog on that machine.
• Our STERN Sharkey’s Shootout is finally finished.  It had a lot of broken elements.  Before it wasn’t so much fun to play… but now that everything is working (restored and with better lighting to boot), it’s a lot of fun.
• We’ll be starting a big restoration of our Bride of Pinbot shortly.  It’s going to get the full treatment and lots of chrome.  ooooh shiny!
• Did a nice restoration on a 1986 Williams High Speed and an Arctic Thunder arcade.  We’ll just put a couple pics below.
• Had some pictures of our Stargate and Getaway restorations from earlier this summer (see below)

Misc Pictures from late summer:

Multicade (1981 resto/upgrade)

Midway 1999 Arctic Thunder

Williams 1986 High Speed

Williams 1992 High Speed II – The Getaway

Gottlieb 1995 Stargate

Go Braves!

Another classic Gottlieb “wedgehead” pinball from their arguably most sought after period.

True to Gottlieb’s single player design, the Skyjump is packed full of great features.  The great think about a single player  Gottlieb machine is that it still uses the same number of relays and logic circuits as the multi-player pinball machines.  This allowed Gottlieb to create depth and rules to the game, rather than it just be a simple target shooter.

Another signature feature of the this era of Gottlieb machines is their use of a long series of drop targets.  This machine integrates the 7 drop targets with the 7 numbered inlane and outlanes placed all over the playfield in order to achieve higher target scores.  Some of these shots can only be reached by rebounding shots off the pop-bumpers.  Additionally, The center pop-bumper advances the 10x lit drop target, so that the shot changes all the time.

Wonderful color graphics, Gottlieb’s patented chime sound and score match replays make this machine one of Gottlieb’s all time greatest hits.

Original Condition

This machine, seemingly typical of all Gottliebs from this era, needed some serious love.  If left alone, it probably would have rotted to the ground in another 10 years.  However, we put our hands on this one just in time.

The cabinet artwork was seriously worn off, however the wood was still solid.  If left alone, the wood would have started to delaminate and absorb water, eventually ending it’s life.

The front door and entrance area were completely worn away.  A previous owner had spray painted many of the metal pieces in attempt of preservation.  While admirable, all of this had to be junked, along with the original legs and shooter assembly.  Even the score card tray was worn and rusted.

The playfield was another issue.  It had the typical surface area cracking (as all pinball machines prior to clear coating have).  There was some wear down to the wood in front of the drop targets as well.  Again, not too bad.  This alone made it worth the restoration effort.

The backbox was suprisingly in good physical condition, but the glass had started to delaminate and the graphics were peeling.

Restoration

There was no choice but to do a full ground up restoration on this machine.  Everything had to be removed from the cabinet and it needed to be sanded down, repaired and repainted.  Of course, there are no available stencil kits for most Gottlieb machines, so we had to create our own for this model which is very time consuming.

The playfield was completely stripped, cleaned, buffed out and repaired.  All star posts were replaced, rubbers, bulbs replaced and original plastics flattened, cleaned and reused.

The backglass was repaired and resealed.

All mechanicals were disassembled – as this machine did not work when we purchased it.  So no point trying to trouble shoot this one.  New flippers, linkages and sleeves were replaced.  All pop bumpers were remvoed and completely rebuilt with new parts.   We also added pop-bumper mylar to protect that area from any future damage as well as used stealth mylar in the area in front of the flippers and drop targets.  That way, it can be pulled up without any residue and replaced in minutes without damage to the already delicate paintwork.

Summary:

• Cabinet and head fully stripped, sanded and repainted with our 4-stage paint process  (blocking/sealing primer, base coat, 2 color custom stencil).
• New replica Gottlieb coin door, shutes, lock plate and all hardware
• New modern pinball chrome legs
• Playfield stripped, cleaned, buffed and paint repaired.  Mylar and stealth mylar used for protection.  Multi wax stages
• New star posts
• New rubber
• New ball
• New pop-bumper assemblies
• New bulbs
• Plastics flattened and cleaned
• New flippers, linkages, contacts and solenoid sleeves
• Cleaned and aligned all switch contacts
• sanded and repainted upper and lower playfield skirts.
• Repaired backglass and re-sealed
• All circuits repaired to 100% operation

Pictures

Before

After

The “wedge head” pinball machines are part of a unique series produced by Gottlieb in the late 1960’s to mid 1970’s.  They are called this because of their unusual shaped back boxes.  As well, these machines are just a little bit smaller than machines produced by their competitors Bally and Williams in the same era.

Wedge heads are considered top prizes by electro-mechanical pinball collectors world wide because of their unique game play and cutting edge features.  Gottlieb owns the top 25 spots in the ratings of the top 300 electro-mechanical ever made… so there has to be something about these machines!

Features

The Playball from Gottlieb actually differentiates itself from other machines in this era because of the following innovative features:

• Ball is stored and ejected out to the playfield from between the flippers.
• Auto plunger – no manual operation for shooting the ball on the playfield.  Use the right flipper to actuate the plunger.
• Auto ball save – must hit 10 or 100 point shots or the ball will be saved.  The flippers wont even be activated until points are accumulated.  This is so cool for this era!
• Single player game – which means they used all the typical logic for rules.  This makes this game have depth other than just shooting the ball around hitting targets.
• Score and Runs – and awards collected for reaching certain levels of each
• Match play – match the score with a “random number” at the end of the game and receive a free credit.

Restoration

Gottlieb pinballs, well in fact most any pinball that is 40 years old, suffers from a lot of wood damage, wood rot, and rust.  Additionally, most playfields will be worn to the wood by now in many places and much of the gloss finish has been worn down over time.   However, the mechanisms usually can all be brought back to life because of their excellent build quality.

Our electro-mechanical restoration process concentrates on getting the most out of these machines, while retaining high (but recoverable) street market value.  Often, these machines are worth $1000 more than the investment when completed.

This Playball had the typical rust, paint damage and wear.  The cabinet retained good structure integrity, but the back box had been pryed apart and was damaged.

After repairing all the wood, we created our own paint stencils and stripped the machine down for the 4-stage paint process (prime/re-sand, base coat, stencil color 1, stencil color 2)

The top side of the playfield was also stripped down.  This allowed us to restore the paint and extract a high gloss luster.  Plastics were replaced along with many mechanisms.

Additionally, we replaced all the external hardware with new chrome pieces

Restoration Specifics

• Cabinet and backbox strip
• Cabinet and back box wood repair
• Cabinet and back box 4-stage paint process – hand created stencils
• New Gottlieb replica coin door, locks, strike plate, coin insert cover and plastics, start button
• New legs, bolts, feet (with more modern versions)
• lockdown repair, all mechanisms for lockdown removed, rust removed and prepared
• Playfield removal, stripped and repaired.
• Playfield detailed and protected
• New star posts
• New rubber
• New ball
• New lights
• New flippers and mechanisms
• New coil sleeves
• cleaned and adjusted ALL contacts on playfield, solenoids, wipers in backbox and cabinet
• cleaned and adjusted vari-targets, ball counter, match counter, score wheels, logic wheel
• new pop bumpers and added mylar protection
• repaired flipper skirt and added new score cards

Pictures

Before

After Cabinet

After Playfield

2nd Machine Restoration (Sept 2012)

We were awarded another restoration contract of this fine pinball machine.

This machine also had a full cabinet repaint, plus a little more work.  We also added a full LED treatment!

If you have an electro-mechanical pinball machine, and would like yours restored to this level, contact us.  Or follow the link to our restoration services.