In Progress Gottlieb "Road Race" (1969)

[MajesticPinball]

I haven't worked in an EM in about 2 years so very excited for this project. With just under 3 months until Pinfest time is running out for my little Road Race and the pressure is on. Planning to take this machine further than I ever have with my previous machines, fingers and toes crossed I can get it done in time!

I do have a backglass which is in average condition, I removed it before setting the machine up just to protect it as the paint is very fragile at the moment. Will apply triple thick to try and preserve the paint that is left

 

[James]

Could you become the second best or even best at this type of restore, it’s an elite club to get into - there’s only two right now and they know who they are...

 

[MajesticPinball]

Playfield stripped down today









Rubbers aren't too bad, should be fine to pop back on should probably get a few more years out of them


If anybody has a set of the blue flippers or knows where I can get them I would appreciate it. Or even just a left hand one to match the right hand would be a appreciated

 

[MajesticPinball]

Initial clean over with Novus 2:

 

[James]

Fourth currently.

 

[astyy]

Congrats on a great start, I really like this project and looks relatively simple art wise to practice shop techniques.

I'd have been tempted to give that pf a light (as possible) going over with ME sponge and IPA (testing a hidden area first for paint fastness). The white dots on the blue reminds me of a guy on pinside who "finger painted" (seriously!) similar with good result. If you do though obviously the pf would need some form of protection.

What's the plan with the cab art? Looks like it could clean up ok sporting a few proud battle scars. Seems a shame to sand original off if its holding, but simple art to reproduce templates and then you'll be learning Gottleib webbing!

You've probably found by now but PBR has those blue print flippers if you can't find closer.

Look forward to following your progress, good luck and thanks for logging it

 

[MajesticPinball]

Congrats on a great start, I really like this project and looks relatively simple art wise to practice shop techniques.

I'd have been tempted to give that pf a light (as possible) going over with ME sponge and IPA (testing a hidden area first for paint fastness). The white dots on the blue reminds me of a guy on pinside who "finger painted" (seriously!) similar with good result. If you do though obviously the pf would need some form of protection.

What's the plan with the cab art? Looks like it could clean up ok sporting a few proud battle scars. Seems a shame to sand original off if its holding, but simple art to reproduce templates and then you'll be learning Gottleib webbing!

You've probably found by now but PBR has those blue print flippers if you can't find closer.

Look forward to following your progress, good luck and thanks for logging it

You beat me to it, I absolutely swear by magic eraser I think it's fantastic. I did go over the playfield lightly with a magic eraser and isopropyl alcohol before blitzing it with Novus 2. Had to be very careful as the magic eraser was quite eager to eat away at the paint, I did manage to get out quite a lot of the ball swirls however.

The cabinet is a tough one, I had intended to sand it down and re-stencil it but as you say it is a shame to sand off original artwork as I do like to keep machines as original as possible. Will probably decide nearer the time!

 

[MajesticPinball]

Been busy at work today so not had a chance to get much done. Cleaned up the plastics and am really pleased with how they came out. They are slightly yellowed which is to be expected but since polishing the colours really come through now!

Before:




After:

 

[James]

Looking good, what's the deal with the webbing?

 

[MajesticPinball]

I'm really not a fan of webbed cabinets, it always reminds me of a toddler drawing on a wall. Always preferred the speckled cabinets. I guess I am potentially going to have to learn how to web though

 

[astyy]

I like the webbing but defo seems trickier to apply than the Bally "splatter" but it's the correct finish for yours. What's nerve racking is that after weeks of work doing a super nice cab re-paint you then basically "distress" it all irreversibly within a few minutes and pray it turns out well. I literally practiced on anything I found laying around in my garage, even an old dishwasher got "splattered"!

Several (of many) webbing techniques discussed here for those new to it http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#repaint

Btw, I noticed those delicate plastics in your earlier post, I can't believe they've survived intact after nearly 50 years. The machines seems lightly used, do you know any back story?

 

[MajesticPinball]

I like the webbing but defo seems trickier to apply than the Bally "splatter" but it's the correct finish for yours. What's nerve racking is that after weeks of work doing a super nice cab re-paint you then basically "distress" it all irreversibly within a few minutes and pray it turns out well. I literally practiced on anything I found laying around in my garage, even an old dishwasher got "splattered"!

Several (of many) webbing techniques discussed here for those new to it http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#repaint

Btw, I noticed those delicate plastics in your earlier post, I can't believe they've survived intact after nearly 50 years. The machines seems lightly used, do you know any back story?

Thanks for sharing that link I'll take a look at that, I'll have to see how my practise bits turn out and if it looks rubbish I'll probably leave the cab as it is

Yeah the plastics are very nice, I was happy with them too. The apron is actually what sold the game to me, besides slight rusting underneath it looks absolutely mint. I've never seen a 50year old game with an apron as nice.

I don't know much history at all on it, a gentleman contacted me last year saying he had a machine in storage that he would describe as a "barn find" and would I be interested in it as he needed it gone. I'll try and find him again and get hold of him to see if he knows any of its history

 

[Replay]

Just my opinion but that is a really nice original cabinet.

Would be a real shame to repaint it.

Can only be original once.

A few touch up's and the cabinet would be original and look superb.

 

[MajesticPinball]

@Replay The other side of the backbox is actually very nice not a mark on it at all. Ill try and get pictures of the other side of the cabinet soon.

I found a few coin door bits on eBay for surprisingly little money ages ago and thankfully (like a little horder) I snapped them up knowing the door on this game was pretty nasty. The new parts are a little rusted but will be nowhere near as difficult to clean up as the current door. I also sourced the start of a chime unit a little while back (still need to get coils, sleeves, coil brackets and chime grommets) At some point the original was removed from this game and cut the wires were cut. I briefly polished the chimes and the plungers when I got them a few months back but will polish everything properly when the time comes

 

[Jay Walker]

Note Gottlieb's placement of the model number in the top left corner of the playfield;

Gottlieb rattled through a hundred projects in the 5 to 6 years between this game and the 1975 wedge-head Spin Out, also a motor racing theme.

That 'indicator' unit seems to be a precursor of the motor-driven sweeper on Stern's Hot Hand

 

[MajesticPinball]

Time for my favourite part of any restoration.... It's time....for today's episode.... of FUSE BINGO!!!!







Congratulations to all our contestants for taking part however today's winner is a 13A household fuse in a 1A holder!!

 

[Special When Lit]

Same on my Skill Pool!

 

[MajesticPinball]

Got the relay board out of the cabinet today so I could finally get a good look at everything. For the most part everything looks complete, time to pick somewhere to start I suppose

 

[MajesticPinball]

Perhaps I was a bit quick to announce the winner of this machines edition of FUSE BINGO say hello to our new winner. 15A in a 1/2A slow-blow

 

[MajesticPinball]

Everything now off the relay board

 

[MajesticPinball]

Relay board sanded down and a lot better, couldn't get it perfect and was being very weary of the relay labels, not sure whether they are available online so looking to preserve them as much as possible

 

[MajesticPinball]

So the posts and lane guide plastics are pretty grubby, surprised the posts have lasted for 50 years as they're all in pretty decent shape. However you can't beat fresh posts so will try and source some of these older style ones. I was very surprised at the amount of posts on this little EM.




Screws and posts in for a quick 15 hour tumble, I put a few other bits in but have more media on order so will re-tumble the rest of the stuff once that arrives (including these apron retainers, not overly impressed with how they came out)

 

[MajesticPinball]

Shining up the relay brackets at the moment, there's a few blemishes that won't polish out but can't complain - it's in far better condition for 50 years old than what I probably will be!

 

[MajesticPinball]

Spent quite a lot of time on the machine this week but overall it doesn't feel like I've done very much. Relay brackets have been cleaned and polished and switches cleaned and everything reassembled (I forgot how time consuming it is to clean switches in an EM!) Very pleased with everything so far, for 50 years everything is polishing up nicely! It wasn't worth saving the old scrappy relay labels so I peel those off and used a label maker to make new ones, the size and font is actually quite similar so I'm happy with that











Now for the score motor, I have never had to touch a score motor in the past as my other 2 EM machines never had any issues associated with the motor and at that time I was too scared to touch stuff if it wasn't broken. This time I gave the score motor the works and couldn't be happier with it!

Before:




After:






I checked each switch for proper operation after reassembling and it looks as if everything is making good contact - only time will tell!

 

[MajesticPinball]

Now on to the latch relay bank. This has got to be the worst mechanism I've ever worked on, didn't want to come apart and didn't want to go back together. Had to replace a few wires in the end as the broke off in one of my rage outbursts All switches dismantled and cleaned and all relay latches and brackes hand polished, the rest went in the tumbler.









After:

 

[MajesticPinball]

Had to replace a very crispy hold relay, luckily Pinball Mania had 1 left!




After a bit more tinkering the relay board is more or less done and I'm very happy with the results! Here's a before and after:










One final thing is this machine has suffered from a few cut wires (and I'm schematic less) so as far as I can tell the bunch of 4 is for the chime unit, the 2 taped together are the main power switch and I'm not so sure about the other 2 - are these for a knocker that is missing? Any ideas would be appreciated!


As far as all this goes I would have liked to have wired in a Jones plug for them to keep the machine as original as possible but will probably end up using a molex connector for the chime unit and mysterious 2 wires

 

[astyy]

As far as all this goes I would have liked to have wired in a Jones plug

Great work, I agree Jones if possible. I got a plug and socket from pinballmania a while back, I think he has some old donor looms so worth an ask

 

[Special When Lit]

Would the 2 spare wires be for a play meter?

 

[MajesticPinball]

Would the 2 spare wires be for a play meter?

No that's already on the relay board next to the score motor

 

[MajesticPinball]

Starting to feel the pressure a little now, less than 2 months to get this machine done for Pinfest. Anyway, Backbox stripped down - will be repainting the front panel as it's quite grubby!














Started work on my first score reel, was a bit scared to take it apart at first but wasn't too bad really, contacts cleaned up nicely!