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In Progress Gottlieb Rocky

Spandangler

Site Supporter
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
6,526
Location
Suffolk
Hey guys.

I know you love a good old shop log and it’s been years since my last one so thought I’d join in.

So..... in December the moon and the stars aligned for once and I happened to be first to respond to a for sale advert on the old Yahoo group for a project Gottlieb Rocky.

The seller was shifting two machines, the other being a Gottlieb Spirit of 76.

The seller wanted the princely sum of £50 for the Rocky and £15 for the spirit of 76.

Not one for being greedy I left the spirit of 76 for someone else.
I made sure the seller was happy with £50 as it was very cheap. He stated money wasn’t the driving factor for selling, he wanted them to be restored and go to someone willing to take on the task.
So I headed over to Cambridge only and hour down the road and threw it in the car. I also gave the seller a case of wine as a thankyou for honouring the deal because I’m sure you can imagine the messages he received behind the scenes trying to steal the deal and ruin it for others. It’s a funny old thing.... greed and jealousy.

So the machine was missing a backglass, legs and the boards were toast.
Here’s what we got

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First thing I did was to put the feelers out for the missing parts.

A very generous @Tombyrne offered me his place holder Perspex glass he had made for his. And I also managed to speak with a guy in Italy who makes repro glasses thanks to @Moonraker. So that’s a relief.

@Moonraker also hooked me up with period correct coindoor as it had a black single slot installed. There was a fair amount of modding the cab required for that door to fit so I removed all the extra wood frame which had been installed to make the hole smaller to accommodate the smaller door.

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@new forest pinball has hooked me up with the backglass trim and trim lift as well as 3 of the 4 correct size legs. @JMP happens to have one 27” leg knocking about, so that’s a full house!!!!

Those items were bugging me the most to source so I’m glad they’re in the bag as the rest is repairable.

So now it’s just a lot of cleaning. I started by stripping out the metal parts from the backbox. There’s an awful lot of tarnish and corrosion on the metal which I’ve hit with the wire brush attachment on the drill and a light polishing. It’s never gonna be perfect but it’s an improvement.

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Just realised i don’t have pics of the after but they are on the linked video.

Lock down bar was minging as was the receiver. I did the same with those to improve on them a little.

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Got a couple of after pics of that but better clips on the video which will be uploaded to YouTube eventually!!

I’ve exceeded the photo limit for this post so will call it a day.

As far as boards go. I’ve ordered a new power supply board from best of pinball, new drop targets etc..
Pascal doesn’t do an all in one board for Rocky yet so I’m going to try and repair what’s there for now (well, I say me, I mean @myPinballs)
 
Here’s a **** vid I did if anyone’s interested


Yeah so, I’ve sourced a few bits, namely the coin door, backglass, legs, trim etc..
Ive cleaned up a few bits of metal.
My next plan is to wait until it warms up a bit and turn it on with everything disconnected.
So effectively the only things connected are the two transformers.
I then intend to replace every single fuse, turn it on and see what happens. Assuming nothings gone pop, I will meter the voltages going into the three bridge rectifiers and meter the voltages coming out. Assuming everything is in spec I think we’re good to plug in the power supply board (I have a new one from best of pinball, no idea what it’s like!)
From there I can check the regulated voltages coming out of that to make sure it’s safe to plug in the cpu, driver and sound board, which would have been hopefully repaired.
That’s my plan anyway and I’m not necessarily sticking to it 😬.
I’d love to hear from those that know if they’d do anything different. I’m a novice at this especially where Gottlieb is concerned.

A couple more pics of the lockdown receiver cleaned up and the lockdown bar.

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My best of pinball order arrived in less than a week and I escaped any charges. Result. Ironic how the whole machine cost £50 and the items in this picture cost almost £200😫.
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So there we have, a manual, new drop targets, rubber kit, fuse kit, palnut remover tool, power supply board and flipper bats.
 
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A couple more vids. Some of these vids have as many as 2 views. The ad revenue is relentless. Money coming in left right and centre🤣.


 
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Good luck with this, will be good to see it restored. :) Never seen or played a Rocky.

Let me know if missing anything as have a box full of Gottlieb bits (mainly under playfield parts) plus that spare leg when you need it.
 
Ah good man. I thought @DAD had scored these. Look forward to seeing this finished.
 
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A little update. Huge thanks to @Moonraker for sending me a Gottlieb coin door.
I’ll be after some help soon no doubt as the original coin door wiring has been hacked about to accommodate the dofferent coin door and relocated start button.
It looks as though the coin chute switch wiring has been plumbed into some sort of credit board from a coin mech.
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There are also a couple of chopped wires lurking about in the loom. You can just see the red/white wire in the picture there.

Ive removed a load of metal work from the cabinet and thrown it in the tumbler.

Part 4 of the resto vids is now on YouTube. Some of these vids are in danger of hitting double figures.


Until next time........
 
Not a lot to report this week. Lost my mojo a bit with the thought of what lies ahead. I’ve cleaned the coindoor up, cleaned a few metal bits and now ready to send the boards off for repair.

I still need a system 80a owner to help me figure out the wiring from the coindoor so I can see what’s been chopped and hacked from mine, so if anyone can help I’d be eternally grateful.


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The door is fine mate, it’s all about the aesthetics on that front. I can actually buy the correct door (no frame or furniture ) on eBay which includes the correct loom. But it’s another £35 and to be fair It’ll be twice as much as I paid for the machine in coindoors 🤣🤣. Happy to chop about what I have.
Thanks Peter
 
Think at least one of my 80A's has a wired up coin door. Tell me what you need to know and I'll see if I can figure it out !
 
Ok mate, thanks very much. Basically, the wiring from the start button and coin switches to wear it plugs into the loom. I need to see the wire colours.
Mine has a new start button wired into the cabinet and I have cut wires etc.. Also has a coin mech board wired in.
My aim is to figure out which wires were originally going to the coin credit switches and wires those to the new coin door.
I appreciate that makes no sense whatsoever 🤣.

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I'm enjoying reading this and really looking forward to seeing it finished.

Had a Rocky years ago, the constantly strobing lights behind R O C K Y, the snippets of jolly music and the robotic voice are my main memories! :cool:
 
I'm enjoying reading this and really looking forward to seeing it finished.

Had a Rocky years ago, the constantly strobing lights behind R O C K Y, the snippets of jolly music and the robotic voice are my main memories! :cool:
Thanks Andy. Hopefully that will also become a memory for me🤣
 
Of course you can just look at what the wires are in the manual, the Gottlieb schematics are very good in this respect, listing the colours for each wire used...! :D
 
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