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Newbie - I have just inherited a Zaccaria Aerobatics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Goldfish120
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Goldfish120

All, I have just inherited a Zaccaria Aerobatics and found your forum through Ronsplooter restore videos on YouTube. I want to restore it, everything is working, but my Father in Law has used vacuum cleaner belt to replace the rubbers. Any advice would be appreciated. Like where can I get a set of bands for it and is it worth getting a "professional" to service it, I would hate to damage it. Look forward to hearing from you.
 
There's a rubber kit for that Pin on eBay but it's shipping all the way from the USA. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1977-Zaccaria-Aerobatics-Pinball-Machine-Rubber-Ring-Kit-/140975114363

To be honest most rubbers are standard sizes so any of the UK suppliers should be able to make you a kit up - i'd suggest starting by contacting Phil at Pinball Heaven or Andy at Pinballmania. Both of them should be able to assist you.

Do you have a manual for the machine? They often provide listings which detail what rubbers are needed where - a word of caution though - don't presume it's entirely accurate.

Oh, and finally - welcome to the forum. You'll find lots of people on here who can offer you great advice. :-)
 
Many thanks for this, sadly we have no manual so that may be something I should try to get a copy of if someone has one. Is Pinball Mania based in Rugby? That would be amazingly convenient for me!
 
Yup, I believe Andy is in Rugby or around that way.

Link to the website just in case you've not googled it up already: http://www.pinballmania.co.uk/

Don't rely on the part lists online as Andy has more in stock than that - might be worth dropping him a mail and see if he can hook you up.
 
Welcome to the Forum. John B loves his Zaccaria games and is near Grantham - perhaps not too far from you? Drop him a message on here @Biff I'm sure he'd be more than happy to give you some advice.
 
welcome to the forum, friend. you have stumbled upon a source of much enjoyment (this forum and the hobby in general) so stick around :wave:
 
Welcome to the forum. That's a rare and cool looking machine you have there. I really like the red arrows artwork, very British! (I just looked it up on www.ipdb.org, essentially a encyclopedia of every pin ever made.) It often has manuals for download but sadly not in your case due to the rarity of your table.

Just so you know there's a show on this weekend (8bitflip) so it may be a but quieter here than usual. Short notice but if you get a chance I'd recommend taking a look, there's no better way to introduce yourself to the hobby than an NLP organised event!
 
through Ronsplooter restore videos on YouTube
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Welcome to the forum Goldfish, nice to know my video's have been useful :) Definitely give Andy @pinballmania a shout re: rubbers for Aerobatics. As well as the videos I also did a shop log on this forum that may help :

http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/aerobatics.5215/

If the game is working then you're most of the way there already. EM games generally break when they don't get played for long periods of time so if it's working now and you play it then it should keep itself going and be pretty bulletproof. If I was you then other than giving it a good clean and replacing the rubbers I don't think I'd do too much more. To give it a proper clean up you could strip the top side of the playfield of al the metal and plastic parts and polish and clean those up as well. If you do decide to do this then a word of caution....Zacc used crap quality steel on there games, especially the metal posts that hold the red plastic posts into the playfield. It's very easy to shear these off when trying to remove them especially if they have corroded. Dealing with getting sheared off posts out of the playfield is a nightmare (I had to drill one out on mine) so you might be best just doing the below:
  • Take off all the plastics (should be held on with little rubber nuts that just pull off)
  • Take off all the old rubbers (or hoover belt in your case :D)
  • Give the playfield a good clean with Novus 2 (you can get this from Andy)
  • Wax it with some carnuba wax to protect it
  • Clean/polish all of the plastics with the Novus 2 as well
  • Put your new rubbers on
  • Put your newly cleaned plastics on
I'd also suggest buying new white rubber nuts from Andy as well for when you put the plastics back on :thumbs:

Re: manuals, Zacc's of this age generally don't have a manual like more modern pinball machines do. What they do have is a schematic that ca be used to fault find if things go wrong with the mechanicals. The schematic for Aerobatics can be found here:

http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/em/index.html

Hopefully that gets you started :thumbs:
 
Does this have a speaker and sounds ? It buzzes and clicks but it does not make any other noises ;)
 
Your game looks to be in great shape. With a bit of a clean and some new rubbers it should come up lovely :thumbs:

Does this have a speaker and sounds ? It buzzes and clicks but it does not make any other noises
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It should make a beeping noise when you hit most shots. In the back of the head box on the left hand side there should be a very old looking circuit board with a small speaker on it that makes the beeping. It does go missing out of a lot of these games though :(
 
Also the finish of the paintwork looks sort of ragged. Was this the original finish? Should I wax the outside?
 
Also the finish of the paintwork looks sort of ragged. Was this the original finish? Should I wax the outside?
Click to expand...

That's called webbing and is the original finish of the cabinet. No need to wax the outside, just give it a clean and polish with some Pledge :thumbs:
 
i really should check this more often - what they said :-) it is a great game. Get your schematic from IDP or from the zac website mentioned earlier, print it off over 4 or 5 pages and cello tape together. If you get stuck i think i have one i can email you. Do check this out too: http://www.pinrepair.com/em/.

I have an Aerobatic (the one form the vid) and a few other zacs. None set up just yet though as in the middle of renovating house. Moved in a year to the day almost!

For the EM pinball machine is the easist of them all to sort out. You don't need a scope, logic probe or any degrees in electronic. Just a basic understanding of electricary, a fair bit of common sense, time and an Interweb where yo can ask google. Plenty of people to ask questions to also helps :-)

JB
 
Many thanks for all the advice. Had a big breakthrough, which is a bit of a cheat. Andy from PinBall Mania lives a couple of miles down the road so I paid for a service, took 2 hours. Seeing a pro at work has now given me confidence :D. We also found the sound card problem, the volume control was snapped off and thrown in the machine. We found lights I did not know existed and these work now. Just need to get the card out and solder on a new volume control on. Everything is running great now and looks fantastic I have also given it a bit of a clean after PinBall Mania's advice. Problem is I probably need to get an other one as I can't get my wife off the machine or get a multiplayer unit to force her to share. I love the aerobatic "English" red arrows design.
 
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