Noobie Seeking General Advice

[Practicalpete]

Hello everyone, I am looking to restore an electro mechanical pinball, I have never done one before, however, I have restored quite a few 1950's jukeboxes. I am looking for advice as to what makes you can get parts for and which ones are like hens teeth. Also any tips you can suggest when looking to buy one. I would prefer to stay clear of anything with solid state electronics. Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[replicas]

to Pinball Info @Practicalpete ,
@DAD and @Biff are the Electro mechanical guru's on here, I'm sure they will chip in with some useful info soon.

 

[Replay]

Quick few thoughts.

Gottlieb have most part availability and best quality of parts.

Can buy so much here -

The Pinball Resource

www.pbresource.com

Can also get schematics from them.

Single players much easier to work on - multiplayers have extra reels and complicated player units!

New backglasses when available are expensive, so always try and find games with nice backglass and playfield as the rest can be restored.

As for titles - so many. 70's Gottlieb drop target games are very good.

Top 100 on pinside just for a starting point.

Pinside Pinball Top 100 » EM Top 100 | Pinside Top 100

The Pinside.com EM Top 100 - The best EM pinball machines, as ranked by thousands of pinball enthusiasts around the world!

pinside.com

I have done many 100's of hours on 50's Gottliebs - when they are finished and all faults sorted, no reason these games won't be running in another 50 years!

Talk about over engineered. David Gottlieb said if he had known how long they were going to last, they would have used cheaper parts but his company motto was 'there is no substitute for quality'.

Oh, and take your time buying the first - very easy to pull trigger on first game that shows up.

 

[AlanJ]

I have done 3 in the last year from a totaly newbie - it's good fun. I did a segasa whihc is all williams parts, another williams and a gottlieb. Gotlieb schematics are not freely available on the internet, the other makers generally are.

 

[carl lawrence]

Hello and welcome to Pinball info @Practicalpete ?

 

[Practicalpete]

View attachment 79651 to Pinball Info @Practicalpete ,
@DAD and @Biff are the Electro mechanical guru's on here, I'm sure they will chip in with some useful info soon.

Hello Replicas, thank you for the welcome, much appreciated, I can also see messages from other members.

 

[Practicalpete]

Quick few thoughts.

Gottlieb have most part availability and best quality of parts.

Can buy so much here -

The Pinball Resource

www.pbresource.com

Can also get schematics from them.

Single players much easier to work on - multiplayers have extra reels and complicated player units!

New backglasses when available are expensive, so always try and find games with nice backglass and playfield as the rest can be restored.

As for titles - so many. 70's Gottlieb drop target games are very good.

Top 100 on pinside just for a starting point.

Pinside Pinball Top 100 » EM Top 100 | Pinside Top 100

The Pinside.com EM Top 100 - The best EM pinball machines, as ranked by thousands of pinball enthusiasts around the world!

pinside.com

I have done many 100's of hours on 50's Gottliebs - when they are finished and all faults sorted, no reason these games won't be running in another 50 years!

Talk about over engineered. David Gottlieb said if he had known how long they were going to last, they would have used cheaper parts but his company motto was 'there is no substitute for quality'.

Oh, and take your time buying the first - very easy to pull trigger on first game that shows up.

Hello Replay, many thanks for the reply and information, it's a great help. and very much appreciated. In the jukebox restoration world you get to know the importers and their websites and contacts, are there importers of pinballs who have websites or contact details please?

 

[Practicalpete]

I have done 3 in the last year from a totaly newbie - it's good fun. I did a segasa whihc is all williams parts, another williams and a gottlieb. Gotlieb schematics are not freely available on the internet, the other makers generally are.

Hello AlanJ, thank you for replying to my question, much appreciated.

 

[Practicalpete]

Hello and welcome to Pinball info @Practicalpete ?

Hello Carl, many thanks for the welcome.

 

[Replay]

Hello Replay, many thanks for the reply and information, it's a great help. and very much appreciated. In the jukebox restoration world you get to know the importers and their websites and contacts, are there importers of pinballs who have websites or contact details please?

Don't think anyone imports em's to the UK as demand is very low.
Best bet is here and ebay - plenty of em's.
If you find a game you like, just ask questions here, if you aren't sure about value/condition etc.
My 50's Gottlieb woodrails came from USA but I had to arrange everything myself.
From memory there is a guy called Graham who lives not far from you and he is super keen and has done a lot of restorations.
Lives in Saltburn - has 20 -30 em's.

 

[Practicalpete]

Don't think anyone imports em's to the UK as demand is very low.
Best bet is here and ebay - plenty of em's.
If you find a game you like, just ask questions here, if you aren't sure about value/condition etc.
My 50's Gottlieb woodrails came from USA but I had to arrange everything myself.
From memory there is a guy called Graham who lives not far from you and he is super keen and has done a lot of restorations.
Lives in Saltburn - has 20 -30 em's.

Hello Replay, I'll try and find Graham, Saltburn is literally 2 miles from me. Thank you.

 

[Graham Lowe]

Don't think anyone imports em's to the UK as demand is very low.
Best bet is here and ebay - plenty of em's.
If you find a game you like, just ask questions here, if you aren't sure about value/condition etc.
My 50's Gottlieb woodrails came from USA but I had to arrange everything myself.
From memory there is a guy called Graham who lives not far from you and he is super keen and has done a lot of restorations.
Lives in Saltburn - has 20 -30 em's.

Good memory there replay! Peter and I have made contact, will be swapping info shortly I'm sure, since we also have a 50s Seeburg that I could probably use some advice on re lubrication, general servicing etc. Cheers, Graham

 

[Practicalpete]

View attachment 79651 to Pinball Info @Practicalpete ,
@DAD and @Biff are the Electro mechanical guru's on here, I'm sure they will chip in with some useful info soon.

Hello Replicas, thank you for the welcome message, much appreciated.

 

[DAD]

Hi Pete. Welcome to the forum. I've been collecting and restoring Em games for 40 years and am happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

The advice that's already been given above is good. Generally most mechanical issues can be sorted, so it's the artwork side that lets many games down. In the rare cases repro backglasses and plastics are produced you can quickly end up spending more than the value of the game. Also there seems to be more and more older games with woodworm so that's something to watch out for.

Gottlieb games are generally considered the most desirable, but I have a soft spot for Williams and think they produced some really innovative games. I'm not a fan of Bally EM games but many think they made some of the best (eg Fireball, Wizard, Captain Fantastic) so it's horses for courses. Even the more obscure makes are largely repairable mechanically, and as has already been said, once fixed up, the most games are good for another 50 years service.

I'm always happy to show people my games so if you want a visit to the Huddersfield area let me know.

David

Sent from my SM-G900FD using Tapatalk

 

[Practicalpete]

Hi Pete. Welcome to the forum. I've been collecting and restoring Em games for 40 years and am happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

The advice that's already been given above is good. Generally most mechanical issues can be sorted, so it's the artwork side that lets many games down. In the rare cases repro backglasses and plastics are produced you can quickly end up spending more than the value of the game. Also there seems to be more and more older games with woodworm so that's something to watch out for.

Gottlieb games are generally considered the most desirable, but I have a soft spot for Williams and think they produced some really innovative games. I'm not a fan of Bally EM games but many think they made some of the best (eg Fireball, Wizard, Captain Fantastic) so it's horses for courses. Even the more obscure makes are largely repairable mechanically, and as has already been said, once fixed up, the most games are good for another 50 years service.

I'm always happy to show people my games so if you want a visit to the Huddersfield area let me know.

David

Sent from my SM-G900FD using Tapatalk

Hello Dad, thank you for your welcome message and also advice regarding EM pinballs, you have given me some really good tips. It sounds very much like the jukebox world, where it is very easy to spend more than the machine is worth. Thanks also for the invite to see and chat about pinballs. I know the Huddersfield area quite well as my wife originates from there, her family ran "The Albert" pub in town for many years.

 

[astyy]

It sounds very much like the jukebox world, where it is very easy to spend more than the machine is worth.

Welcome @Practicalpete. I'm sure the above is 100% true. Personally I enjoy spending my pin money and time bringing something back to life, love and back into circulation hopefully resulting in around what it's worth +/- as I've had fun restoring it. I bought my first EM project/barn find a couple of years ago <£100 on Ebay, I eyed it with a view to a) did it appear complete (didn't know what I was looking at then but looking for obvious gaps!) and b) were hard to replace "art" parts serviceable (plastics, playfield, backglass). It was more trashed than I hoped but I wanted a "space" theme. Below is the finished result when I took it to last Summers Pinfest (paint still wet almost!).

Enjoy the hobby

 

[Practicalpete]

Welcome @Practicalpete. I'm sure the above is 100% true. Personally I enjoy spending my pin money and time bringing something back to life, love and back into circulation hopefully resulting in around what it's worth +/- as I've had fun restoring it. I bought my first EM project/barn find a couple of years ago <£100 on Ebay, I eyed it with a view to a) did it appear complete (didn't know what I was looking at then but looking for obvious gaps!) and b) were hard to replace "art" parts serviceable (plastics, playfield, backglass). It was more trashed than I hoped but I wanted a "space" theme. Below is the finished result when I took it to last Summers Pinfest (paint still wet almost!).

Enjoy the hobby

View attachment 79743View attachment 79744

Hello astyy, thank you for your comments and helpful advice regarding pinball restoration, it sounds as if you certainly jumped in the deep end with your first pinball, looks to be a great restoration from the photo.

 

[astyy]

Hello astyy, thank you for your comments and helpful advice regarding pinball restoration, it sounds as if you certainly jumped in the deep end with your first pinball, looks to be a great restoration from the photo.

Thank you sir. To be fair it was my first EM but 4th pinball

 

[Practicalpete]

Hi Pete. Welcome to the forum. I've been collecting and restoring Em games for 40 years and am happy to try and answer any questions you may have.

The advice that's already been given above is good. Generally most mechanical issues can be sorted, so it's the artwork side that lets many games down. In the rare cases repro backglasses and plastics are produced you can quickly end up spending more than the value of the game. Also there seems to be more and more older games with woodworm so that's something to watch out for.

Gottlieb games are generally considered the most desirable, but I have a soft spot for Williams and think they produced some really innovative games. I'm not a fan of Bally EM games but many think they made some of the best (eg Fireball, Wizard, Captain Fantastic) so it's horses for courses. Even the more obscure makes are largely repairable mechanically, and as has already been said, once fixed up, the most games are good for another 50 years service.

I'm always happy to show people my games so if you want a visit to the Huddersfield area let me know.

David

Sent from my SM-G900FD using Tapatalk

Hello DAD, since joining this forum I have made contact with another member called Replay. I have visited him and seen his restoration work and pinball collection which is first class. I have been looking for an EM to restore armed with your tips and info along with Replays, unfortunately I haven't found anything as yet. I wondered if you possibly had an EM that requires restoring you may consider parting with, or know of any others? Regards. Peter.

 

[Practicalpete]

Hello DAD, since joining this forum I have made contact with another member called Replay. I have visited him and seen his restoration work and pinball collection which is first class. I have been looking for an EM to restore armed with your tips and info along with Replays, unfortunately I haven't found anything as yet. I wondered if you possibly had an EM that requires restoring you may consider parting with, or know of any others? Regards. Peter.

Hello again DAD, apologies, it wasn't Replay who I have made contact with it is Graham Lowe. Wish people would use their proper names instead these usernames, it's quite confusing.

 

[DAD]

Hi Pete
yes I do - I have a 1973 Gottlieb Jumping Jack

This is a very popular classic Gottlieb drop target game, and unusually there are many reproduction parts for it - the drop targets, plastics sets and backglass have all been remade
There is a restoration blog on one here: http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/jjpf.htm

My game is complete (I do have the plastic which is missing in the photo, although it is cracked)
It isn't currently working but I can see no reason why it can't be brought back to working order.
I'm only selling it because I also have the four player version (there's a story here but I won't bore you with it now!).

I've attached a couple of quick photos of it - I can take more if you are interested, or better just come and see it
I'm looking for £800, to include a brand new Shay Arcades backglass for it which I imported from the US at a cost of around £400 a few years ago
Alternatively I'd sell it for £600 without the backglass.

If you think you might be interested please reply by private message (conversation)

David

 

[DAD]

ps to last message:
the backglass in the picture is not the repro one - it's the original
I do have the Jumping Jacks instruction card, it has just been temporarily swapped with the one on my Jack in the Box
I also have repro schematic diagram and instruction book for the game

 

[Practicalpete]

ps to last message:
the backglass in the picture is not the repro one - it's the original
I do have the Jumping Jacks instruction card, it has just been temporarily swapped with the one on my Jack in the Box
I also have repro schematic diagram and instruction book for the game

Hello DAD, can't find private messaging, is it in start conversation?

 

[DAD]

Hi Peter,
I've replied directly to your conversation.
Message me here if you can't locate my reply
David

Sent from my SM-G900FD using Tapatalk

 

[Biff]

Sorry missed the name drop. I guess by now you are pfobznly sorted . Agree with everything so far. Start with a single player. Look and ask about wood worm. If it had signs it’s a 3 year project to get rid of in my opinion. Try and for for common names from 60s or 89s Williams, Zacaria. These two use same parts and schematics are in love as there are no copywriter issues. Before you buy ask us for advice and get the vendor to send loads of pics. Check to make sure you have a chime box, bell, Sound board, top box, back glass and legs - most commonly missing parts. Good to compare with pics online esoecusly got missing parts. Ask about history, ask about history. May give clues as to hacks it could have and it is great record it and pass on to the next person. If you want mint games EMs are perhaps not for you unless you have skills, money and tune in large buckets . Get down to one of the shows too and say hi.