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Complete Williams Expo 1969

Ashbo

Site Supporter
Joined
Apr 9, 2021
Messages
1,773
Location
Lincolnshire
Alias
Ash
This will be my first ever shop log, first EM machine owned and first attempt to bring a pin back to life.

This Williams Expo spent 20 years in a dry and water tight barn and apparently worked 5 years ago when powered on.

She is very dirty and mouldy, but does look mostly in tact.

The back glass is peeling very badly, the back left leg is bent badly and I did remove what looked like an attempted sparrows nest from the player 2 score reels.

Underneath the mould, the playfield looks ok for a 52 year old, but I expect to get my paint brushes out to delicately restore the artwork here.

I will be helped by my daughters and my father so hopefully a real family effort. It will be a few weeks before we get started as we have a virtual pin project to complete first but we will update this thread with our progress.
 

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If no joy with bgresto, There is a guy in holland who can make backglasses, as long as he can find an original to scan.
 
If no joy with bgresto, There is a guy in holland who can make backglasses, as long as he can find an original to scan.
I could try scanning and Photoshop mine if there is someone with the kit to reproduce. Holland is likely less risky than the states!! :)
 
This will be my first ever shop log, first EM machine owned and first attempt to bring a pin back to life.

This Williams Expo spent 20 years in a dry and water tight barn and apparently worked 5 years ago when powered on.

She is very dirty and mouldy, but does look mostly in tact.

The back glass is peeling very badly, the back left leg is bent badly and I did remove what looked like an attempted sparrows nest from the player 2 score reels.

Underneath the mould, the playfield looks ok for a 52 year old, but I expect to get my paint brushes out to delicately restore the artwork here.

I will be helped by my daughters and my father so hopefully a real family effort. It will be a few weeks before we get started as we have a virtual pin project to complete first but we will update this thread with our progress.
I've had a number of games that start out looking like that or worse and actually come up pretty well.
Be careful when removing the screws from the playfield as they will likely have rusted inside the wood and have a tendency to snap off as they are removed - the trick I was told is to tighten them a little before unscrewing them
Check the game for woodworm as this is becoming increasingly common in EM games I find and can destroy cabinets if left untreated - if it is affected strip everything out and soak the cabinet with woodworm killer
The schematic is available for download on IPDB and will be your friend in troubleshooting
I'm just finishing working on a Wms Jive Time which is a similar era has the same spinner unit as Expo
Good luck with the project - keep us informed on your progress
 
I've had a number of games that start out looking like that or worse and actually come up pretty well.
Be careful when removing the screws from the playfield as they will likely have rusted inside the wood and have a tendency to snap off as they are removed - the trick I was told is to tighten them a little before unscrewing them
Check the game for woodworm as this is becoming increasingly common in EM games I find and can destroy cabinets if left untreated - if it is affected strip everything out and soak the cabinet with woodworm killer
The schematic is available for download on IPDB and will be your friend in troubleshooting
I'm just finishing working on a Wms Jive Time which is a similar era has the same spinner unit as Expo
Good luck with the project - keep us informed on your progress
Argh, woodworm! Thank goodness it's at my mother in law's at the moment!! :) Once I start stripping back I'll make sure to look very carefully.

So much to take in, soooooo excited to start. Really pleased with myself for not plugging her in yet. Need to resist the temptation, it will not end happily if I do :)
 
That back glass is a good candidate for a decent repair as the paint lifted areas are opaque and mainly flat blocks of a basic colour to the front - these are the easiest to touch up.

I tested mixing Acryics on the front of the glass, let dry for true colour then paint on back and seal over with silver acrylic. It's very forgiving process as you can even scrape it off the back of the glass and redo if necessary. I followed techniques from http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#touch

Good luck it should come up nice and save a repro if you're not doing a minter job :thumbs:

1623822761191.png
 
That back glass is a good candidate for a decent repair as the paint lifted areas are opaque and mainly flat blocks of a basic colour to the front - these are the easiest to touch up.

I tested mixing Acryics on the front of the glass, let dry for true colour then paint on back and seal over with silver acrylic. It's very forgiving process as you can even scrape it off the back of the glass and redo if necessary. I followed techniques from http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#touch

Good luck it should come up nice and save a repro if you're not doing a minter job :thumbs:

View attachment 140248
@astyy thanks so much, music to my ears!! I've been playing the repair over and over in my head, but the problem has been what do I do when the shade test is right, of course, test on the front! Genius sir!
 
Making the most of the weather so taking some toil to strip this baby down. Chloe decided to help too. Many hands make light work of cleaning off cr@p and spiders. No sign of woodworm yet...fingers crossed.

Two coin door bolt shattered under strain and a rounded (before I got to it) screw on the lock down bar receiver.

Also finding some wires that are broken and taking a note in my journal to come back to them later on.

By the way, there is no connection to earth...wtf?!?! Is that normal for 1969???
 

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yep perfectly normal to not have any earth, looks to be all there and not too much trouble to clean that up and get it working.
 
The game looks OK inside :)

You can clean those score reel plastic drums with toothpaste and water - just do a small test first to make sure someone's spray hasn't lifted the decals - afterwards a black Sharpie is your friend to touch in the missing bits
 

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looks like it - where does the wire go to?

Edit: Just checked my Jive Time - and that ground terminal is linked to the transformer foot
Just packed up as have to get back to the day job, will check later on today. Mental note, have a scan at the schematic on ipdb Ash and track the wires from the transformer.

More broken connections found and lots of historic damp pooling on the base around the power switch (!!!!) and it seems the left hand side has faired worse than the right after 20 years against the external wall of the barn.

I was pondering keeping the original paintwork, but having seen "Gary" has carved his name beautifully (not) in a couple of places, we may sand off and start again.
 

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looks like it - where does the wire go to?

Edit: Just checked my Jive Time - and that ground terminal is linked to the transformer foot
Correct, ground on the transformer goes to ground on the pin shown. Sorted!!
 

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Really glad you are doing this shop,log. I saw the machine on Marketplace but it had gone by the time they replied. Did you have to take the two bandits as well,or did they agree to split? You’ll all have great fun. Christian Marche artwork is fabulous. Best of luck.
 
Really glad you are doing this shop,log. I saw the machine on Marketplace but it had gone by the time they replied. Did you have to take the two bandits as well,or did they agree to split? You’ll all have great fun. Christian Marche artwork is fabulous. Best of luck.
Hiya @Jb3d. Yeah I saw this pop up on Facebook and immediately dropped them a message. I've been replying to every EM add for months and finally this time I got a response.

My first question was about splitting the lot which they were very happy to do then we negotiated the price of the pinball. They thought I was a bit mad as the bandits were clean and working and the pin was untouched, filthy and in the back corner of the barn. Perhaps they were right?!?

They then went quiet for a couple of days, I think they were bombarded by lots of messages and I got really nervous it had gone, but thankfully they got back to me in time for me to book a rental van.

What a lovely couple, really welcoming after a 185 mile trip and offered us a cup of tea and helped us get the machine out of the barn and into the van.

I was very nervous on the way home, I couldn't get the back box bolts out so ended up using a couple of ratchet straps fixing it to the bulkhead of the van. Every roundabout there was a bump or a bang, but by the time we got to my mother in law's garage, the bolts were loose ;)

Loving doing the shop log, need to make sure I slow down a bit as we need to finish our virtual pin build. Don't like having too many plates spinning ;)
 

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You’ll be fine with the electricity. one good tip is one i learned back in the 1970’s from a tv repair guy who worked mainly on the old 50’s & 60’s tvs. many of those had a live metal chassis, they were really lethal once you got the back (cardboard!!!) cover off. The tip was to always keep one hand in your pocket, so if (when on those things) you got a shock it never went across your heart from hand to hand.

I learnt my basic electronics on lots of those old tvs and it was a really handy tip that probably saved my life as i had a fair few shocks off them

Am EM pinball in comparison is pretty safe to be honest. as @DAD says follow the schematic and figure out where the mains voltage goes and steer well clear of that part. the rest is ok, some run at 50 or even 70 volts for the coils but a shock from that isn’t so bad. I’ve only had a couple of tingles from touching a live coil lug.
 
Slow progress today, stripped most things off the playfield. Then started cleaning, and cleaning and cleaning. Slooooooow progress.
 

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A few photos from mould cam :)
 

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