1982 Gottlieb Devil's Dare Pinball Machine - Sold

I purchased this one from a dealer in Denver. It had some issues when I bought it. All of the drop targets were wrong. This game has a pass through lane on the left. The ball should be able to go up the center and hit the drop targets, then go through the center and access the kickout hole in the Captive Cave. The dealer in denver had put in a rail so the ball couldn't travel through because they didn't want to install the drop targets that the ball can roll over (wider tops). In installed the proper drop targets and fabricated an L shaped plastic near the captive cave. The game also had some trouble with a short in the GI circuit. I loved this game, but in the end got tired of it and thought my future grand kids may not like the artwork.

1980 Stern Big Game Pinball Machine - Customized - Sold

Months ago I put a bunch of work into a cool wide body machine by Stern, Big Game.This machine came in pieces as the previous owner was planning to get it up and running again, but never did. The playfield had quite a bit of wear. I knew I would need to venture into some painting to make this game look and play the way it should. It also needed extensive board work to get up and running. I know I worked on the MPU and power supply board. I also replaced the rectifier board.

Here is a teaser finished pic. No video for this post because the machine sold before I could film one.

Here are some examples of the extensive damage to the center of the playfield. I wasn't a big fan of the bingo cards in the center. The design is by Harry Williams of Williams Pinball. He had been designing playfields for 30+ years. The machines before pinball machines were gambling devices known as bingo machines. Commonly you would need the ball to roll into certain holes (no flippers) and fill cards to win prizes (often cash). The cards in this game are reminiscent of those days. However, what do bingo or gambling have to do with safari hunting?

I decided that trophy cards made more sense. Since I was going to have to repaint anyway, I redesigned the cards into a sightseeing card (Binoculars), a photographer card (camera), and a shooter card (safari hunter). Seemed to make a lot more sense to me then x, y, z.

If I was going to repaint the center cards, I would either have to match the off white (old and dirty) of the other spots on the machine, or repaint all of the white sections. Color matching turned out to be harder than I anticipated, so I decided to repaint all of the white with my airbrush.

Here was my first attempt. You can see that the center card white doesn't match the other off white on the playfield. Time to suck it up and do it right.

It looks much better with the white redone. I would now need to replace the lettering as well. Matching fonts was a bit tedious, but I thing things turned out well. The other issue I had at this point is that the animal decals were hard to match to their drop target groups. Before, when they were numbers, they were in order. 1-3 were one bank, 4-6 were another, and 7-9 were the third bank. I needed to make some changes so that hunting down these animals on the drop targets would be easier and make more sense.

You can see here how I replaced the text, flattened the plastics and color coded the animals with their drop target bank. Put back together the machine played great and made a lot more sense. Unfortunately, I really wanted another machine, so I sold this one. Stay tuned to see what I found. This may be one I need to purchase again someday.

1976 Bally Flip Flop EM Pinball Machine - Sold

1976 Bally Flip Flop EM Pinball Machine

I picked up this machine in pretty rough condition. Originally bought for my collection, but I'm running out of room for new machines. Hard choices need to be made.

I'll post some before and after pictures. I haven't done anything with the cabinet except wash it. It is in pretty rough condition. I am considering repainting it, but I haven't made the final decision yet. My plan is to paint a base blue coat, then use yellow lettering with a black outline spelling out Flip Flop like on the backglass. Back box would be blue with white trim. I could buy the stencils for the original, but I'm not a fan of the horseshoes.

Before:

It was covered with a nasty level of dirt when I got it. Previous owner was clearly a smoker. Was pretty hard to tell what would be underneath the dirt.

The cabinet is really rough.

One of my favorite pictures. With the rubber on the shooter rod completely worn away, they continued to shoot the ball, metal to metal, until the rod (thick metal rod) mushroomed at the end. In order to replace this I had to take the assembly out and take the rod to my grinding wheel. All of the mushroom had to go to remove it from the housing. Too bad. Would have made a cool decoration/conversation piece.

No wonder we have some pretty significant wear above the ball trough when the original ball may never have been replaced. When I picked up the machine I left the ball with some kids as a souvenir....it was terrible.

Here is a collection of broken parts. From the top we have chewed up pop bumper skirts, a replacement flipper from a Gottlieb game (notice the ribbing on the top), a chewed up flipper and a skinny stick that used to be a post (lots of these were cracked and broken.

Sorry, still my favorite. I forgot to mention the dirt. Did you miss it?

Start of the tear down process. Pretty gross.

These are after cleaning. The next pics are the finished product.

In addition to what I have mentioned, I replaced the star roll over inserts, replaced bulbs, sprayed a protective coat of triple thick on the backglass, repaired some coils, cleaned stepper units and relay contacts, found and corrected a GI short on the playfield, replaced the shooter rod, polished the playfield, new rubber set, replaced broken parts, resoldered all 50vdc coils, replaced the bridge rectifier, partially rebuilt the flippers by replacing all coil stops and some sleeves. The rest of the sleeves were cleaned. Cleaned and adjusted end of stroke switches. Cracked the motor housing to lubricate it, and vacuumed the cabinet.

After about $125 in parts and a bunch of hours (I don't really count), here is another pinball machine rescued from a burn pile.