Last week we restored a Bally Dolly Parton that suffered from battery corrosion and neglect. Made in 1979, Bally’s Dolly Parton features a mix of playfield features including in-line drop targets.

As can be seen in the picutres below, the playfield needed a good cleaning with something that could dig in and clean the dirt out of the cracks in the clear coat (ball swirls). (More pictures of this game can be seen in Work Samples.)

Removing Ball Swirls: Wet a Mr Clean Magic Eraser with isopropyl alcohol and apply moderate pressure while rubbing in a circular motion to loosen the dirt. The light abrasive surface of the Magic Eraser will attack the dirt and the alcohol can get into the clear coat cracks. Followup with Novus 2 and a carnuba wax to protect the playfield.

Straight to the vault,

Pinball Rich

Left Side Before & After


Right Side Before & After

This past weekend between the rains, we delivered and setup a restored Hi-Lo Ace for a customer. Made in 1973, Bally’s Hi-Lo Ace is a single-player, electro-mechanical pinball machine with a nice diamond pattern of jet bumpers.

Although the setups usually go smoothly, the humidity made for sweaty work, and in this case the game lit up, EXCEPT for the ballcount lights in the backbox. Older pinball machines use pin connectors to link the score wheels and relays in the back box to the electronics in the the rest of the game. A corroded pin will cause a game feature not to work and this was the case for the Hi-Lo Ace.

Cleaning Pin Connectors: With the power off, remove the metal door from the back of the backbox and gently pull each connector out of its socket one at a time for cleaning.  Use a light abrasive, like a wire brush or medium grit sandpaper to scour the pins. Clean all the way around each pin for the best connection. Reseat the connector and move on to the next one. Clean and reseat all connectors before turning the game back on.

Straight to the vault,

Pinball Rich

WE ARE NOT ALONE. Based on Steven Spielberg’s 1977 science-fiction classic, this pinball features jet bumpers, drop targets, and a roto-target for a wide variety of shots. Please e-mail us for more pictures or details.