Welcome to the Midwest Pinball Blog

May 2010 - Gottlieb Wedge Head Collection

March 2010 - Gottlieb E/M Pinballs

Spring is here. Along with almost a dozen Gottlieb electro-mechanical pinball machines from the late 1960's and early 1970's. In the past few months, we have restored Big Indian, Cow Poke, Guys Dolls, Jungle Queen, Road Race, Sure Shot, and Wild West. On a few. we also rebuilt sections of the cabinet that had been chipped or had gotten damp. Even these old games can be made to play like new, while still maintaining that classic look.

October 2009 - Astro Black Sheep Squadron

Here is a picture of the restored playfield for a 1979 Astro Black Sheep Squadron.  With the feel of a classic Bally pinball machine from the same time period, the Black Sheep Squadron is the only game from Astro to make it into production. The playfield was covered in old wax that required a lot of work to clean up.

October 2009 - Super Mario Restored

We spent the last few weeks working on a 1992 Gottlieb Premier Super Mario Bros. The game was in rough shape and had all of its stand-up targets broken. We rebuilt the flippers, installed new targets, and cleaned up a lot of lighting issues. The game still has a little playfield wear but otherwise looks and plays great. One of the keys to working on Gottlieb Premier games is to have the right lamps on hand. Unlike Bally/Williams games, these games use #67 and #904 flashers.

Work on Older Games

Recently Midwest Pinball has worked on a number of older games. In january 2009, we picked up an old game from a customer for repair and restoration. After a little research we determined that is was a 1935 Bally Traffic (Model C). It looked like the cabinet had been repainted and the playfield was very dark. (The picture below shows the impact of a little Novus #2.)   We dis-assembled and vaccumed out the game to search for any older parts that may have been trapped in the cabinet. The game olny uses one coil, which was working fine. We took the metal pieces off (including the playfield traffic lights) to be placed in a parts tumbler and worked on the playfield for several days. Once the playfield was finished, we replaced the bulbs with new ones ordered from Steve Young at The Pinball Resource and replaced the brittle gels inside the traffic lights with new color films.

It's Alive!

We will take on almost any pinball project, which is why we ended up with the 1978 Brunswick Alive. Designed for the home market, this game is not quite full sized. It does not have a coin door, nor does it have much on the playfield. Due to the simplicity of the game, these games are easy to clean up, but a bit of a challenge to repair. Brusnwick only made a few pinball titles in the 1970's, so exact replacement parts are hard to find. Some of the electronic parts can be purchased at Radio Shack and installed with a soldering iron.

Multiply Your Firepower

In the past few weeks, we have encountered no less than five Williams Firepower. This is a very popular game from 1980 with a number of "firsts". It was the first to have a "lane change" feature, allowing the player to switch the lit lanes using the flippers. It was the first electronic multi-ball game with an exciting three-ball multiball. And the first with animated displays the count down before unleasing the multiball.   Since the game has no ramps, it is relatively easy to shop-out, but oftentimes the electronics need a lot of work. The game uses three AA batteries to hold setting and high scores, so it is important to change the batteries once a year (just like a fire alarm) to keep them from leaking acid into the boards. To save the high scores in any solid-state game, turn the game on when replacing the batteries, otherwise the scores and settings will be lost. We have restpred a number of these games on-site and have a couple in the shop, which we hope to have ready for sale in time for the holidays. Check our For Sale page for the current list of available games.

Oh Dolly!

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

The Ups and Downs of Bally Hi-Lo Ace