Williams Space Odyssey EM Pinball Restoration Project

billg4me@yahoo.com

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Williams Space Odyssey is the pin that really hooked me as a kid growing up.  There's no telling how much money I pumped into this machine. I often played it in the "Games People Play" arcade at the Houston, Texas Memorial City Mall. This arcade always had at least 20 pins in a row just waiting for my quarters.  

This was my first pin restoration project.  After searching for a while I was fortunate to find a Williams Space Odyssey from a fellow pin collector.  I was excited because I hadn't seen the machine in some 20 years and it was the pin that started it all for me.  I didn't really know how much it worked, but all the pieces where there and I was ready to dive in and have some fun. I worked on it off and on for about 7 months. It's very satisfying taking an old pin that isn't working and breathing new life into it. The biggest rush of excitement is the first time you turn it on and see how your efforts have (hopefully) paid off.  My kids and I really like playing the "new" old pin and it's fun to remember the nostalgia of days gone by.

I've been hooked on playing pinball since I was young, but I have to say I'm totally hooked on fixing/restoring/repairing pinball machines. I'm ready to quit my day job, but unfortunately have many more years before retirement :-(. I started out with my first pin, a Williams Grand Prix, and my collection has now grown to 6 machines in just about a year.  Needless to say, I'm hooked - you can't just have one pin. The hobby is great fun and it's always challenging to come up with creative ways to "hide" another pin in the house from my wife :-).

I have to thank cfh for his excellent pin how-to and restoration guides. Without his work I often wouldn't have known where to start restoring something and/or fixing a problem.  His guides definitely help to boost your confidence. The rec.games.pinball newsgroup has also been a tremendous help. There's really never a dumb question, just the question that is not asked.  In the spirit of the group, I have tried to help others when possible.

Below are some resources that I used through out the project.

Contents

Playfield Cleaning

This is a picture of the playfield before the fun begins. The picture is a bit dark, but you can see the initial efforts of Novus 2 just above the special light by the left outlane. The playfield is in pretty good shape with some light worn spots by the left flipper. For its age, the paint was in good shape, but some areas had paint lifting and the infamous ball swirl arcs. A number of playfield insert lamps had also sunk below the playfield surface.

To clean the playfield, I first removed everything (posts, plastics, etc.) so it was completely flat. Initially, I tried Novus 3 followed by Novus 2, but I didn't like the results. The Novus 3 was held in the small divots of the playfield and you could see white specs where it was used. In the end, I just cleaned the playfield with Novus 2 and followed up with a number of Johnson's paste wax applications.

I used the "hot wax" treatment with the Johnson's paste wax with great results. Basically, apply the wax and then use a hair dryer on the warm/hot setting to get the wax to dry. Removing the wax is a chore, but after a couple of times, you'll have protected the playfield nicely.

All the playfield plastics were really dirty, but cleaned up just fine with Novus 2.

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Playfield before cleaning and disassembly

Upper Ball Arch

Here's another before picture of the upper playfield and ball arch. The upper ball arch and shooter lane did have a worn ball groove. Initially, I had planned on just lightly sanding the ball groove and build up a couple of coats of lacquer, but I just didn't like the results.  So I ended up doing the following:
To get the lacquer to feather in with the rest of the playfield, I "back taped" the area being sprayed.  What you do is put the long edge of the tape down and pull it back the top edge so it gently curves backward (sticky side is now up).  This helps to get a light/smooth coat of lacquer at the edges being sprayed.  I would attach newspaper to the sticky tape edge and protect the rest of the playfield from over spray.

I don't have a close up picture of the finished results, but overall, I'm real pleased with the results.  In a small area I had a problem with the lacquer laying down which produced dreaded "fish eyes".  To solve this, I cleaned the area well with Naptha and then shot another coat of lacquer.  In the future, I'll think twice about removing the ball groove from the shooter lane and upper arch.  It just took too long to get it just right and, besides, it's part of the machine's character.

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Buffing/Cleaning Metal Parts

A buffing wheel has to be one of the most valuable tools for cleaning up metal parts.  I used a bench grinder and put a fine wire wheel on the left side and two sewed cloth buffing wheels on the right.  The wire wheel is great for knocking off the rust and other crud and the buffing wheel with some white rouge buffing compound gets the metal polished shiny in no time.

Initially I had the bench grinder in the garage, but it was making quite a mess with dust flying everywhere.  So, I mounted it on a 1x6 and then attached to my Black and Decker Workmate.  Now it's portable and it's easy to break down and store when finished.

One thing about safety.  Be sure to wear eye protection when using a setup like this.  I also use work gloves when holding larger pieces and vise grips for smaller items (playfield posts, etc.).  It's important to use good eye protection and gloves because metal parts can get ripped out of your hands if you're not careful.

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Portable buffing station

Playfield Support Box

I built a support box for the playfield so I could work on it outside of the cabinet.  It was handy to move the playfield and its support box to my workbench.  This way I wasn't always leaning over into the cabinet.  On days it was just too hot in the garage, I would bring it inside and lay it on the kitchen table - don't you know my wife loved that!

The inside box dimensions are just an 1/8" bigger than the playfield size.  I used 1x4's for all pieces, except for 1x2's for the playfield support rails (shown shorter than the length of box).  I also reduced the 1x2's thickness just a bit so that all items (lamp sockets, etc.) under the playfield would have room.  The height of the box is 9" to allow for stepper/bonus units under the playfield.  All pieces were assembled using sheet rock screws and wood glue.

Initially I planned to make the support box out of 1x8's and make a true open top box, but I had some scrap 1x4's and decided to use them instead.  It was a lucky decision, because using the 1x4's allowed side openings. The playfield top and bottom could be accessed at the same time. This worked great when removing playfield inserts.

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Playfield Support Jig Construction Views

Playfield Inserts

Here's the first look at the playfield after its been entirely stripped and cleaned.  

A number of playfield inserts had sunk and I decided to reseat them all.  So I did the following:

  • used a hair dryer to heat up and loosen the glue around the insert.  I was able to direct heat to the top and bottom of the playfield.
  • I used an extension and a socket just smaller than the diameter of the insert.   I heated the surrounding glue and gradually pushed the insert up from the bottom with one hand. At the same time I gently applied pressure down on the insert with my other hand from the top.  This way the insert came out slowly and didn't tear up the playfield veneer edges.
  • I cleaned up and polished each insert with Novus 1 and reapplied the black insert outline with a Testors paint pen.
  • Each insert hole also had it's black outline touched up with a Testor's paint pen.
  • The inserts were glued back in place using the thick gel super glue.  I placed a small block of wood on top of the playfield and push the insert up from the bottom until it met the block.

It may of been overkill to reseat every playfield insert, but the playfield is as flat as can be and besides that's what a project like this is all about - it was fun.

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Stripped down playfield with inserts removed

Playfield Finishing Touches

Getting the playfield almost finished.  At this point the playfield has had:
  • shooter lane and upper ball arch ball grove removed and lacquer applied.
  • some minor playfield paint touch up completed.
  • all playfield inserts reinstalled.
  • bumper caps cleaned and numbering repainted.  new bumper skirt and body have been also installed.
  • new mylar installed for pop bumpers
  • playfield posts reinstalled and along with new rubber rings
  • a number of applications of Johnson's wax
  • new bulbs throughout.

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Getting close to being finished.

Backglass Restoration

The backglass had some problems with paint flaking. This is a common problem with a backglass this age and is typically the result humidity and/or tempature changes. The glass and it's painted image expand and contract at different rates. Overtime this causes the paint to lift and start flaking away. Anytime I get "new" old pin, the backglass is the first to be brought into the house. It's kept in an air conditioned constant tempature environment.

For the most part, the backglass is in good shape. There were a number of areas where the paint was flaking, but an application of Krylon Triple Thick did the trick. Using the Krylon product, spray left to right and then top to bottom. Use your judgement, but don't apply too much. Especially around the score windows because you'll be removing the Krylon product with a razor and don't want too much of an edge to show. Also, before applying Krylon Triple Thick, clean the score windows and credit window with a Qtip and Windex. For more details on this topic be sure to visit Clay's restoration guide.

Backglass paint touch ups are done after the application of Krylon Triple Thick. I was lucky the paint flaking was limited to black non translucent areas. Because it was non translucent (i.e. no light bulb to show from behind) I was able to use a black Testors paint pen. It matched well and the pen made it easy to apply a number of coats of paint. There was one turquoise translucent area to also touch up. I'm happy with the results, but paint matching is an art in itself and takes lots of practice.

Although not shown in this picture, once all paint touch ups are complete, the non translucent areas can be covered with silver acrylic paint to help blend with the rest of the backglass.

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Backglass restoration

Finished Project

And here's the finished version.

The rest of the playfield (plastics, upper/lower ball arch, shooter lane, etc.) have been assembled.  It's now ready for many more years of enjoyment! 

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Ready to play!

Task List

  1. Cabinet
  2. Back box
  3. Playfield

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