At one point, I bought an ICB from a fellow collector. I think I paid $600 total.
The back-glass was partially flaked
The Ball-Bar had broken mounts (but still worked)
The End of Stroke switches needed a lot of adjustments
The rubber drive-train was shot, and needed replacement
In addition, the entire unit needed to be fully taken apart, and cleaned, which was not as easy as
it seemed... because the rear assembly is fully enclosed. Thing is... even a small amount of dust
can cause the small ball to end up getting sticky / stuck... so If its not decently clean... the game wont
play that well.
I bought rubber windshield wiper fluid hose, per others recommendations.. to replace the rotted
rotted drive belts. Worked really well.
- I took apart the entire unit and cleaned + polished everything
- Touched up the missing paint areas on the backglass
- Found two brass tubes that fit matched the original ball-bar's specs... Then drilled them for the mounts.
- I injected hot glue into the ends of each of the tubes, to keep them from failing in the future
- I took out the metal ball-stop-gate, and used a buffer to give it a Mirror Finish
- Installed coin mechs (missing), and repaired the switches, coin-return lights, etc.
- Replaced all blown bulbs
- Spend quite some time cleaning every individual hole of the playfield
- Cleaned and Polished the plastics
- I believe I probably replaced the 2 way joysticks. I cant recall at this point. At minimum, they were
cleaned, polished, and adjusted well.
- Finally, I had to adjust all of the limit switches, and did a lot of tests to make sure everything was all good.
A good portion of this work was done in like an 18hr rush, to try to sell the machine at a local Arcade show.
I actually enjoyed the game... but the thing is... for that amount of money... I felt Id rather try to put it
towards another Pinball machine that I was after, instead.
I believe I sold it for somewhere between 800 to $1000. My memory is shot.
Which... for how much restoration effort I put into it... was pretty decent.
At the time... you might have found a decent one for like 400 to 600$... but that would have been a
machine that had Zero restoration on it. Rotted Slipping Belts. A partially broken ball-bar. And would
have needed like 6 hrs of disassembly + cleaning.
The moment I sold it... I was already sort of missing it. It wasnt the most fun gave Ive ever owned..
but it was one of these games of skill that you would just pop on, and play out of the blue.. to see how
far you could get.
When you first play it.. its virtually impossible. Once you figure out how to control it properly... it
becomes fairly easy to get up to like hole 7... without dropping a single ball. Eventually you get to the
point where you can get to the top, and you loop back from the bottom, up again. I think 3 complete
loops.. was the max that I had ever achieved.
I believe the money went towards the purchase of a Williams "Fire" pinball machine.. that I got for
just under 2k, in "OK" condition.
IMO... its was an easy $450 machine... but even I had felt I paid a bit too much, as $600 un-restored.
It really depends on your budget, and your other potential "wants".
The biggest hurdle to making on of these from scratch... is getting the correct metal tubing for the
Ball-Bar. If the tubing is too thick.. the small diameter ball will easily get stuck when transitioning
from one bar to the next.
Also, the tubes have to fit perfectly within each other... without too much clearance,
as well as not being too tight. I believe I had posted the information on the Tubing on their project
page.
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