I just picked up a Williams High Speed

[Boz]

I just bought a Williams High Speed from a dealer here in Phoenix. Having wanted one for years and rarely finding them advertised in my area, I was pretty interested. Found it on Craigslist where he listed it for $1250. Thinking I might be able to get it for $1100, I offered him $1000. Good for me, he took the 1k.

Thought I'd post some of the shots here. If you know pins pretty well (this is my first), I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. If a component looks like it might have a problem, I wouldn't know it.

Everything seems to work fine, including the beacon on top, so in the near future I have no plans. But, given the time and motivation, restoring it to pristine factory condition is an interest.

Dial-up warning...
The images below are hyperlinked to the full-size shots which weigh in at 3-4Mb, 3888x2592 per pic.



Outside shots. A few bumps and bruises that could possibly benefit from sanding and repainting. The coin door is rusted, bent out of shape, and dirty. I'd probably replace the whole thing and keep the coin mechs if I find that they work.






The rails have matching dents in them where, I was told, the back box probably slammed down on the playfield.




The back box isn't horrible, but judging from the damage and the scratches, a complete rebuild of it might be in order. Talking to the vendor I bought it from, rebuilding it, as just about anything you'd consider rebuilding on a pinball machine, is not for the faint of heart since there's a lot of work involved. The back glass is in very good shape with only a half-inch scratch near the top above the second "H" in "HIGH".






It doesn't look like there were any major "spills" on the glass considering the inspection stickers inside, while faded, aren't stained. I could be wrong.


The dealer told me that people who know a thing or two about pinball machines will tape the score LED's in place to stop them from falling forward and rubbing the paint off of the back glass. Two of the LED's are taped here while a third has a rubber ring taped to it.




The playfield looks like it's in decent shape though a couple of the plastic parts are heat warped. Another thing I was told is that the playfield is factory laminated. When I asked about removing the llamination and repainting the playfield the guy who does all the maintenance at this dealer said that I couldn't pay him enough to repaint and rebuild a playfield. It looks good and the only thing that bugs me a bit is that the open seams change the ball direction if it's moving slow enough.










Playfield components.




Back box components. Looks like there wasn't any battery acid leakage on to the main board.

[Paul Olson]

Mine has matching dents on the siderails 

I couldn't tell from the playfield pics if there was any bad wear spots. Mine has a few around the freeway, but the lower playfield was protected with mylar. Mine was fully working when I bought it, but I kept having to fix things on it all the time. Coil wires needing to be resoldered was the most common. I decided to tear it down and try to fix the wear spots on the playfield. It is a huge job, and I am not quite sure I have the patience for it. I would just clean yours really good, and replace the rings and lights if not already done, then just play it. If it breaks down, figure out how to fix it. Once you think you have learned quite a bit, then you may want to tackle a restoration. Main thing is to prevent any further playfield wear.

The jet bumper skirts are cheao at pinballlife.com ($.33 each, I think), but they are a pain to replace.

Your backglass looks to be in really nice shape.

This site will be your best friend: http://www.pinrepair.com/sys11/index.htm
Check the section on moving the battery on the main board, you don't ever want the batteries to be able to corrode the board.

This is one of my favorite games, so I really want to end up with a nice one. I think I may try to get a better or new reproduction (when they are made) playfield at some point. Plastic sets have already been reproduced, I think they are $135 for the whole set. You can also find stencils if you want to try to repaint the cabinet someday. Be very careful with the ramp and jet bumper caps; I haven't found these yet anywhere. Most other parts are easily replaceable.

Have fun! I am certainly not an expert, but feel free to pm me anytime you want to discuss the game.

Paul

Edit: Almost forgot; the traffic light is prone to melting due to heat from the bulbs. Put 47s in there instead of 44s. Use 47s instead of 44s everywhere, but it is an especially good idea in the traffic light. 47s put out less heat.

[leapinlew]

I seem to remember the blond chick in the car being hot... Nice pick up.

I thought you had a Mame cab you were working on? Let me see if I can't find it for you and give it a bump so you can update us on it's status.

[PAGAN]

Hey guys, just picked up a 1970 Dipsy Doodle pinball machine for R5000 (+/- $500).

Everything seems to work pretty well, except some globes blown here and there, paint work that's seen better days and a few odds and ends that need tending to, e.g. the coin slot thingy which does not work.

Any tips on restoration would be appreciated!

So far I have the complete wiring diagram manual, so that should be fun. The paint work on the playfield is a bit bleak and discoloured, but I am sure I can have this redone.

I can't seem to find any rubber kits in South Africa, so I will have to source that from the states (Any good references would be appreciated).

If anyone has restored the playing field of a pinball machine before, please give me a shout, I would like to know how to go about this. I am busy making stencils to redo the artwork on the sides and front panel. Would a paint shop be able to give me the correct colours though?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[ChadTower]

Looks pretty clean and the playfield is in quite good shape for a game that tends to be worn down to the wood.  Not bad.

First thing I'd do is pull the head and repair it.  Clearly it was dropped hard enough that it had structural problems.  That's what those L brackets are doing there.  Depending on how bad the ply layers are split you should be able to get a decent looking repair done there because it's not an area people ever really look at.

[ChadTower]

The least I'd do is paint the L brackets black.  That's one of those things that will draw the eye for those who notice it.  This guy is talking about a full playfield restoration.  Why do that and leave a broken head?

[Boz]

Thanks for the feedback. If I can get away with putting wood blocks inside and a bit of sanding/painting, I could probably turn it into a weekend project instead of constructing a new back box from scratch.


The more I play it and tinker here and there, the more I find little things that need to be fixed. With the glass installed, it's hard to tell that there's much plastics damage. Today I took the glass off to replace a few burnt playfield lights and found out the plastic is in worse shape than I thought with some of it actually held in place with some kind of superglue.

Another thing I found, which really surprised me, was how the gameplay actually changed when I rotated a rubber ring on the bottom right where the ball has two lanes to choose from. I just twisted the rubber around so that the highly worn and dirty part was facing away from the playing surface where the pinball would contact it. The unworn and clean part completely changed the randomness of which lane the pinball would select. Needless to say I lost fewer balls this way.

I've order a complete set of plastics, a rubber ring set, a plunger spring, freeway sign decals, and a couple of boxes of #47s (thanks Paul) from Marco.

Question...

Only one other thing is stumping me a bit. Does such a package exist anywhere for the playfield hardware? I'm talking about the white nylon nuts and metal nuts as well as the *correct* screws to mount some of the plastic? There's some generic stuff at Marco, but their cart sucks and I can't see a bigger picture of what's in the package.

Also... I'm still not sure what I should use to clean the non-mylar'd, painted wood with. I'd really like to get the smegma off of the surface.

[Paul Olson]

pinballlife has the white nylon nuts, and they carry all or most of the screws you will need (looks like everything). They even have the yellow post rubber if you don't feel like trying to clean yours up.  Use novus #2 to clean the playfield, it will clean and shine the mylar as well. If you have any really dirty parts, try a magic eraser, they work great but don't go crazy, they can sand it down to the wood if you do it too much. The ME will leave a white residue which cleans off easy with novus.

[Visitor Q]

I got a friend that is looking for one of these, fun game.

Congrats!

[Boz]

Of course, I had to go to eBay to buy the novus you were talking about for $25.00 shipped. Then I see they had smaller bottles on pinballlife for much less.  I also bought a few of their LED #47 replacements just to see what they look like. Could be interesting.


On another note, out at http://www.classicplayfields.com/people.html, Jeff Elie is currently working on the art for producing a High Speed playfield repro. With their "frickin laser beam" cutting thing-a-majigs and C&C machines, I should be able to fully restore this pin to factory goodness.

[shardian]

Novus can be bought at local motorcycle shops. I have a Harley shop 2 miles away that stocks #3, and #2. It's alot cheaper than ordering it online and paying bloated prices+shipping.

[ChadTower]

Novus can also be bought at places like antique shops and hobby shops.  There is a high end antique store by my house that carries it.  It's pricey there, though, and when you order it from pinballlife there are always other supplies to throw in to make shipping worthwhile.  Get used to bundling parts orders. 

[Visitor Q]

I found Novus locally (as well) at my HD shop. I skipped over using it and went directly to Mothers Wax as I pretty sure the prior owner just had a go at it with Novus before I bought my pin..

+1 on bundling orders, I have already order twice from Terry since I've owned my pin.. hahaha Like two, three weeks!

[Boz]

Novus can be bought at local motorcycle shops. I have a Harley shop 2 miles away that stocks #3, and #2. It's alot cheaper than ordering it online and paying bloated prices+shipping.

Yup. Live and learn, I guess.


The plastics that I got from Marco were in good shape except for one piece that was snapped in two. 

[Visitor Q]

Is he going to take care of you?

[Paul Olson]

I am really hoping I have some cash when they roll out those repro playfields. I emailed them a while back asking to be put on a mailing list when they are getting close.

[Boz]

Is he going to take care of you?

I've never dealt with him before so I don't know. The plastics are manufactured by classicplayfields.com out of Canada. Marco resells pre-sealed envelopes with the plastic inside and the outside labeled with the game name. My guess is this will be a normal return process, but I'll report here if I get jammed.

I am really hoping I have some cash when they roll out those repro playfields. I emailed them a while back asking to be put on a mailing list when they are getting close.

Yeah, I just exchanged a few emails too asking about the playfields. I can't remember the exact quote, but led me to believe I shouldn't be looking for them for a year or two.   




Ya know... there are three helicopters advertised and included in the plastics set. But, I've never been able to find a picture of where all of them fit on the playfield. I know that one of them is mounted where the ball comes out of the shute when you pull the plunger, but even on the official flyer it doesn't seem like there's more than one. Any ideas?


EDIT: Does anyone have a link where I can learn the terminology for all the common parts of a pinball machine? "bumper skirt", "plunger", etc.

[Boz]

I've been told the CP in CPR stands for 'cornchip plastics' and that's been my experience.

I was assured the set I bought was PETG - it wasn't.  And they snap in half if you sneeze on them.

Woah! Seriously? Did you buy product made by Classic Playfields (via any of their resellers)? If this is true I'm gonna be pretty pissed off. I bought this stuff expecting that it's top notch given what I paid for it.

[Visitor Q]

I am really hoping I have some cash when they roll out those repro playfields. I emailed them a while back asking to be put on a mailing list when they are getting close.

Where are they out of and what PF are they doing?

Good luck Boz, please keep us posted.

[RetroJames]

Nice one Boz! That was on my list before I picked up the SW pin.

[Boz]

I talked to someone at Marco and as I suspected it's a simple RMA return process. I'll be sending them back this weekend.

On a side note, I took Jim's experience to heart and decided to inquire with classicplayfields.com. Here's the thread.

> What does CPR stand for?
>
> I just bought a set of High Speed playfield plastics and at least one of
> the
> pieces was broken out of the box/bag (I haven't checked the others yet).
> Then I posted about it in a gaming forum and was informed by someone who
> has
> purchased something similar that these things break if you sneeze on them.
>
> What kind of strength can I expect out of these parts if a heavy pinball
> hits them?
>

CPR stands for Classic Playfield Reproductions.  You can see everything on the go at the homepage URL below.

The plastics are made of PETG, which is the toughest polymer for abuse.
PETG is *demanded* by the pinball community, so we stick to it as gospel.
People will simply not buy plastics made on acrylic, plexi, or lexan.  Not tough enough.

Your High Speed set (if it's the ones from us) would be PETG too.  They should never ball-break and are meant to last a lifetime in a machine.  They are nothing like the factory originals (which were made on butyrate).  We have shipped thousands of sets to individuals and distributors over the last
3 years, across about 30 titles.   Only 5-6 individual PETG pieces have
snapped in shipping (not in our packaging) out of tens of thousands of pieces.  None have ball-broke in a game.  Zero.  Unless somebody is keeping it a secret 

I know you can't do it with your own set, but you can literally take PETG and fold it like paper, creasing it and everything.  It goes rubbery at the bend and simply turns white.  You can crank it back and forth on the fold about 10 times before it comes apart (like taffy).

The only thing that breaks them clean is some odd event in shipping, usually along a very tiny/narrow place.  Which is odd, because hammers don't even break PETG.

KEVIN WAYTE
Classic Playfield Reproductions

Now, I should mention that I landed on their website before I'd even seen this set at Marco. When their method of e-commerce was for me to blindly paypal them money with no phone number on the site and no shopping cart, I was told that they sell to several other places and Marco was one of them. I suppose it's entirely possible that Marco may NOT be getting his plastics from there, but I don't hear about a lot of other mfg. making this stuff. Also, the protective layer on the plastic peices is "burnt" from what I would guess is the frickin lazer beam cutting so at least part of their advertisement seems true.

[Boz]

The CPR = cornchip was a joke, TheBoz, not literal truth.   


Good luck with your plastics.

I realize that. Thanks. 

[Boz]

Somewhere around here I was asking if anyone knew why the CPR plastics kits come with 3 helicopters for this pin when you can only find a picture with one of the helicopters mounted to the playfield. After talking with Mike from CPR, it turns out that only the prototypes contained a helicopter and there were three different styles that were used.

For what it's worth.

[StephenH]

Here is some info for you:

http://www.coinopgamemuseum.com/games/highspeed/highspeed.html

http://www.pinrepair.com/sys11/index.htm