Arcade Collecting > Pinball

I just picked up a Williams High Speed

(1/5) > >>

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  :angry:

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.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page