Time for another update on the repair and service on my Gottlieb Counterforce. The momentum has been pretty good, although playing Pinbot is cutting into my repair time 😉 For this outing, I’ll be looking at the two sling shots and top area of the playfield. Normally my next step after the apron would be to look at the flippers. But while waiting for flipper kits to arrive, I decided to shift to the slingshots. There are two sling shots on the Counterforce playfield. The first is on the left, above the lower flipper. The second one is not directly opposite (as you’d normally expect), but a bit higher up on the playfield – across from the upper left flipper. I’ll start with the lower one first. Sitting behind the slingshot, we have an out lane and two in lanes. Like with the entire machine – it’s seen a lot of action and had much neglect. Lots of cleaning required and some damage I can’t undo. Thankfully the plastic is reasonably good and is not cracked. The green lane hoods are damaged (melted) from the bulb that sits below them and one has a few cracks on the front. I’ll try cleaning these up, but will most likey replace them.
mylar
All posts tagged mylar
Progress on Counterforce has been good over the last few weeks and the machine has served as an excellent introduction to the System 80 platform by Gottlieb. My attention is now turning towards the playfield and the various assemblies that make up the game. I like to start working from the bottom of the playfield and progress up to the top. It helps break the overall task down into a more manageable state and also allows me to test things as I go. So first up on the playfield will be the apron and ball serve assembly. The apron and shooter cover are in reasonable condition and won’t need much more than a clean. I have the alternative score and instruction cards that were unused and can go on once complete. The shooter rod has already been removed and rebuilt (included in my last update).
I had intended to remove the mylar from the playfield post playfield swap, but decided not to hold off and do it now instead. I’m currently waiting for a few parts orders to arrive and I’m also spraying the coin door – which doesn’t give me much else to do.
The mylar was bubbling in countless sections across the playfield, plus dirt and crap had collected under other areas too. The mylar has certainly seen better days, but it had done it’s job and protected the playfield over the years. You can see the areas where mylar was not present as they have not held up as well.
While waiting for parts to arrive for the flippers and slingshots, I decided to focus my attention slightly further up the playfield at the advance planet target. The plastic needed a good clean and under it the playfield and parts could do with some attention. The target itself works fine as does the point switch above it. The lamps too function correctly.
Now that the two playfield halves were stripped of parts, I wanted to take a note of the initial issues I was facing with the restoration. I expect more issues will come to light as I progress, but wanted to document the starting point to help gauge how the restoration progresses. This update will look at the lower playfield area.
The mylar was lifting in a number of places on the lower playfield, most notably around the inserts. There is also a darkening / fading of the artwork not covered by the mylar.
