Progress on Dr Who this week moved along really smoothly. Some weeks are like that, where everything comes together easily (which is a great counter to those weeks where nothing goes well at all). I wanted to start this update by giving the coin door a face lift. The coin door has metal panels over the three coin slots which will need to be removed. Because they are pop riveted to the door, I will need to drill them out and fill the holes. Overall the coin door isn’t in terrible condition, but has the usual scrapes and scratches from age. Replacing the old foreign pricing cards on the coin slots is on my to do list too. I spotted that the launch button isn’t correct. Notice the two small holes (one above, one below) the red button – there should be a larger button that slots in to them and so this needs to be replaced.
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After completing the remaining work on the Williams Whirlwind recently and the owner taking it home, it was time to move onto the next machine for repair & service. This time I’m looking at a Baywatch machine. Released by SEGA in early 1995 and able to be played by 6 players, it’s got a fairly decent playfield layout and is a lot of fun to play. The game play caught me by surprise as I’m not a huge fan of the theme (I’m sure my teenage self would have been..), but I find myself saying ‘just one more go’ when playing it. That’s a good sign for any game. The machine has been in the owners collection for awhile, crying out for a full service. As you’ve seen in my other threads, I get in and rebuild everything. It’s not a restoration, nor is it just a quick wipe down and fresh rubbers. Each assembly will be stripped, cleaned and worn parts replaced. The playfield will be stripped and everything properly cleaned too. Any game play issues will be sorted out and I’ll also spend some time doing presentation improvements (mostly things the owner has pointed out he wants addressed). Anyway, time to get started.
First on the agenda for this update was cleaning the underside of the red missile inserts and replacing their old bulbs. All 28 of them. Yes, that’s as exciting as it sounds…. Each row of 7 lamps are attached to a bank which can be unscrewed allowing better better access to the bulbs. But because each bank is wired to the next, it’s fiddly to get the bulbs in and out of. All the existing bulbs are #44’s. These will be replaced with #47’s.
Time to do some work on the coin door on my Fireball machine. On arrival it had 3 coin mechs hooked up, with some sort of modified pricing plates installed. It also contained a delightful sticker warning about the terrible content of the game.
I don’t plan to do too much with the coin door as it’s not in bad condition, but a few improvements can be made.