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.
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It’s time to once again dive into a pile of trash pinball parts and see what sort of gems I can uncover. This lot of pinball spare parts (or crap box as it’s also termed) cost under $16AU. There wasn’t anything in the original photos that caught my eye, I just wanted more spare parts available at hand for my projects. So, let’s have a look.
The final part covering my 12 month service of my Nugent. In some respects, it’s getting a much better playfield clean than when I rebuilt it this time last year. Although I replaced many old and worn parts, I didn’t give enough attention to the surface of the playfield. It was wiped down but I didn’t have the knowledge or confidence at the time to do more. The apron area has been taken care of, as has the lower playfield area. Now on to the upper half. First step was to remove everything. This includes the rebound rubber and gates. There is quite a bit of crap built up already.
Playing pinball is fun and it’s something people of all ages can partake in and enjoy. For me, learning how the machines work and getting your hands on the parts that make the games tick take it to a whole new level. In fact I spend more time with my hands on parts than I do on the flipper buttons.
When I was working on that first machine back in January and February, I often found the process very stop-start. In part, this was due to my inexperience with pinball machines and not really being able to plan what I was actually going to need (or being aware of what was available). I kept finding myself held up while trying to source random parts. Certain screw types, nuts, plates, frames, wires, housings, bulbs, etc. Some were easy to source while others more obscure and no real part number to reference. I experienced it again (although to a lesser degree) when working on my Fireball Classic. In most cases the part (or a suitable alternative) were sourced thanks to various sellers or through wanted posts on Aussie Arcade. I decided part way through the Fireball I was going to somehow source a pile of random spare parts from different machines which would help aid me with future repairs / rebuilds.
Enter the “crap box” (or boxes now that I’ve picked up a few). I found these boxes irresistible. Like a big box filled with lucky dip prizes. Some will be cool. Others will be.. well.. crap. Who knows what I’ll score – it brings excitement 🙂 In this first example, I have a 15kg box of random parts that cost $6.60.
My next update was going to cover the work I’ve done on the coin door. But something managed to squeeze in just before it. I should have the coin door all ready by Sunday though, so it’s not far off. Meanwhile, the next area on the playfield to receive attention is the upper playfield – or more specifically, the vortex ramp.
