Restoring 1950s Nishijin

[sharmoni]

I've finished the first stage of restoring my 50s Nishijin. This is one of my favorite machines so I really wanted to get the rust out and shine it up. Having learned my lesson from the disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly of my Taiyo Electron Arepachi, I took many, many, many photos.

First I took photos of the machine before I took it apart. Then I took photos of each piece just after removing the screws or nails, but before moving it from it's location on the machine. To make sure I knew how it went back together I took each photo with the screws or nails pointed at the matching holes.

Then I took photos of all the removed components laid out neatly on the floor. I grouped similar screws and nails so that I could count them. That will help me keep track of them as I'm derusting them, or let me know how many I need to replace with new ones. All nails will be replaced with screws except those on the playfield that hold on pocket and chrome fixtures.

The nails were very tricky to remove without damaging anything. I used the principle of always using my nail puller between the two hardest surfaces and going very slowly. Needless to say, other than screws, pretty much everything on this machine is irreplaceable. I slightly bent a few metal pieces, but nothing that will show after the machine is reassembled, and most of the metal was flexible anyway, so it will bend back into place. I was most careful with the delicate plastic parts. Fortunately they were not brittle, so none of them cracked.

It took 6 hours to completely strip it down, and I took 172 photos during the process. Tomorrow the cleaning of parts begins.

[compirate]

Brave person! That's gonna look great when it's done!

[hanabi]

Wow I don't think I've seen one stripped down that far before!!

Hope you're keeping all the little pieces in a nice safe place,
well away from pets and Vacuum Cleaners!!

I think it's going to be an amazing restoration

[TallTrav]

The best part is the returns and tracks are metal and can be re-made more simply than the plastic monstrosities that came later.

This is going to be a gorgeous project , Sharmoni.

The other bonus is with the advent of digicams, you save on poloroid film.

[Eddie]

[QUOTE=hanabi;269388]Wow I don't think I've seen one stripped down that far before!!

All of my machines get stripped down like that (Exception being the nails) Only I never took such a cool Photo as Sharmoni did!

I cant wait to see this machine finished. My pre War is due for its restoration soon.

[FireAndIce]

Very nice machine. I have a Nishijin completely stripped right now too. The back parts were held down with nails and staples so I need to replace everything with screws. Shouldn't be too bad. There is a product called Nevr Dull I use for the pins and it makes them look brand new! Takes 40 years of abuse off in a matter of minutes