Nishijin Front Overflow Restoration

[mxfaiman]

Well,

I have been dropping pics and saying things about this machine in a few threads. It is getting to the point of done so I decided to start a thread on it.

Recently we have been restoring a 1969 Nishijin Front Overflow (Tulip Tower).

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The machine started in pretty good shape the only major issue was the background on it. It was water stained and the pattern was down right ugly, so we fixed that. We decided to put a new background on but we didn't know what to use at first. But we ended up going with a background that I custom designed. Which is turning out great on this machine, it really ties all the colors together well. If anyone wants to buy one send me a PM I have a few already printed.

You can see the center feature how the lens is now blue. It was originally purple but it was very faded to an almost clear. So we used some translucent blue paint we have and painted over the backside to give it some color back. The pictures don't do it much justice because when lit up you can kinda still see the purple through the blue so it gives a cool prism affect.

Also note that the wood frame has been restained with the parchment colored minwax stain.

Anyways this machine is coming along nice and will look great when all finished up. I'll be sure to post pictures of the final product as well.

But for now here are some pics to get an idea of some of the steps.

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[pachiwall]

A front overflow with 3 tulips...SWEET! I like the custom cell design! It looks like stuff that came on machines of this vintage! I trust that this is your 6th custom cell? Lucky guess...unless you consider the part # on it... MF-06

[CarlW]

JUST AWESOME - AS ALWAYS.

Note: Above was shouted...

[mxfaiman]

A front overflow with 3 tulips...SWEET! I like the custom cell design! It looks like stuff that came on machines of this vintage! I trust that this is your 6th custom cell? Lucky guess...unless you consider the part # on it... MF-06

Yes it is the 6th cell that I have designed.

My goal was to try to make it look like it is period correct with what would have been on machines.

[browne92]

I likes!

[mxfaiman]

Alright I got another update on this machine.

We haven't had a chance to do terribly much on it. But we did get the back all assembled and wiring done. We polished the chrome frame (still finishing that up.) and painting parts on the front.

We are deciding to switch around some factory parts on this machine. The upper front tray we are replacing with a brown tray to pull off the background more, we are also painting the lens around the square window and avocado type green (a factory color) to pull off the background. The lower tray we are still undecided on color but will most likely paint it the same light blue we painted the guard around the finger post.

Anyways here are some pictures.

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(sorry about lack of pics and short description I kinda screwed up the post so I only have 10min to change stuff.)

[pachiwall]

Not sure if I like mismatched colors on the front trays. I'll have to wait to see how it looks when done.
I've seen a lot about members painting trays. I have always wondered how paint holds up to balls constantly rolling across them. Would like to hear some feedback...good or bad from anyone who has done it long enough ago to say if it holds up!

[mxfaiman]

Well it is mixed trays or they are both going to be painted. Because they are both heavily yellowed not even retr0bright will fix it. So they need to be painted. I use paint formulated for plastic so it should hold up for quite a while.

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[mxfaiman]

Alright lets see where we left off...

Well I last mentioned that we would be painting the trays; and now that is all done. The window is painted green, lower tray painted light blue. Everything has been mounted once-and-for-all. The wiring has been completed, the center is really cool when it lights up now because of the blue paint & the purple plastic you get to see both colors. Only thing left now is to paint the spinners on it. It has been holding us up because we are trying to make a rig to spin it while we paint so we get a nice circle. I might post how we went about making it in a new thread.

Anyways here are some pictures. I don't want to spoil how the new trays look with the background so no whole shot of the machine yet.


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[mxfaiman]

Alright final steps are getting done. We painted the spinners a few days ago. I'll probably mount them up tomorrow then all that is left to do is play the machine.

Here is what the spinners look like now.

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We chose the green center as it was a typical style and it would pull out the green on the background. We did the orange rims to pull out the orange playfield parts like the tulips and ball out lens.

I'll be sure to post whole pics once I mount them on the machine. For now just imagine how they will look.

[mxfaiman]

Grr. I was putting on the spinners and 2 fell out of my hands and chipped the orange paint off. :headbang: so I reprinted those parts. But it will be a few days before I can put them on. Maybe by Friday.


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[mxfaiman]

Well, I got kinda impatient and decided to stick on the lat 2 spinners. The paint was basically dry, it does need a few days to fully harden though. So I put on the last 2 spinners and took some pictures today.

Lets just recap.

Before:

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Spoiler

After:

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I am really happy this machine is now done. It came out great and I do hope it will end up going to a great home.

[mxfaiman]

For those interested larger forms of the pics can be found on my blog. Never • Ending • Pachinko

[jodini]

Gosh Max...you do great work sir! That turned out awesome!
And your white wall always looks so clean too! HA! I need to find me a "white room" to take pictures of my machines!
Joe

[p.opus]

When Max gets done with them they are a work of art. If you ever go to Pachinko Planet and see the price of some of his restorations for sale, your jaw will drop. But considering the work he puts into them, it's not a lot of coin.

I have a bowling "A" Nishijin like Max does and I've already sunk over $200 into the machine including tools, balls and parts. That doesn't even count towards the labor. I've put over 10 hours into the machine with at least another 5 to 10 to go and the scope of my restoration only includes basic parts cleanup, replacement, and background replacement. I'm not doing any repainting, sealing, staining or drastic plastics work.

My machine will look good when done, and I wouldn't think of selling it for under $500.00 once I'm done. It's my first restoration so it's not for sale, but after seeing the amount of work put into a full restoration, it's clear why fully restored machine fetch such a high premium.

[mxfaiman]

We typically spend a minimum of 40 hours on just labor. It is not an easy process. We probably have closer to 50 hrs in this machine. The longest part is just driving the nails back into the play field.

But once you are finished you have a machine you can be very proud of.


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