Long time lurker, first time poster
It was a cold and stormy July 4th. After a lovely indoor barbecue, I come to find out my girlfriend had a pachinko machine growing up. It was possibly still in her mom's basement so I had to investigate. I had never played with nor seen one in the flesh before--but I had an idea of what it was. No faster than my feet could take me, I dug through towers of boxes in the basement. Sure enough, it was there--a Nishijin Model A. I proceeded to futz around with it for 30 minutes trying to figure out how it worked. Once I understood the mechanics, I spent the next 3 hours feeding ball after ball into it. The addiction was taking hold.
Once home, I did some digging and found this amazing site. After finding restored machines, I decided I had to do it too. My girlfriend was hesitant as this was something she grew up with. So she told me she'd let me do it if I fixed another machine first. Challenge accepted, addiction confirmed.
I found a Model B in decent shape for $60 and turned it into my evening project. Finding pretty much every bit of info I needed here, I tore the machine down. I sealed the frame, refoiled badges, polished everything, repainted the centerpiece, and replaced the playfield. I took a picture of the original graphic after pulling all the nails and rebuilt it in Illustrator. I wanted something that was as close in color to the original as possible so I figured I'd build it myself. Once the machine was all back together, I decided it needed a cabinet. The one I built is a combination of a few different designs.
This site has been a wealth of info and can say it has helped me a ton.
Before:
B_Bef_01.jpgB_Bef_02.jpg
After:
B_Cab_01.jpgB_Cab_02.jpgB_Cab_03.jpg
Also, a couple moderns (Pac-Man World, Tom & Jerry) have made their way home too.
Paul
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