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Thread: Bally Sea Ray

  1. #1
    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Bally Sea Ray

    Picked this up yesterday. It was listed on CL for quite awhile but the guy would never budge in his price and kept turning down offers. Anyway, I managed to talk him down a bit.
    It was made in '71 and has a great theme and the artwork is outstanding, it's the pointy people style by Christian Marche.
    Anyway, the game overall is in great shape but the plastics are pretty faded. I don't take any pics of the machine before I took it apart so the one pic below of the assembled machine is not mine. All the rest are of my actual machine. So far I've removed the playfield and have cleaned and gapped all the switches and switched all the coil sleeves from the original metal to plastic. Those are a couple of the first things to do on the old EM's. Next will be to rebuild the flipper mechs and install original coils for the flippers. The ones in there were added sometime later and are actually weaker. Not sure why that was done. Then clean the playield and go thru all the switches in the head and replace the 15 or so coil sleeves in there. Lastly I'll go thru the switches in the cab.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418343858.489337.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418343872.978271.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418343884.005734.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418343896.091236.jpg
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  3. #2
    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    Quote Originally Posted by emmadog View Post
    ... It was listed on CL for quite awhile but the guy would never budge in his price and kept turning down offers....
    Was that the one in Tumalo?
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Yeah, I did a round trip and left early in the morning. Had it in the workshop by 1.
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    Pachi Puro alphaminor's Avatar
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    Default

    Very cool find, love the retro "pointy people" art style
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    Thanks. I do too. Back to removing metal coil sleeves...
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    Kungishi ballsofsteel's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    Quote Originally Posted by emmadog View Post
    ... Back to removing metal coil sleeves...
    blech. Did a Magic City a few weeks ago and had to carve most of them out with a hacksaw blade - darn things didn't want to move period.
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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    I've been lucky on this pin so far. Out of the dozen I replaced so far only one coil required desoldering to remove the sleeve. I knock the stubborn ones out with a socket and place the coil on a block of wood with a hole in it. Works really well.
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    Have all the sleeves replaced under the playfield and the switches cleaned. Started on the head and fortunately the 8 score reel mechs all have plastic sleeves which pull out easily even the dirtiest ones which are the ones units since they fire the most.
    It takes about 20 minutes to disassemble and clean the solenoid dust off all the parts, clean the switches, Novus the score wheel, replace the sleeve and reassemble each one.
    Pics are of inside of head, a score mech, and old sleeves.

    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418431444.485050.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418431458.058165.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418431470.428597.jpg
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    Sandwich Shooter jodini's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    Love it Emmadog! I'll be watching!
    Joe

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    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    So far:
    Replaced all metal coil sleeves with plastic ones and replaced the old plastic ones as well throughout the game-about 30 in all.
    Cleaned and Novus-ed the playfield.
    Fixed 4 stripped playfield post holes.
    Replaced all 47 bulbs with brighter 44's. Playfield inserts will have color matched LEDs.
    Rebuilt flippers with rebuild kits as well as installed new, correct coils.
    Replaced the 10-99 unit stepper coil that was crispy. It still worked fine but a stuck 10 point switch on the playfield made the coil stay on and get very hot. Likely some of the insulation in the windings has been weakened and would have caused a short in the future.
    Cleaned all stepper units and readjusted so wipers hit dead center on each rivet.
    Cleaned pop bumper mechs.
    Cleaned/adjusted multiple switches throughout game during the above.
    Repainted insert key lines.
    What's left:
    Got incredibly lucky and found a set of plastics for this game. Some of mine are ok but half have the majority of the ink missing.
    Debating whether or not to remove the score motor, split the case and clean the internal gears. The score motor cams were greased (a no-no) and though it works fine, all that grease is now old and full of debris and acts as a lapping compound on the bakelite cams. Since I have to remove it to clean the cams, the motor case may as well be split and cleaned I'm thinking.
    Also the inserts are cupped which is almost universal on machinez of this age. Its slight but its there and this creates a height difference between the plastic insert and playfield. The ball hits this and causes playfield wear.
    Next post will be a detailed explanation of game play and pics of new plastics.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418845347.015627.jpg
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    Pachi Puro alphaminor's Avatar
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    Default

    Saw this machine on my local CL and was wondering if it's illustrated by the same artist


    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418864800.129587.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418864808.228182.jpg

    Just out of curiosity,What got you into collecting his style? (other than being very cool)
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    Same artist. He did most of Williams and Bally art in the mid '70s. If you get those pins they will be that style.
    "Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber

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  18. #13
    Pachi Puro emmadog's Avatar
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    Default Qaq

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    Quote Originally Posted by alphaminor View Post
    Saw this machine on my local CL and was wondering if it's illustrated by the same artist


    ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418864800.129587.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1418864808.228182.jpg

    Just out of curiosity,What got you into collecting his style? (other than being very cool)
    well it has to do with the fact that i'm a big fan of mid century modern design and although this pin was made after that, the artwork is reminiscent of that to me. mainly though it's because i found a bally expressway locally and was immediately intrigued with the asymmetrical style and features that are not found on gottlieb pins. ted zale was the creative genius behind many of bally's unorthodox designs. so i started looking for more bally pins designed by him and now have a sea ray, capersville, and an expressway. interestingly, capersville has artwork that is a dead ringer for marche's style but was done by another great artist, jerry kelley.
    having said all that, i'd own these machines just for the theme and artwork.
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    also, if you want a cool EM pin, Gulfstream is one of Williams' greatest.
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    Default Re: Bally Sea Ray

    got the new-to-me plastics in for the sea ray. they're a massive improvement but anything would have been better than the original ones.
    what should have been a quick project to a bit longer since 6 post holes were stripped and a previous owner had used tooth pics or whatever to fill the holes which is fine, but there was no glue holding the repair wood together. so i cleaned them out and glued in skewers. screwed the screws in, backed them out, wicked in thin CA to harden the threads, and cleaned both sides of the plastics with novus 2. the only thing better about the original plastics were the metal bell shaped supports, they're really shiny which lends evidence to my idea that this game didn't get played much in it's life. anyway, i had to get this game up and running which now it is, for the weekend. i'll go back and either polish the new supports or remove the old ones via the soldering gun trick and attach them to the new ones. only thing left to do is get new bumper caps-the text on these has completely faded.
    in the pic you can see the marked difference between the old and new plastics. other pics are of all the plastics and the playfield with the new ones installed. sorry that pic is kinda dark, the flash on my phone isn't as bright as it used to be.
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