I FINALLY got me one! Yaaay! Jumping up and down

[SteveFury]

I worked in a vending machine refurbish shop from the mid 1970's to the early 80's and worked mostly on EM pinball machines.

I always loved to work on the Gottlieb Spirit of 76 Internet Pinball Machine Database: Gottlieb 'Spirit of 76' because I like the combination of drop targets, bumpers and how the playfield is laid out. I've begun selling some of my antique radios http://home.comcast.net/~stevedez/sale/sale.html to save for an EM pinball machine. I just miss them and have for a long time. Any decent one would do. My budget for this is very small and I've been keeping a keen eye on Craigs List for anything under $200. Every time one has popped up and I call, it is already sold. So frustrating.

Then I came across this advertisement 3 pinball one slot machine 1975

I couldn't believe it, it is the same Spirit of 76 that I've always loved. I offered $150 and I couldn't believe (still can't believe) the offer was accepted. The seller says the playfield glass is missing and it doesn't work, it won't play but the lights come on. I wasted no time in picking it up just this afternoon. The seller says it belonged to a friend of his who had died, and the friend had this machine stored in his barn for 30-40 years. He seems like a very honest guy and I have no reason to doubt.

First the bad:
A rodent had been in it at one point in time and stayed long enough to make a nest. Not too bad though, no wires had been chewed, no puddles of pee (except maybe on the timer unit.. spot of rust-see photo) and no droppings. It needs a new rubber kit, the whole cabinet needs paint and other repairs, a lot of cleaning and none of the stepper units work because they're too gummed up. The playfield needs a lot of work such as cleaning, and color touch-up. Of course the game doesn't work and there's no point in me even plugging it in.

Now for the good:
The lightbox glass is near perfect. I could not see a single spot of peeling at all. The only issue is minor fading of colors in a few areas. Except for the playfield glass it is complete. To my delight, it still has both of its quarter coin mechanisms. None of the coils except the tilt relay shows sign of heat stress. It came with 3 copies of the schematic, a lot of score cards and original shipping packaging type note cards and coil mechanism specifications and drawings.
And the best good of all, is that it's a Spirit of 76!!! (I'm still jumping for joy. Don't pinch me!)

I have a vintage pachinko to finish rebuilding, but the Mrs. required me to thoroughly clean my pinball machine before keeping it in the house. So these are some of my "before" and "after" pics mixed up. This is going to be a longer-term project. I want this to end up being a real nice machine and I don't care if 100 hrs of labor is required. The game counter is at 065198. I see that some new aftermarket products are available such as rubber kits, playfield graphic kits etc.

Can you tell I'm jazzed about this??

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