Willams Grand Prix Pinball Restoration

It's been a while since my last post, but now I'm back with some good news! The project is 99% complete, and last night the game got a serious stress test which surprisingly left the game fully intact :)

The work I've done on the machine includes:

• vacuumed backbox and cabinet
• Dusted "motherboard" panel with compressor
  
• Cabinet and backbox cleaning with soap
  
• Playfield wipe down with Novus #2
• Playfield waxed and buffed with Carnuba wax (two layers)
• All bulbs (playfield and backbox) replaced with brand new #44 bulbs
  
• Added switch to coin return button to add credit (free play)
• All topside playfield components removed and cleaned with Novus
• All metal parts polished with Autosol
• All rubbers, including shooter tip, replaced with brand new
  
• Spinner targets adjusted for optimal performance
  
• Outhole kickouts adjusted to not drain ball every time
• Switches and relays cleaned, filed, and adjusted if appropriate
• Rebuild and cleaned pop bumpers and replaced pop skirts
• Rebuild flippers and replaced coil sleeves, brushing, plungers and links
• Replaced cracked flipper bats
  
• Adjusted shooter spring
• Added two missing leg levelers
• All score reels removed, cleaned, adjusted and rebuild
• Bakelite disks cleaned, sanded and adjusted
  
• Soldered a couple of loose wires
• Sanded all male connector pins
• Touch-ups on playfield with acrylic paint
• Coin door cleaned and polished
• All stepper units broken down, cleaned and adjusted
• Playfield mylar around pop bumpers removed
• Touch-ups around playfield inserts with black sharpie pen
  
• New mirror glazed ball added

Together all this amounts more or less to what Scott Farrar calls a platinum level pinball shopping. All that's left now is to clean the backglass and playfield glass, which should be easy as long as I don't drop any of them in the process :)

All in all I spent about 70 hours (two weeks) of actual work in the shop, which is close to what I estimated before starting up. Considering I didn't know squat about pinball machines, let alone electro mechanical ones, I'm quite happy about the result.

Here are some pictures of the finished machine and the stress testing:





























Now that the project is finished I'd like to thank all the people at Trondheim Pinheads for their valuable help and support, especially Øyvind, Hallgeir, Stian, Mads, Hans Jørgen and Arne. I'd also like to thank the community at rec.games.pinball for their tips and tricks, and last, but not least, the author of the excellent EM Repair Guide at PinballHQ, Clay Harrel.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Tor Arne