"Quit talkin..... and start chalking!"
1981 Bally Eight Ball Deluxe Pinball Machine - Restoration

It's been about 2 years since my last pinball restoration, a 1965 Gottlieb Paradise. 

So I was eager to get started on a new machine. I've still got lots to do. But the most time consuming part is now completed. In February of 2003, I purchased from Dan Crouthamel in Pennsylvania via a for sale post, his Eight Ball Deluxe on rec.games.pinball. 

The machine was in overall good working condition, however the playfield needed some attention as well as some buffing and cleaning on the exterior of the machine. Since then I have been working on the machine regularly in my spare time and I've probably at this point got as much invested into this machine as it's worth. But it's fun, and that's what counts.

As you can see in the before pictures, the playfield was wearing out in the middle section of the playfield and between the flippers. Also some of the words and numbering on some of the inserts had worn away and there was some amature looking touchups on the field. 

The playfield restoration involved me sanding the playfield down to bare wood, spraying 3 coats of polyurathane, installing a Herb Silvers playfield overlay and then sealing the overlay and playfield with about 6 coats of Diamond Elite Varathane. 

Not only was the playfield clearcoated, but I have installed the following new parts:
-new pop bumper bodies and skirts
-new drop targets
-new rubber ring kit
-new clear plastic set
-new silkscreened plastic set
-new shooter springs
-new ball
-new bulbs
-new instruction and pricing cards
-new pop bumper assemblies
-new playfield glass

hanks to each of y'all that have helped me out along the way with parts and expertise.
Chris Munson
John Latimer
Alan Meyer
Pinball Resource
Herb Silvers/arcadeshop.com
Richard Chez
Dan Crouthamel
Rick Miller
Hunter Mackintosh

...and anyone else I may have forgotten

Enjoy, thanks for reading! Craig Hassell


Last Updated: 12/28/03
backglass before1 before2 buffed front clearcoating1
backglass.jpg before1.jpg before2.jpg buffed front.jpg clearcoating1.jpg
clearcoating2 clearcoating3 clearcoating4 clearcoating5 clearcoating6
clearcoating2.jpg clearcoating3.jpg clearcoating4.jpg clearcoating5.jpg clearcoating6.jpg
installed1 installed2 playfield1 playfield2 playfield3
installed1.jpg installed2.jpg playfield1.jpg playfield2.jpg playfield3.jpg
playfield4 playfield5 playfield6 wholefield wholemachine
playfield4.jpg playfield5.jpg playfield6.jpg wholefield.jpg wholemachine.jpg
UPDATE: 12/28/03

We'll I'm disappointed to state, that the above described and pictured playfield is RUINED! I have learned a valueable lesson a playfield with a mylar overlay CAN NOT be clearcoated for long term use. The results in my experience are seperation of clearcoat from overlay as well as curling. I had taken my time while doing the above described playfield project while following along with the instructions for clearcoating a playfield overlay from Jesse's Playfield Overlay Guide web site. This may be the only experience of something like this happening to someone....however let me state that I will NEVER clearcoat an overlay again. Unless you want to run the risk of the same happening to you...then I'd suggest to not clearcoat a playfield with a Arcadegrafix or FabFan playfield overlay.

PROBLEM #1

This problem is noticeable throughout the playfield. As you can see in this picture wherever pressure was applied to reinstall a post, this caused the overlay to sink slightly, thus seperation of mylar from clearcoat. Also as shown in the photo above, you may notice a slight amount of misregistration on lining up the overlay with the yellow area insert. Are all overlay's a perfect match? I doubt it....I have yet to see anyone's playfield overlay installed that has lined up correctly with the lamp inserts from the original playfield for which the overlay is to be installed. I tried to line the Eight Ball Deluxe playfield overlay from Fabulous Fantasies on my playfield for over 45 minutes using the wet method and still some inserts didn't line up correctly. It was kind of a give or take, which do you not want to line up more than others.

PROBLEM #2

Notice in the above photo the seperation of clearcoat from overlay around the 2x, 3x and 4x drop targets. This issue seems to be getting worse week by week. It is also noticeable around the area of the 8 Ball drop target on the opposite side of playfield.

PROBLEM #3

Ouch! This problem is also getting worse as time progresses. Notice the seperation of clearcoat from around the pop bumper. It is now noticeable around all three pop bumper areas and is quite visible under close inspection. For the record, this problem started almost immediately after the playfield was reassembled but I didn't go public with it until now. Notice the small area of seperation taken in the picture from above taken back in May 2003, playfield2.jpg

PROBLEM #4

And the worst problem of all...the straw that broke the camels back. The overlay itself is curling back away from the drop tarket bank area. Playing the game at this point anymore is impossible. A soft shot towards the drop target bank will leave the ball lodged inbetween the drop targets and curling overlay.

The Pinball God's have spoken :-)

While conversing with John via e-mail he understood my pain and out of the kindness of his heart offered to sell me his NOS Eight Ball Deluxe Playfield that I'm currently working on doing the swap out of right now. It's coming along slowly but surely but I hope to have it finished by the beginning of January 2004.

Here is a few pic's of my progress:


Pic of my overlayed playfield with NOS playfield beside it.
The overlayed field looks pretty good from a distance doesn't it?


This picture was taken 12-27-03 showing my progress. Lots of notes and digital
pictures have been taken so far. I'm in the process of moving over the assemblies and running the grounding
strap for the lamps. I hope to get a lot accomplished over this next week of vacation. 

....more pics to follow, stay tuned!