I recently posted in the "small scores" thread about a recent addition to my pinball collection, Fathom.  I decided that for those interested, I might blog about how I procured that machine, which is fairly interesting, and the steps I am currently taking to get it back to good, if not great condition.  So here goes....



HOW WE MET

Several weeks ago, my wife and I made plans to travel to the mountains this past weekend with another couple for a little R&R.  We had planned to drop the kids off at my parent's house and have a much needed weekend of sleeping in (well...8:30 a.m., as we are not conditioned to sleep late anymore) and hangout with a couple that we use to hang out with a lot, but who in the past two years moved to Beirut. 

While sitting in my office on Thursday and trolling Craiglist for pinball machines, I came upon an ad from an auction company that stated that there was an estate auction about and hour and half away from my house that Saturday and that they were auctioning off two pinball machines (however, the titles of the machines were unlisted).  I quickly Googled the auction company, fumbled through their horribly designed website, and finally came upon some pictures of both machines (a Fathom and a Speakeasy).  Needless to say, I was very excited to find a Fathom for sale in my area.  Fathom is one of those machines I had added and crossed off my wishlist several times within the last year, not because I didn't want one, but because they are super hard to find and even harder to locate in good condition.

I stared at the solitary picture for several minutes and like a P.I. from an old film noir, I broke down the components of the image and calculated the cost to repair it if needed.  The positives were that the auction company had plugged in the machine and turned it on.  From the image, I could tell that the lights in the backglass and the general illumination on the playfield was good.  The scoring displays also looked nice and bright, and eliminated the cost of new displays (probably a little over $200).  I wasn't sure whether it play, but everything about the picture indicated that it would be work checking out (or begging someone to check it out for me, remember I had weekend plans....).

One of the first things I did was call one of my good friends who lives in town and who I have known for over 10 years.  We sort of got into the hobby together and he is very handy with electronics and restoration projects; it's been a lot of fun for us in terms of helping each other out and learning "trial by fire" techniques in order to repair machines (he is currently repainting my Taxi playfield).  I told him about the machine and about my "unfortunate" weekend plans and he immediately said, "Send me the info and I'll check it out to see if it's worth a trip."  A mere few minutes later, he (and his pinball-loving girlfriend.....I know right!) offered to get up early and attend the auction if I was still interested.

I quickly checked out all of the local parts vendors online to determine what was out there in terms of the essentials for restoring a machine.  Things like backglasses, playfield plastics, specially made pop bumper caps and targets, stencils, and decals can be impossible to find for older machines and if you can locate them, they can be very expensive to obtain depending on their rarity (sometimes almost the cost of the machine....).  Many mechanical parts, screws, flippers, posts, etc. are common for many machines and are typically stocked by pinball part distributors.  Checking out parts availability is something I definitely recommend before even going to see a machine  I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to locate everything I might need for a possible restore for Fathom.


After checking for parts, I called my buddy back and we discussed bid amounts and different scenarios depending on how the machine looked up close.  He was basically bidding with my money while I wasn't there and wanted to ensure that I would be happy with the money spent and the quality of the machine. Everything was set and I couldn't wait to wake up Saturday morning and get a text telling me about the machine and whether I had won it.

I woke up Saturday morning and had breakfast and around 10:00 a.m. I got a call from my friend.  He told me that the machine was in a pretty funky basement and that though the machine was lighting up, it wouldn't start a game.  After watching several videos on the game, I knew it was a 3-ball machine and we concluded that maybe the issue was that it did not have enough balls in the machine to play.  You see, older machines will not specifically display that they need an extra ball like newer ones will, they simply just will not start a game.  Still feeling pretty good, we talked again about price based on what he saw and I hung up feeling pretty good..........until.........

In about fifteen minutes after ending our call, my friend sent me a text telling me that several "pinball people" had shown up at the auction.  When you get into the hobby of pinball collecting and repair, you get to know the local collectors and operators, and this was a bad sign.  I had been checking the local collectors' website all day Friday to see if the cat had been let out of the bag regarding this local Fathom, but all was quiet and I was feeling good about getting the machine cheap.  This text was disheartening, and caused me to rethink my bid amount and our strategy, so I sent a text back to up the amount a little.

A hour or so passed and I was sitting at a restaurant with my wife and one of our friends and I got the text, "It's yours, $900 after commission."  I literally flipped out at the table and delivered high fives to both my wife and our friend, who in all honesty, both could have probably cared less.  I thought the price was great considering what I would have to spend restoring it and what the book value was in my Mr. Pinball 2012 Price Guide.  Even though this is an older title, it is very desirable by collectors and is listed at $1800+ (+ means rising).  I had even saw a fully restored one sell recently for over $4500 on a local site, so as you can imagine, I was pretty stoked about the price.

THE PICK UP

I arrived home on Sunday evening and called my buddy to work out picking up the machine.  We decided Tuesday might be good, so we agreed on that night.  After work on Tuesday, I arrived at this house, loaded it up in my SUV, and drove it over to my garage.  From first glance the cabinet looked very much above average, espicailly for its age, but more importantly, the backglass on this machine had been removed for transport and when I saw it my jaw dropped; it was original and minty (no flaking)  The top of the machine was still covered with a blanket and the head was unhinged, lying face down, and strapped; I still had not seen the playfield on this machine.  We backed it into my garage, pulled it out, put the legs on, and sat the backbox upright.  This is what I saw:


Now, many people seeing this (including my wife) might go into panic mode, "You spent how much on this???"  But to the trained eye, you realized that it's been in a basement and the backglass is merely just covered in dirt.  Before the auction, my friend was smart enough to slide the glass down and check it out before bidding.  Once we took the glass off, this is what we saw.  Not bad....  Notice the difference in the right slingshot plastic in comparison to the left, we merely wiped if off with our fingers, so you can imagine how much dirty is on the entire playfield.


Yes, it's very still very dirty under the glass, but it's nothing a wet rag and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser won't take care of.  We spent most of the night cleaning it up and replacing some of the rubbers with extras I had.  I don't have any more recent pics, as I wanted to save those for my next restoration post, but here is an email I sent to some local pinheads to give you an idea of how I accessed the condition and what we did to get her playing:

"Backglass is original and MINTY!!!! Cabinet looks above average, playfield has some fading and ball circles, but only has a few very unnoticeable spots of wear.  Game was stuck on tilt and [my friend] and I tried to trace it, but could not locate the source to fix it and get it out, removed the tilt wiring on the boards, and BAM! she's rollin' and playing 100% (without tilt of course).  Cleaned her up really well last night and put in new balls.  Just ordered new CPR plastics, rubbers, drop targets, springs, spinner and coin door decals, coil sleeves, yellow cab protectors, flippers, and levelers.  Bought some new chrome screws and acorn nuts from Lowes and am going to repaint the legs (which are already black - originals).  Also bought some chrome polish, since the game was sitting in a damp basement and has a few places that need some serious cleaning."

I'm getting really stoked about having this machine up and running completely.  I hope that some of you will enjoy the restore blog and below I've included some great pics of the fantastic artwork from this machine.  If any of you are ever interested in purchasing a pin, please feel free to contact me with any questions.  I will do my best to answer them and hopefully help you find a pin that is right for you.





 


       

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