My Williams Whirlwind restore

CathalDublin

So I got a phone call about 3 weeks ago looking for me to make an offer on a pinball that was sat in a warehouse for 10+ years.
Anyway long story short, I drove out had a look and bought it, The flippers didn't work, none of the lights worked although it did power up, after a bit of soldering and fixing some botched taped wires, etc, I've now most the problems fixed.
Here is how it stood the day I took it home. It looked a hell of a lot smaller in the warehouse than it did in my spare room of the apartment, girlfriend not impressed:eek:

Click to enlarge







Stripping the playfield - As you can see its not a pretty sight

CathalDublin

The worn out rubbers



The reconstruction and finished product
















A few quick videos of how it looks and plays so far, there is still a few small electrical faults causing the topper not to function and the red lights on the ramps aswell as the lightning at the back
Select 1080p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlSPtWalGGU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5qFy1W3_Oo

Myrddin

Looks fantastic, well done

Andrew76

Very nice CathalDublin, sound off it is excellent too!

CathalDublin

Andrew76 wrote: »

Very nice CathalDublin, sound off it is excellent too!

That's the volume down as low as it go's, the neighbours love me;)

Andrew76

CathalDublin wrote: »

That's the volume down as low as it go's, the neighbours love me;)

Ooh even better so, as Dessie Curley says "so fcuk the neighbours!"
Haven't been near a pinball in many years but that video makes me want one. And as for the gf not being impressed, pah they come and go, your own pinball machine is much harder to find. :pac:

Steve X2

I'm not into pinball games really but that is nice, well done.

.

Spacedog

nice restoration, if you're into pinball/racecars or electronics check out jeri ellsworth channels on youtube. she's got a shop full of them and had made many more from scratch.

CathalDublin

Steve SI wrote: »

I'm not into pinball games really but that is nice, well done.

.

I wasn't really into pins because every pin I've played in an arcade has some flaw and just knicked my money, but I have to say I'm loving it, great fun to play and fixing it up was great fun, learnt loads too.

Pyongyang

CathalDublin wrote: »

The worn out rubbers

Hurr hurr! *smirk*

CathalDublin

Finally got around to tinkering with this again tonight and managed to get the topper fan working which is well cool.
If anyone else has the same issue (unlikely on boards.ie anyway) It turned out to be a dry solder joint on the triac board fuse holder and it was barely noticable, only when I pulled the fuse and wiggled the holder could I see ever so slight movement on one of the legs.

Jack burton

I saw this and thought I missed out on a big get around here haha

Looks great though! one question though, should there not be music when your playing it along with the fx

CathalDublin

Jack burton wrote: »

I saw this and thought I missed out on a big get around here haha

Looks great though! one question though, should there not be music when your playing it along with the fx

There should, still need to fix the music and the red flashers.
Music kicks in when your on your last ball and lock it
I think it may be a corrupt rom causing the music to be missing

CathalDublin

well I finally got the red flashers working, Faulty relay on the main cpu board
and almost have my sound problems fixed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC_NDr8vuXE