1980 Williams Black Knight SS

I bought a nice player Black Knight from a guy on Facebook at a reasonable price. Upon receipt, it actually played well with only a few switches needing adjustment along with flipper rebuilds. I performed that maintenance along with putting in a playfield protector to overcome the badly cupped inserts and I enjoyed the machine for a couple of years before deciding to restore it.

At first glance, you may ask "why restore?" when it looks ok and plays pretty good already. I want it to look and play like new, and perhaps even add a custom touch or two. I loved the way my Meteor restoration came out and I wanted to duplicate that success. And since we're starting with pretty good bones here, this restore was easier than most.

The bad:

• Playfield has tons of ball swirls that no matter how hard I try to clean, I just can't get them out without experiencing paint loss

• Playfield has loss of artwork here and there from 40 years of wear and tear. Could those spots be touched up and cleared? Yes, but out of my skill set. Plus ball swirls above.

• Inserts are BADLY cupped, radically affecting ball trajectory.

• Some GI lights blink during nudging. Likely bad sockets - need to replace up to a dozen and reflow solder everywhere.

• Cabinet paint is faded and scratched

• Cabinet has deep scratches and gouges (and a few initials carved in here and there)

• Rear of backbox has hole punch-thru’s from a previous owner who put in wire clamp screws that were TOO LONG

• If you lift the playfield with the power on, the machine sometimes resets. I likely figured this one out already during tear-down....found a loose grounding wire near the transformer. All new grounding braid will be going in the cabinet after the re-paint.

• While all displays work, there is some burn-in evident but only visible with the game off. I'll probably keep them since they look fine while the game is on.

The good:

• Backglass is perfect. I doubt it's original, but it doesn't look like a CPR. Maybe it's a Mayfair?

• Cabinet is structurally sound and even the corners look good. Repairs of scratches and gouges will be routine bondo and glazing putty.

• Machine was 100% playable before tear down and has been pretty reliable for the last couple of years.

• Plastics are in nice shape. Not sure they're original...they look a little too good for that.

• Playfield underside and wire harnesses are surprisingly clean.