1984 Bally / Midway Eight Ball Deluxe SS
Starting Condition
This Eight Ball Deluxe was a decent player when I got it several years ago. In fact, I played it regularly for about 2 years before I started restoring it. After those two years, I grew tired of the aesthetic condition but most of all, the playfield was starting to aggravate me as my pinball skills grew. From the cupped inserts to the chips of wood that planked off the playfield to the scuffs and scratches on the in-lanes that were so bad that it would actually stop a slow rolling ball in its tracks and get stuck.
The backglass was in great shape and thankfully so. This Eight Ball Deluxe is the “classic” 1984 version made by the merger of Bally and Midway. While the original 1981 version of Eight Ball Deluxe uses a standard Bally plywood cabinet of the time, the 1984 cabinet is mostly MDF and utilizes a swing-out door on the backbox so that access to the boards can be accomplished without actually removing the backglass. While a very handy feature that I like very much, the size of the ‘84 backglass is slightly smaller and there are no repros that I could find. This makes it very difficult to replace a poor ‘84 backglass as the ‘81 backglass does not fit in the door
While the cabinet was structurally sound, the factory decals were very badly faded and there were a few nicks here and there like you’d expect on a 40 year old machine. Lots of dirt and grime to get rid of as well. On top of that, at some point in its life, someone did some black touch ups on the cab with rattle can and didn’t mask off anything on interior. Evidence of black overspray is abundant from the lockbar receiver to the tilt board and the armor plates covering the leg screws. Sloppy work!
Functionally, everything worked but could work better. On the To-Do list for this restoration is:
Install a hardtop over the original decaying playfield
Flipper rebuild on all three flippers
Repair minor cabinet damage and re-paint.
Convert lamps to LEDs.
Although working, go through the boards and bulletproof them.
Rebuild the coin door so it looks great and actually works.
Clean, polish, and de-rust as much as possible
Put on a new set of plastics, posts, drop targets, pop-bumper caps, and pop-bumper skirts.
