1979 Williams Flash SS

This Flash was a project in every sense of the word - just a step up or two from “total basket case”. All of the boards came with the machine, but they were already removed from the backbox and in a separate container. They looked “ok” and without any acid damage, severe hacks, or evidence of poor rework but I had to assume they were non-functional and I was in for a lengthy repair process.

On the cabinet side - it had certainly seen better days. The neck on the bottom cab was broken off (but the pieces were included!). The bottom edge of the bottom cabinet was pretty much destroyed - I saw a lot of bondo or resin work in my future there. Plus all of the support edging that holds in the floor from the underside of the bottom cabinet was either suspect or missing, causing the floor to sag. The rear of the backbox was swollen from water damage with all sorts of MDF fibers busting out around the edges. This cab was going to need a lot of work.

The backglass and playfield were ok - if I was going to shoot for a player’s condition pin, I’d do some touch up paint, rattle can clearcoat, and polish it up it bit. But my goal here was a “factory fresh” restoration so both will be replaced with reproductions, along with a new set of plastics.

One of the bigger challenges for this project, for me anyway, is that this is the first restoration I’ve done without repairing and getting the pin to work first before tearing it down. So I’ll be doing weeks and weeks of restoration work and then hope I can figure it all out when it comes time to put it back together after investing so many hours and money! Good thing I got this project for practically free.