This Old Pinball Repair/Restoration Video
TOP#8 - "Turkeys, Shots and Blows"
(Ball Bowler and Shuffle Alley repair & restoration.)

The two minute teaser video for Windows-based computer with Windows Media Player. If you have a non-Windows machine, there is also a MPG version available that should work on any computer (much larger in size, but higher quality too).

Of course the purchased videos are much higher quality than these web teasers.

The popularity of bowling in the 1950s and 1960s gave the coinop trifecta (United, Chicago Coin, Bally) a chance to make & sell A LOT of EM bowling games! And they sure did as Shuffle Alleys (aka puck bowlers) and Ball Bowlers were the top-end products of the coinop industries during this time. These games made boatloads of money for the operators. Because of this, 30 to 50 years later, there are TONS of EM ball bowlers and shuffle alleys available for restoration. So Norm and the Shagster felt it was time to do a video about restoring these great games, which are frankly the upper echelon of EM coin-op collectibles.

If you own an EM ball bowler or shuffle alley and can't find anyone to repair it, this video is for you. Though it's not exactly the "Idiots Guide to Repairing EM Bowlers", for those that have some mechanical ability and lots of time on their hands, it will show how to do get a bowler working. And if you don't know what "EM" means, you probably have some ground level research to do (see this).

Video covers repair, restoraton and history of EM Ball Bowlers and EM Shuffle Alleys, but this repair information spans most other types of EM games (like pinballs) from post-WW2 to 1978. Over 20 different bowlers are shown in the video (many tens of thousands of dollars worth of restored/working games), with the video concentrates on restoring a 1963 Chicago Coin Grand Spare Lite ball bowler (17.5 feet long, 4.5" balls, six selectible games). The video covers mostly ball bowlers, but shuffle alleys are also wrapped into this video - the only difference between a ball bowler and a puck bowler is the added ball lift mechanism for a ball bowler. Otherwise shuffle alleys and ball bowlers are largely identical in operation and restoration/repair.

Note TOP8 is language and kid friendly, except for the last 2 minutes of the video, which has a sexy babe ("Dandy", who is TOP7 Candy's sister), testing out Shaggy's bowler. So if viewing in front of kids, don't let them see the last two minutes, but the entire rest of the video is PG (no swearing or racy behavior).

Video is hosted by Norm and Shaggy. Two hours and fourty minutes long, NTSC video format, DVD media. The following is a list of the DVD chapter titles. This does not encompass all the information in the video, just where the chapters are marked.

TOP#8 DVD Chapters:

  • Norm's observations on the 1963 CCM Grand Spare Lite (17.5 ft) to be restored.
  • Ball size
  • Contact bowlers
  • 1960 United Bowlarama (20 ft)
  • 1963 CCM Grand (13.5 ft)
  • Wood restoration
  • glue work
  • more glue work
  • 1956 United Bowling alley (14 ft)
  • reattaching cut wires
  • fixing lane switches
  • 1956 United Bowling alley (11 ft)
  • Formica repair
  • pre-assembly
  • removing latex paint
  • 1957 Bally ABC Champion bowler (15 ft)
  • removing latex paint cont.
  • lane and return rubber
  • 1962 United Silvern (9 ft)
  • Pins and the pindeck
  • CCM goosenecks
  • 1965 CCM Super Sonic (17.5 ft)
  • Pinhoods
  • Fixing a Pinset motor
  • 1958 United Midget Alley (7 ft)
  • Fixing a ball lift motor
  • 1959 United Team-mate (13 ft)
  • EM work
  • How an EM bowler works
  • 1950 Gottlieb Bowlette (5 ft)
  • Visual EM inspection
  • 1957 Bally ABC Tournament (15 ft)
  • Systematic EM repair
  • 1955 United 5th Inning (9 ft)
  • Cleaning connectors
  • 1958 Bally All-Star deluxe (5 ft)
  • Stepper units
  • 1970 Williams Mini-Bowl (5 ft) manikin bowler
  • Score reels
  • 1957 Williams Ten Pins (7 ft) manikin bowler
  • Switch contacts
  • 1957 CCM TV Bowler (16.5 ft)
  • Switches cont.
  • 1958 United Bonus bowler (13 ft)
  • Flash motor
  • First test
  • 1962 CCM Gold Crown (17.5 ft)
  • make a backdoor
  • ballpit rubber
  • TSC
  • more ballpit rubber
  • ball trough rubber
  • ball lift cups
  • coinbox
  • shin rubber
  • lane "white-out"
  • fixing lane warp
  • 1962 United Holiday (17 ft)
  • fixing lane warp cont.
  • 1958 United Atlas shuffle alley (9 ft)
  • #63 bulbs and socket fixes
  • ball versus shuffle bowlers
  • 1963 CCM Majestic (17.5 ft)
  • All done
  • Dandy
  • Credits

See pinrepair.com/top for purchase details.



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