Sky Jump Logo

 

This page includes info regarding my 1974 Gottlieb Sky Jump single player EM wedgehead Pinball game. I bought this game from my friend Kevin for an undisclosed amount. There were 4,200 of these games made and it was released in May of 1974. Ed Krynski was the designer and it has beautiful artwork designed by Gordon Morison who is one of my favorite artwork designers.

The game didn't turn out to look as good as I remembered it several years before I decided to return to the game and get it up and running to my satisfaction, mostly due to the touchups which ultimately caused problems. I bought it at a decent price, but I knew going in that I would have to do touchups, find some plastics for the game, replace the posts, lane guides, and pop bumpers plastic since there was original parts and they were pretty yellowed. I don't mind doing this because it makes the game look quite a bit better with nice clean white parts rather than that dirty yellowed look old games have after sitting around for a while.

After I magic-erasered the game, I discovered that there were quite a few touchups done on the playfield. I also found where two screws had lifted up the playfield top plywood layer due to screws that were too long attempting to punch through the playfield from the underside. I used an Xacto knife to cut out the raised area and then filled it so that it was flush with the surface. The crappy touchups were done using enamel paint, most likely Testor's enamel. The colors were not a very good match, so I removed the touchups with Magic Eraser soaked in alcohol, and I did acrylic touchups that as usual, were OK, but not perfect. I followed this up with my first clear-coat using Varathane.

The blue areas down near the flippers in the center of the playfield looked great after initially shooting the playfield with Varathane, but as it began to cure, the blue enamel color that had stained the wood showed through and left splotchy areas everywhere the original touchups had been made. Grrrrrr, it looked so good right after shooting the playfield, I really thought I had done a great job on the acrylic color matching. I guess in the future I will really watch out for cases where something like Testor's enamel paint was used since the pigment can evidently interact through the acrylic paint as the Varathane cures.

After reassembly, I encountered lots of problems with the game not working correctly. Most of this had to do with the scorewheels needing some serious cleaning as well as needing to clean feature bank switches, score motor switches, several relays switch adjustments, the "F" relay for the score match, and the ball count unit that was causing the game to eject 6 balls in order to finish a game.

(click picture to enlarge)

 

Sky Jump Flyer
Sky Jump Flyer

Restoration Pictures

The pictures below show my Sky Jump game starting with how the game initially appeared, followed by pictures at various stages of disassembly, and a few final shots after clear-coating and reassembly.

 
Lower Playfield

Drop Targets

Another View of
Drop Target Area

Left Slingshot Area


Above Drop Targets

Upper Left Lanes

Upper Left Playfield

Left Pop Bumper

Pop Bumpers

Duped Plastic

 
Flipper Area

 
 
Tools Used To
Disassemble Playfield

 
Plastics Removed
Upper Playfield

Plastics Removed
Slingshot Area

Posts Removed
Center Playfield

Posts Removed
Upper Playfield

Posts Removed
Right Slingshot

Stripped Playfield
Pop Bumper Area

Stripped Upper Playfield

Stripped Drop Targets

Stripped Lower Playfield

Stripped Center Playfield

 
Magic Eraser & Alcohol

 
Drop Targets
After Magic Eraser

Special Area
After Magic Eraser

Upper Playfield
After Magic Eraser

Left Pop Bumper
After Magic Eraser

Pop Bumpers Removed

Flippers Removed

Drop Targets
Underside Playfield

Drop Target Bank
Removed

Parts Removed
From Playfield



Ball Count Unit
Ensure these rivets are clean
or you may have an extra ball
ejected when the game ends.

Backglass Reveals
Missing Red Colors


Upper Playfield After
Clear-coating and Before
Reassembly

Drop Target View
After Clear-coating
and Reassembly

Playfield After
Clear-coating


   

 

 

 

All Graphics & Text © Steve Corley

The pictures you see were created by Steve Corley unless otherwise noted.
Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited