I bought a Gottlieb Spirit of 76 game in mid-April of 2007.  I ended up paying $400 for the game since although it would fire up, none of the score wheels would reset, the ball count would never increment, the right target bank always stayed down, the score motor ran on and on, and the playfield had some wear in the usual places.  The backglass isn't perfect, but it had only minor flaking.

While searching around on the Internet for info regarding this game, I discovered Dave Pauk's pages outlining what he did to restore his game.  He supplies many pictures with descriptions for each picture discussing the problems he faced, and what he did to rectify problems.  You can find Dave's restoration pictures and discussion here.

The pictures of my restoration effort for this old game are shown below.  It can't be too bad a game for $400, but even still, it takes time to get one of these games right.  Especially a 30 year old electro-mechanical game.

Update - First, I traded this game to my pinhead buddy Ryan for his Soccer game. Then after it was gone for a while I realized how much I missed it. Lucky for me, Ryan also missed a Sure Shot game that he used to have. The result is that I traded my Sure Shot and one of my Top Card games to Ryan for the Spirit of 76 which is back home again.

(click picture to enlarge)

Spirit of 76 Flyer

 

Glass Artwork

 

Underside of Playfield.
 

 

Underside of Playfield showing
the flipper area.

 

Inside the gamebox.

 

Inside the backbox.

 

Lower left view of
the inside of the backbox.

 

Lower right view of
the inside of the backbox.

 

Score wheels without the backglass.
 

 

Latch to hold the light board
and score wheels in place.

 

Upper left part of backbox
showing glass retainer.

 

Upper right part of backbox
showing glass retainer.

 

Upper playfield.

 

Upper playfield.

 

Upper playfield with pop
bumper view.

 

Mid-playfield showing left
side of the playfield.

 

Center of the playfield.

 

Right side of the playfield.

 

Lower playfield showing insert
wear (all the inserts fell out).
 

 

Another view of the lower
playfield showing the wear
around the inserts.

 

Lower playfield.
 

 

Removing a "pin" using
a dowel for leverage.

 

Target bank removed.
 

 

Another view of the
removed target bank.

 

Side view of the finished playfield.


 
Another view of the playfield
showing the wire forms that
still need to be inserted in
to the playfield.

 

 

All Graphics & Text © Steve Corley

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