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This page includes info regarding my 1974 Gottlieb Out of Sight 2 Player EM Wedgehead Pinball game. I got this game from Kim (Mr.68) for 350 bucks in February of 2009 with no idea of whether it worked or not, but it looked like a decent game that was in pretty good shape with a good backglass. Out of Sight is a cool theme with a zany backglass and although an EM, it also has a ball kickback at the left outlane when enabled. I plugged the game in to see if it worked and as it turned out it immediately blew a fuse, so that meant there was an electrical problem with the game. I stored the game on end until I could get around to restoring it, and began restoration in May of 2011 (yep, a two year wait to get to the game although I've had some games that waited 25 years for their turn). When I say restoration, what I mean is that I take a game that I plan to keep or potentially trade some day and I remove all of the parts from the upper playfield (absolutely everything) and also remove any components from the underside of the game that may protrude through the playfield. That means all rollover switches, flipper bushings, drop target banks, vertical up-kickers, ball eject mechanisms, slingshots, etc. Once the parts are removed I clean the playfield with Mean Green followed by Magic Eraser with isopropyl alcohol (99%), and then I use Novus 2 on it to see how it will look. If it looks faded, or if I need to do more than very basic touchups, I clear-coat the playfield. Once the playfield clear-coat cures I begin reassembly, almost always with new parts such as new posts, pop bumper bodies, bumper skirts, bumper caps, drop targets, flipper bats, EOS switches, plastics (sometimes), flipper bushings, locksets, rings, and flipper switches. I almost always triple-thick the backglass to prevent future flaking from occurring. All metal parts are either buffed on a buffing wheel (because they are too large to fit in a tumbler) or they are tumbled for a couple of days. I eventually get the playfield re-populated and then I pull the relay board out of the bottom of the cabinet and clean and correctly gap the contacts while the relay board rests on sawhorses since it's easier to do this way. I almost always disassemble the score wheels and clean them as well as any steppers and ball count units in the backbox. When all of this is finished, I hook everything up and turn the game on and proceed from there. Usually the score motor takes off running and won't quit, but that's often caused by a switch that for whatever reason remained closed or is open and doesn't close correctly. I don't do the kind of restoration that costs others $3,000 to have done by a place like High End Pins since they are the very best when it comes to restorations, but my restoration work is better than simply using Novus on the playfield followed by a good waxing and maybe some new rings. Most of my restoration work includes clear-coating the playfield with up to 5 coats and sanding between each coat. There were 1,750 of these games made and it was released in December of 1974. The game features 2 flippers, 3 pop bumpers, 2 slingshots, two 5-bank drop targets, 2 standup targets, one left kickback lane, and one right outlane ball return gate. Ed Krynski was the designer and it has beautiful artwork designed by Gordon Morison. Gottlieb also made a 4 player version in 1974 and released it as "Far Out." Lots of psychedelic looking stuff going on in the backglass artwork with bright colors make this a nice looking game. (click picture to enlarge)
Out of Sight Flyer
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