Helically Wrapped
General History:
Derby Day is a pinball machine from April 1956, manufactured by D. Gottlieb & Co. It has been confirmed that only 1600 units had been produced. The game is themed as a horse race the middle playfield displays a race track with lights. As the player earns points they can also advance the position of up to four different horses. It was not uncommon to see people placing bets as to which horse would win as their friends played the game. This game is an electro-mechanical game there is no circuitry here, it runs on AC instead of DC power
Derby Day Information:
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This machine was a rare find, I was working one day and had mentioned that I had recently restored an arcade machine Zaxxon) and had a good deal of fun doing so. The man I had been talking to had responded by saying he had an old pinball machine I may be interested in. As it turned out he and a friend of his enjoyed restoring old engines and they had traded for this pinball machine 16 years prior. He mentioned its condition and that he had never energized it, that it had been a project they just never got around to. He and his friend sold it to me for a great deal and said they were glad to see it go to someone who would give it the attention it deserved.
As soon as I got the machine home I started removing the old rubber which was now solid pieces that crumbled away when I pulled them off. Then I started unscrewing all the pieces from the playfield. After everything had been removed I could see years of mouse pop that had accumulated around the edges of the machine so I pulled out my trusty shop-vac and removed the feces. While I was doing this my wife ran out to Lowes to purchase lemon oil (lemon oil is used to clean old wood that has paint you do not wish damaged on it among other things). I wanted the oil to sink in before attempting to open the machine so as hard as it was to leave alone that day I let my wife wipe it down and let it sit overnight. Later that evening I ordered a new rubber kit.
The next day I ran into my first set of problems. To start, this machine still had its locks in place, but no coin mech installed so I began by drilling out the lock on the front of the machine and I am not sure if it was because of how old the lock was or maybe back then locks were made of steel or something but it was by far the most difficult lock I had ever drilled through (I’ve drilled many locks in the past) 3 hours later and around a dozen bits broken trying to get through this beast I got the lock off. Once I was in I opened the door and just inside right next to the coin mech hole there was a key which I could have easily reached had I known it was there. Luckily that came in handy as there was still a lock on the back of the machine.
Once I opened the back I found a schematic of the electrical portion of the machine. I also saw the first glimpse of the beauty of how this machine works. The mechanism that keeps score was there to see, and even though I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking it I knew at the time, it was amazing.
I then needed to lift the playfield up to get inside the machine and this to days to achieve. There was six screws holding it in place and they were old, probably original screws. As I attempted to remove them five of the 6 screw head just came right off It took a special drill bit and hours of carefully
drilling into each old screw in order to get them out, it took four days to remove all five screws. Getting to see inside the machine was well worth all the hard work. Everything was electro-mechanical a rare thing to see for sure, I felt like Indiana Jones discovering some lost treasure. Electro-magnets everywhere that’s how every piece on the playfield worked as simple as a coiled wire and an iron rod. The points where even kept track this way with 2 mechanical wheels that would rotate and if the metal pins made contact with a particular piece it would light a bulb which told you your score, that’s how simple this machine is; defiantly a thing of beauty and an electrical masterpiece of the time. It was clear a mouse had made a home in the back corner so out came my trusty shop-vac and I went to cleaning. I found all five pinballs (though they were rusted) and a Key clearly to some storage locker.
I knew before I could energize the machine I would need to lubricate the Iron rods as well as the wheels for the score board so I lubed each piece and moved them gently with my finger to make sure there was no friction. I also pulled out my multi meter and ran a little power though each wire to make sure there was no breaks I may have needed to repair. Then I lowered the playfield and plugged in the machine not everything worked properly but she was a lady again. Many bulbs didn’t work and some of the parts needed a little more care to get functioning. I replaced every bulb (around 80) and I sanded the rust of all the metallic playfield parts and cleaned every plastic peg in a chemical bath.
Years ago many of the bumpers and all of the plastic art had warped due to the heat from the light bulbs. So I replaced the plastic bumpers and caps and ordered replica plastic art for the playfield. But I could not through away the old stuff; it was all hand painted and beautiful. What I have done is built a shadow box where I have placed all the warped playfield art and caps. And display it proudly with the machine.
