Centigrade 37

I really love C37. It has that classic Gordon Morrison artwork, a scifi theme, and two women with an interesting relationship. The bonus animation is really unique, and when you reach the top of the thermometer and reanimate the blond, the kickout hole is lit for unlimited Specials! I was 13 when this came out in 1977, but I don't remember seeing it then.

My backglass is a high-quality screened reproduction done by Ron and Nancy Webb. The old glass was flaking and faded, so I was really glad when these were released. 

I replaced the red and white thermometer ribbon with one that the previous owner made. The old one was pretty ugly:

Next, I tackled the rusty set of legs. I used my smaller wire wheel and "The Must For Rust", and finished off with "Nevr-Dull". The picture below shows how well this combination worked. I recommend a dust mask when doing this, because the air gets full of tiny metal particles - not so good for the lungs.

It's actually pretty amazing how well these cleaned up; they look brand new to me. 

The flipper buttons were removed and cleaned next:

Before - cruddy

After cleaning with Novus2 - shiny

After taking about 100 pictures, I stripped everything off the playfield:

I used short lengths of plastic tubing under the playfield, to hold the switches down:

The 1-way switch actuators will really gouge up your hands, so this is well worth the time. 

Some spots on the playfield will need touching up:

I've got an arsenal of art supplies to tackle this, starting with this small set of Golden acrylics:

The "Napthol Red Light" was a perfect match, so I really lucked out on that. Yellow and orange will be more difficult.

All of these pictures were taken about a month ago. I now have three major projects underway:

• Centigrade 37 (1977 Gottlieb)
• Space Mission (1975 Williams)
• World Series (1974 Chicago Coin)

I'll write more about World Series in my next post.