I just finished restoring my first 81D. This was a machine I picked up almost 3 years ago at the urging of Slider Bob when I was starting to get into machines. I wasn't sure if I should buy it as it was the cabinet and a bucket of parts (previous owner took it apart and never started restoring). Slider Bob said, "buy it now", so I didn't second guess him. It sat until a few months ago when I decided to finally dig into it and restore it for my dad as a surprise. Most of the parts were there, but I had to buy a coin door as mine was missing the bezel. I wanted to post the before pics, but can't find them, so the new pics will have to do.
Thanks to all that helped along the way. There's many and it's hard to remember them all, so I apologize if I forget any. I had a thread on restoring the bottle stack and many people helped with that (Fire708, Slapshot42, MoonDawg, and Ltransam, BrianS, and collecture). I eneded up zinc plating most everything in there. I powder coated the shelves, liner, and bottle stack cover plate. Tom (collecture) restored the coin mech and I got my parts re-chromed at Speed Sport. SliderBob, SIGNGUY, and georgescustompaint also helped with odd questions and parts were orders from SJW & Funtronics. Thanks again for the the help on here. Couldn't have done it without all the great people.
