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Hi Folks,
I am finally starting the restoration/resurrection of my 1935 Genco Spit Fire. Apart from the generally poor condition, there are two obvious things missing…

1. The Balls. Does anyone know what size these should be? It looks as if 1in diameter (25mm for you youngsters) would fit, but does anyone know what they should be, and indeed where the original or suitable replacements could be obtained?

2. The Shooter Mechanism. On these early machines this has to be taken off to lift the playfield, so I guess it was removed and lost. I have looked for these but they seem unobtainable, so I will fabricate one from scratch! However scaling from photos has proved unreliable so if anyone has one of these machines or another Genco of this era and could measure the following I would be very grateful.

The particular dimensions I need are:
a. The diameter of the shooter shaft (which is smaller than the standard shafts),
b. The maximum width and length of the lozenge-shaped front bezel,
c. The diameter of the shooter knob, and d. The overall length from knob to tip.

Thanks in advance.
JPJim

Possibly not much help but standard pinballs are 1 1/16 inch or 27mm and have been for many years. Now whether these many years stretch back to this era I’m not sure. I restored a Gottlieb pinball from 1958 and that definitely used this size. Try them and see. They are widely available for a pubs or two from Pinball Mania and many eBay places.

Hi Geofflove,
I have tried these, and they are too big. I guessed 1in diameter from the hole size which is just over an inch. The balls are not metal, but look like snooker balls, only much smaller. I have tried "mini snooker balls", but these are 1.5in. and are way too big.
Thanks for the reply
JJJim

This place sells a 1 inch acrylic ball. Look down the list. Any good? http://www.pbresource.com/Balls.html

And this place does plastic balls, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinbal ... LL-PLASTIC

Hi Geofflove,
thanks for the info. Spurred on by this I have found suppliers in the UK. The problem is that I am only guessing at 1in diam. It would be good to know what diameter the originals were, and for this, and the other questions, I really need info from an owner.
Thanks again,
JPJim

Try the pinside forum. Am sure you’ll get the question answered there. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/list

If you're on Facebook, search for the pre-war pinball group, they will probably be able to help.