Complete Cow Poke EM - complete restoration

[Mfresh]

Well, I thought I might document the restoration of my 1965 Gottlieb Cow Poke which I picked up in Bognor Regis for £500 after spotting it for sales on Pinball Owners back in 2015.

It had been sitting in a garage for the past 20 years after the owner's cat jumped into the cabinet and it stopped working.

When I collected it, it was pretty filthy and the cabinet and playfield were showing their age:










The playfield was worn to the bare wood round the bumpers, the rubbers were completely perished, and the metal posts and other metal work was rusty and dirtier than a box of old Knave magazines:

 

[Mfresh]

The good news was that the metal posts came up a treat after about a week of tumbling:




but the rest of the cabinet and playfield metal work (except for the brass fittings) went off to the chromers

 

[Mfresh]

Once the playfied was stripped and cleaned it still looked on pretty poor shape, and I had a change of plan and decided to send it off to Henrik Maurer at Pinball Dreams in Germany to be restored and clearcoated.



You can see how badly worn it was around the bumpers here:

 

[Mfresh]

Next step was to clean up the innards – basically a mass of brass, relays, and wires, all mounted on the cabinet, a wood base board, or a wood fuse board. Out it came:





The fuse board was an easy job to strip

… sand and revarnish


And repopulate with polished fittings and new fuse holders




The main baseboard was a bigger job as it needed removing from the cabinet



stripping down



and taking outside for a good sanding and polishing



At this point I figured the chances of getting it all back together again where slim



But after a lot of polishing of brass, tumbling of screws and cleaning of relays and switch stacks



and bringing it all inside every time it threatened to rain over the summer, it did come together again

 

[Mfresh]

Then it was on to cleaning and polishing up the back box components, changing all the bulb holders, and getting the score reels working properly, which was a right &^£! headache.


This is what a rusty old score reel mech looks like:

Anyway, time for some new springs, plungers and all kinds of things:

 

[Mfresh]

At this point it became clear that the innards were going to come out looking great and mostly working, and the playfield was going to be golden thanks to Pinball Dreams. But the cabinet was in a shocking state and I am rubbish with sanding and painting. Here was the shell:






So I decided to hand the cabinet over to Giacomo at Pinball Creative to get it patched up and repainted with as near as possible to the original Gottlieb colours. So off that went down to Croydon to be fixed up by him.

 

[Mfresh]

By now the playfield restoration had been completed, but FedEx managed to lose it for a week. After some desperate phone calls they finally managed to find it, and it arrived back fully restored.

Here's how it came back: quite possibly the nicest Cow Poke playfield anywhere in the world






All the wear around the pop bumpers fully restored.

We did make one change, however. In the original, there's a cowboy on the playfield looking to the right:




But I wanted a bit of personalization on the playfield, and figured: how about putting me there instead of the guy above?

Here's me modelling for the job:


And here's the new cowboy based on me on the restored playfield, as drawn by one of Pinball Dreams' artists:




I think it's a work of genius, although @cooldan said it just looks like someone sniffing a woman's skirt.

 

[Mfresh]

So fast forward a couple of months and the cabinet is back from Giacomo, beautifully restored, and the metalwork is back from the chromers:





There's also a whole box of goodies from The Pinball Resource: bumper caps and bodies, plastic lane dividers, springs, flipper rebuild kits, decals, etc. If you are embarking on an ill-considered project like this, my advice is be nice to Steve at Pinball Resouce because he has loads of stuff you can't get elsewhere.Lots of people warned me about him but I found him to be very nice and helpful. I also got some vital bits from Pinball Rescue in Australia.

 

[replicas]

Loverly work, she has come up to a standard that very few EM's get to see. But she's a Cow Poke and worth every bit of the restore. Gottiebs best game by a country mile.

 

[Mfresh]

So we're ready to start rebuilding the playfield at this point, but there's just one problem. Thanks to the restoring and repainting and clearcloating, some of the holes in the playfield have disappeared. You can see two next to the left switch slot, but the two next to the right switch slot have disappeared.



Basically you have to stare at the place where you think the holes should be, and eventually you can just make out darker marks where they are. Then its a matter of marking the place with a pen, and drilling in. If you have got it right then the drill bit goes in like a hot knife through butter through the clearcoat and into the existing hole beneath, but if you have got it wrong then you are basically drilling a new hole in the wrong place.

Its pretty nerve wracking



Other holes are visible but have to be drilled out anyway, with a bit of masking tape to stop the drill bit skating

 

[replicas]

Would love to see her close up in the flesh.

 

[Mfresh]

But slowly it began to come together:




And that's about the end of the story. The whole project took about two years from start to finish, and with plenty of help from David Dutton (@DAD ), Giacomo at Pinball Creative, Henrik at Pinball Dreams, and Jake Papas, the EM repair genius who came by to fix a few really tricky faults (and @pinballmania who fixed a really simple one which was driving me nuts), Cow Poke lives again in all its 1965 glory.

All it's missing is the apron score card which I put safely aside two years ago and haven't found again yet...







Thanks for reading!

 

[Mfresh]

@replicas and anyone else: you are welcome to come around and play it any time. It should be one of the games in a London and SE league meet next year too...

 

[replicas]

Next time I'm down your way I would love to take you up on the offer. Thanks.
Now, I have had Cow Poke on my radar for a while now, seeing this has made me want one even more.
The hunt starts now.

 

[new forest pinball]

Wow! That's a fantastic job! Well worth the effort. Looks stunning. I may have to attend the s.e. League just to play this. Used to love the challenge of e.m's when I was a kid. They had loads at rockley sands caravan park at Poole in Dorset .....you must be really proud of this..looking at your final picture it even feels like it fits in the house perfectly..like a quality bit of practical furniture...(unlike modern games they seem to stand out whatever theme they are, might be just me!?) great to see an old e.m resurrection!....good work Paul.

 

[Mfresh]

Thanks Keith - but in truth it was Giacomo and Henrik that did the real artistry.

 

[replicas]

Thanks Keith - but in truth it was Giacomo and Henrik that did the real artistry.

It also takes balls to strip down a EM and put it back together. Well done that man.

 

[Bandit Boy]

Great thread my friend, one of the best I've seen on this excellent site.....
Nice to see an EM being restored, and that playfield looks beautiful....
Your a real credit to the pinball community.... And me being the owner of an EM, and seeing you having the balls to strip one down I salute you!!!

 

[Spandangler]

It looks incredible Paul. Well done mate, I’d love to play it

 

[Replay]

Very nice indeed

If you don't find your card, I may have a NOS one that I may sell, not sure. I was keeping 'just in case' ......but not sure where it is!

If you don't find yours, I can look for mine

And let everyone know when you get all 7 numbers lit

 

[ronsplooter]

Fantastic looking game mate Props to you and all the others that contributed

 

[Tucks]

Very impressive indeed!

 

[Deleted member 2463]

Epic job - really
Jealous!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[AlanJ]

Really enjoyed reading this thread. I love the fact that you invested in the playfield and cab refurbs - neither of those will have been cheap.

 

[replicas]

Really enjoyed reading this thread. I love the fact that you invested in the playfield and cab refurbs - neither of those will have been cheap.

One of, if not the best EM out there so every bit of this resto is totally justified .
I'm on the lookout for a Cowpoke myself , love the game.

 

[Mfresh]

And I finally found the pricing card! The job is compete.

 

[Jb3d]

Just read the whole thread...what a fantastic project. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[Poibug]

Mega job, awesome game

 

[newdos]

Brill write up and a totally stunning job!!! well done my (brave) man!

Cheers

kev

 

[Poibug]

I think you should share it with the world.
Brink it to NLP at Blackpool in October ?