Gottlieb Joker Poker (SS) High End Restoration

[pinoffski]

Me three ... 

[Strangeways]

Moving on to the playfield swap. Joker Poker is a busy playfield for its time, so there's a lot of work ahead of me !

First I always document the process before doing anything. So there's 100 or so photos to reference when I re assemble.




A question I'm always asked is "How do you know hat screw goes where ? I refer back to the photos ;







Drop Target Assemblies - 15 Drop Targets across 3 Banks. Lot's of work here ;












This spring will have to be replaced !

[Strangeways]

There is some surface corrosion in the form of the white "powder" which will wipe off. There is no corrosion or rust on the underside at all.



Assemblies removed, the GI Return is mapped out to be transferred to the new playfield. All the lamp sockets will be replaced.




The playfield is stripped, although most of the parts will be replaced, I need the wire guides and other parts ;






This process quick, so I can move to the new playfield ;




GI Braid installed ;




I'm replacing the original Lamps Strips with standard Lamps sockets. No good having all the lamp sockets replaced with their lamps lighted perfectly, and the globes in the original strip faded.So I map out where I want to install the individual sockets ;



Each socket has the tab plating removed on the wire wheel, then I dip in flux ;


Then I can pre solder the lamp prior to installing and soldering to the fitted GI Braid




I had to run the Braid across each individual socket, keeping it as neat as possible.





I replace the bare braid that is raised throughout the playfield with insulated wire. Looks neater and reduces any accidental short.






Now ready for the wiring loom.




 

[frosty44]

Getting closer,and looking good

[ktm450]

Lots of work there mate, looks great!

[Strangeways]

Drop Target Rebuild is crucial to the game. The mechanisms are completely stripped and rebuilt. Obviously the targets are replaced, and in most cases the springs as well. All parts are washed in the ultrasonic cleaner and then polished. Some corroded parts and / or parts that may have worn Zinc Plating will be replated.






New PBR Targets - will be installed with new springs.




Polished panel ;



Side View ;




Banks are fully rebuilt ;





All banks look completely different once restored !




More updates coming..

[Strangeways]

Whilst working on the underside of the playfield, I sometimes flip the playfield and work on the topside just to break things up a bit. This is a CPR Gold playfield. First thing I want to do is pre-drill all the playfield holes to a larger size and also remove the collar of clear from the hole.











The ball trough guides are replated. They look awesome installed !




Back to the underside of the playfield and time to replace the switch matrix diodes to 1N4148 ;



Done !

[Pinballer]

Fantastic work Nino. Are you still planning on posting a thread on the replating process?

[Strangeways]

Fantastic work Nino. Are you still planning on posting a thread on the replating process?

Yes - I have enough documented to start that thread in the next day or two.

[Pinballer]

Excellent, looking forward to reading through it. Hoping I can put together a similar setup to do my own.

[Strangeways]

Finishing off the playfield, I chose to use the white Spot Target rather than the standard Purple one. The purple target face detail looks strange with the gold lettering. I much prefer the white.






Often new playfields may be accurate with hole placement, but with flipper assemblies, I often change the mounting holes of the base plates. The most important part of the process is to centralize the flipper shafts themselves, because if you don't, they won't have the correct distance and positioning.




This is where the assembly needs to be mounted ;





Here is the flipper shoe. The diameter is less than the diameter of the hole in the playfield. Here is how to centralize it.





I wrap some tape around the diameter of the Shoe ;





and now it is dead center !




I can now fit the flipper base over the centralized shoe ;





Plunger and link has been replaced ;




Almost done under the playfield

[Strangeways]

Time to move on to connectors, and they are the usual affair - Corroded and broken. All the pins will be replaced.








Finished connector (one of several ) will look like this ;





The light panel - The lamps sockets were ok, but not good enough. I'm going to repaint the panel.








Undercoat ;




Topcoat - Flat White





Sanding of the rear of the panel ;






Wiring is cleaned in the Ultrasonic Cleaner. The braid is replaced with all the lamp sockets.






.. and we are done !





Much better !




 

[Pinballer]

Excellent work once again Nino.

[Strangeways]

At the point where the game is at the finish line, and it is time to fix the small issues and tune the game in. This is where you can find problems that you don't when you start the restoration. When testing the game, the knocker would not work and the way the Pascal Board works is that the game won't be playable with a "failed coil", which is this case the board detects the coil as open. After following the schematic, and investigating the wiring loom, it was easy to see why it was not working ;




The wire has deliberately been cut at some stage. Easy Fix.

Moving on to testing the game - everything was basically spot on - which I would expect after the amount of work has gone into this restoration. So many new parts. I love looking at the playfield !




Small details - The metal playfield plate that sits at the end of the cabinet was chrome plated. Took 6 weeks (I did have a fair about of metal that was plated), but it is better than new.








Apron was refinished and new decal installed ;





CPR Backglass - really finishes the game off !





Almost done ! Importantly - it plays so good !

[Pinballer]

Awesome looking game, well done Nino!