brunswick GC2 setup & leveling pics-is this right?

Of the subject alittle

Don , I have a GOLD crown 1 that I am restoring to a better table then the Original . The only reason I say I'm not restoring it to it's original state is because I'm changing some of the cosmetics of the GOLD CROWN 1. Below is a example of what polishing out the Castings and rail trim to a high gloss. I personally like the high gloss finish , some don't . Below is the before and after pictures of the hardware polished out. It's not cheap , but the look is gorgeous in my opinion. To each his own . I have stripped all the wood down to the bare wood , but after looking at the bare wood , I just did not like the way the pedestals looked , compared to the wood skirts. I have adjustable legs. I have all the plastic skirts. It's a ball return . It had the original Monarch rubber , which was in excellent shape appearance wise , But I'm not taking any chances , So I bought some SuperSpeed rubber. Tournament blue Simonis 860. I forgot to mention That to preserve the chrome like finish , It was recommended I apply the clear lacquer finish you see in the pictures . So that's what I'm going to do.
Finally Glen ( realkingcobra) Hancock is going to rebuild my subrails and level and put this back together for it's final resting place in our NEW home. Super excited . I gave my self about 4 months to finish this project . I grew up playing pool . Worked and played all my life . Beat some of the best in my day. I have played on so many different types of tables over my lifetime .
It feels like me and the game I have loved is coming full circle now .

P.S. I want to thank everybody who has posted on AZBILLIARDS . I really enjoy being a part of this side of the game. Good Luck to you Don , I hope you get it the way you want it. You deserve it.
 

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thebaby said:
Below is the before and after pictures of the hardware polished out. It's not cheap , but the look is gorgeous in my opinion.
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Hey Frank! Happy to hear your project is shaping up! Those castings look awesome.

The only issue I wonder about is this: Will the lacquer turns color from sun light and possibly peeling at some point? Is it UV resistant? Does it / will it scratch?

I have never seen anyone use this technique. I have heard of using clear powdercoating over polished metal. Have not tried it though.


Can anyone chime in with their experience/ thoughts on the topic?


Trent from Toledo
 
following a professional

Hello Trent , Well the guy who polished my hardware does this stuff for a living . Meaning he knows his metals , and its characteristics . He suggested this spray. Well Trent , I was alittle curious also , so I called the manufacture of this product. And they said Yes , this is what you want to use to preserve the finish. Well , that was good enough for me hearing from the horses mouth. I'm told to do light coats , 3-4 total. The reason I have not done it yet , is the weather has been so cold hear in California. I need about 70 degrees min. Otherwise , I'm told it will wrinkle. Trent , the same applies to spray painting all my skirts , I need Ideal temps , otherwise I might be doing it over again. I'm not having that at all. 1 thing for sure , this is teaching me patients . Like I said I gave myself 4 months to complete this project . It's like torture playing this waiting game. I could pay to have someone do these 2 parts , But being retired , time is not a issue. Plus I spend plenty up to now , which I'm cool with , as long as I know it will play and look good .
Happy Holidays Trent , Keep doing what your doing .
 
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thebaby said:
Hello Trent , Well the guy who polished my hardware does this stuff for a living . Meaning he knows his metals , and its characteristics . He suggested this spray. Well Trent , I was alittle curious also , so I called the manufacture of this product. And they said Yes , this is what you want to use to preserve the finish. Well , that was good enough for me hearing from the horses mouth. I'm told to do light coats , 3-4 total. The reason I have not done it yet , is the weather has been so cold hear in California. I need about 70 degrees min. Otherwise , I'm told it will wrinkle. Trent , the same applies to spray painting all my skirts , I need Ideal temps , otherwise I might be doing it over again. I'm not having that at all. 1 thing for sure , this is teaching me patients . Like I said I gave myself 4 months to complete this project . It's like torture playing this waiting game. I could pay to have someone do these 2 parts , But being retired , time is not a issue. Plus I spend plenty up to now , which I'm cool with , as long as I know it will play and look good .
Happy Holidays Trent , Keep doing what your doing .
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I hope it works as planned and keep us posted. I am always trying to learn new stuff that is proven to work. Happy you got the rowdy ole snake RKC to do your rails and setup the beast! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Trent from Toledo

P.s. post pics of your progress ?
 
rexus31 said:
Beware of what you have done.

All the aluminum was polished then clear anodized from the factory to prevent the bare aluminum from oxidizing. If you have those polished, the anodizing will be removed and you'll be left with bare aluminum which will oxidize rather quicky. I had the rail trim polished and re-anodized to remove years of scratches and dings. It cost $400. The cost to redo the pockets was estimated at $600-$800. With the pockets being cast aluminum vs the trim being extruded aluminum, they couldn't guarantee a proper finish. Old cast aluminum tends to rainbow when re-polished and anodized. I opted for powder coat on the pocket castings and feet of my GCI which presented its own set of issues. If you do not have any major scratches in your castings or aluminum rail trim, I recommend leaving them alone. When these tables were new, the castings and trim did not have a mirror finish like chrome. Your original finish looks as it should. As for the feet, good thing you did not polish them as it would have removed the bronze plating; a distinctive GCII character. As for the nameplate, I'd leave that alone too.

If it interests you, my buddy and I are restoring a couple of GCI's we scored.
https://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=497624
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This is a well written and very helpful reply, in my opinion. I second the advice here: leave it alone!

If you go off and polish these pieces you will struggle with continually polishing them, or the expense of clear anodizing, or yellowing, peeling and cracking lacquer. But more importantly, you will deviate from the original look of the table, and remove all of the character that the "patina" of an aged finish provides. There is something special about an aged, worn table that hasn't been abused. You have a very special, original example there, and I encourage you to preserve it, not "restore" it.
 
jviss said:
This is a well written and very helpful reply, in my opinion. I second the advice here: leave it alone!

If you go off and polish these pieces you will struggle with continually polishing them, or the expense of clear anodizing, or yellowing, peeling and cracking lacquer. But more importantly, you will deviate from the original look of the table, and remove all of the character that the "patina" of an aged finish provides. There is something special about an aged, worn table that hasn't been abused. You have a very special, original example there, and I encourage you to preserve it, not "restore" it.
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I just want there to be no confusion about this subject and not trying to start a huge debate. I

In my experience with all the Anniversary's(20+) and Centennials(5) I have restored: cast aluminum does not tarnish when kept clean/ polished with SimiChrome/ Mothers Billet or rainbow...

Not that this is the situation with his table because those castings are NOT cast Aluminum.

Trent from Toledo:thumbup:

P.s. The rail trims are in fact aluminum.

P.s.s. I am not endorsing using the lacquer on the parts either. At least until it is proven to work.
 
rexus31 said:
You may be correct, sir.

49228308961_decff433e7_c.jpg
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I have restored way more GC's than anything and only ran across 2 sets of cast aluminum pocket corners/sides on GC1 tables, all the rest were that heavy duty Zinc aka "pot metal". The only cast aluminum feet I have ever ran across were the non leveling kind that were mounted by wood screws into the legs.



Trent from Toledo
 
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jviss said:
Zinc and pot metal, which is usually an aluminum/zinc alloy, like Zamak, are non-magnetic, too. But, these will be heavier than the aluminum casting.
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True that, I stand corrected and edited that part of my last post. I did the test!

I checked both aluminum and zinc pocket metals with the magnet 2 mins ago.

The Zinc ones are far heavier.

Thanks for the info JVISS!!!

Trent:thumbup:
 
The polisher did a few sample spots on some pieces and said basically what rexus said... it is plating and can't really be polished mirror finish like I envision... I envisioned exactly what thebaby had done to his pieces! I love that look. I don't know how they accomplished that?!

So I took all the pieces home and looked into chroming BUT it's the "hotrod season" now and a new job like this is 6-8 weeks out.

I want to keep the feet their original bronze because that seems to be one of the telltale clues as to the tables version. If I polish them a bit myself and leave them bronze, anyone in-the-know will be able to tell it's a GC2 right away.

My main issue is that the mechanic is coming this thursday from way down south Georgia to do a job about an hour south of me. He will then come here to put my table together when he finishes that 1st table. That leaves me no real time to make the metal pieces perfect.

I was going to buy a new set of pockets for $245 from amazon but they won't get here quick enough.

My local paint shop is awesome. I dropped the 6 pocket pieces off today and hope they can get them painted and cleared by early thursday.

Going with 860 electric blue cloth.
 
D0N said:
The polisher did a few sample spots on some pieces and said basically what rexus said... it is plating and can't really be polished mirror finish like I envision... I envisioned exactly what thebaby had done to his pieces! I love that look. I don't know how they accomplished that?!

So I took all the pieces home and looked into chroming BUT it's the "hotrod season" now and a new job like this is 6-8 weeks out.

I want to keep the feet their original bronze because that seems to be one of the telltale clues as to the tables version. If I polish them a bit myself and leave them bronze, anyone in-the-know will be able to tell it's a GC2 right away.

My main issue is that the mechanic is coming this thursday from way down south Georgia to do a job about an hour south of me. He will then come here to put my table together when he finishes that 1st table. That leaves me no real time to make the metal pieces perfect.

I was going to buy a new set of pockets for $245 from amazon but they won't get here quick enough.

My local paint shop is awesome. I dropped the 6 pocket pieces off today and hope they can get them painted and cleared by early thursday.

Going with 860 electric blue cloth.
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You're painting them? I rather leave them as is. The paint will chip/wear in short order.
 
Yes paint, I have no choice really. One corner had a dime sized bubble in the plating and that's the one the polisher did a sample polish on. It took the bubble off and revealed the zinc underneath. All the other pieces have tiny bumps or bubbles. It's not a good look.

I had the paint shop do the same paint/clear to the rails, legs and lockdown bar on a pinball game I was restoring. That was 2 years ago. It's in my arcade and gets a bunch of play. The finish is holding up well.

This table isn't going to get a ton of use here in our home. I think the painted & cleared pockets will be fine for a while.
 
D0N said:
Yes paint, I have no choice really. One corner had a dime sized bubble in the plating and that's the one the polisher did a sample polish on. It took the bubble off and revealed the zinc underneath. All the other pieces have tiny bumps or bubbles. It's not a good look.

I had the paint shop do the same paint/clear to the rails, legs and lockdown bar on a pinball game I was restoring. That was 2 years ago. It's in my arcade and gets a bunch of play. The finish is holding up well.

This table isn't going to get a ton of use here in our home. I think the painted & cleared pockets will be fine for a while.
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Sounds good. Kind of odd the finish is bubbling. I'm curious if someone tried clear powder coating and the coating finish out gassed. That's the issue with coating cast metal and was the biggest issue pocket and I ran into with powder coating our cast feet and pocket castings.
 
rexus31 said:
Sounds good. Kind of odd the finish is bubbling. I'm curious if someone tried clear powder coating and the coating finish out gassed. That's the issue with coating cast metal and was the biggest issue pocket and I ran into with powder coating our cast feet and pocket castings.
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Yes, the bubble was like a bubble under a crappy window tint job. It was very apparent & could have been ripped off with a thumb nail. The other spots on the other pieces are much smaller but still quite obvious. A professionally done paint job is a lot like powder coating ...no? It's no less durable I assume.
 
D0N said:
Yes, the bubble was like a bubble under a crappy window tint job. It was very apparent & could have been ripped off with a thumb nail. The other spots on the other pieces are much smaller but still quite obvious. A professionally done paint job is a lot like powder coating ...no? It's no less durable I assume.
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Powder coating, when one properly, is much more durable than paint.
 
A toothbrush, some simple green and polishing with NeverDull brought the counters back to looking nice again. :thumbup:
 

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