1967 AMF grandprix 9' refurbish

Table

Dopc said:
Hey Rob.
Excellent job man. The finished product turned out fantastic and true to its original design and color scheme. I still have the pictures you sent me a while back from when you first started to clean up the corner castings. It looks to me like, all of that hard work paid off in a big way.
Just the other day I run across an old AMF Gold Crown lookalike pretty cheap. If I had the space for a full restoration project, it would have been a hard deal to pass up on. Bringing something back to its original useful state is such a self gratifying feeling and you have every right to be proud, the table turned out great.

Dopc.
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Thanks for the compliments sir. working on that table was a delight.
I'd like to thank everyone for the kind words here. A few of the local champions could not believe what they were seeing....she's so true and tough, one of guys said this table will kill corn knee high' LMAO!
I'd also like to thank my mentors, I've learned a lot when it comes to pool table mechanics from guys that were generous and took time out of their day to give me pointers or info in which will make the job easier and the table play better so mark,glen & jay I owe you guys a big THANK YOU.



Rob.M
 
rexus31 said:
Agent 99 said:
As far as I know, the table pictured in this thread, the Grand Prix, was AMF's answer to the Gold Crown in the '60's. In the '80's, AMF brought back the Grand Prix name and tagged it to a table that was a direct knock off of the Gold Crown. To my knowledge, AMF has never owned Brunswick Billiards.
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This was an excellent table. I played on many of them in the 60's and 70's. They were in many bowling alleys, maybe because AMF had a big presence there as well. It compares well with a Gold Crown. There were several good table makers back then. National Topline, Robertson, A.E. Schmidt and Gandy made some nice boxes also.
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Table

This table has 3-5/8ths corner pockets.
The table is built for a 1pkt player, I was going to use 760 but I think I made the right choice of the 860HR since it's out in his garage.

Hey jay' do you remember the house of loards table made by bowl-mor? It was produced for about 10-12 years in the 60's-70's.




Rob.M
 
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Thumbs Up

I remember those tables when I was growing up..... brings back great memoires...... Great playing table!....... Really nice job, Best of Luck to you with that fine table.
 
Table

For the record, the circle reinforcement stickers on the underside of rails are something the table owner put in place for shooting drills.





Rob.M
 
Agent 99 said:
rexus31 said:
Knock Offs ... Those sneaky bastads' ! ... I really thought they were Gold Crowns, haven't seen one in a while, but that was a heck of a copy.

I guess they fooled me.
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These old AMF tables were very close to the Gold Crowns.
These pics are just a week old. I found two of these in Toronto.
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Table

I've seen one of those to'
Not sure what years those were built.
From 1961 to 1974 brunswick offered the GC1 in the same color scheme.
See below is a brunswick Gold Crown 1


Below is a earlier AMF playmaster grandprix , the grandprix later looked very close to the gokd crown so much ppl mistakes the AMF as a brunswick..


AMF had changed the design over the years of the grandprix
AMF has several playmaster tables in that table category.. Hence: playmaster grandprix.

There is not much out there about AMF billiards, the history I've learned/gathered is from talking with the old schoolers. I was shocked about the info I was getting on the AMF bowling division from the old schoolers....I asked how could someone remember that kinda stuff and they said brunswick and AMF was in a battle with the automatic pin setters and it was big hype.

Let the old schoolers educate us'

Perhaps Mr.bond has some info???
 
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I worked on a LOT of these tables. The Original Q & 8 opened up in November of 1967 in Anchorage, Alaska. They had 32 of these tables - I carried every slate and put the tables together.

I ended up buying the place when it closed about 14 months later. (Then opened up Q & 8 at 3005 Spenard Road - also in Anchorage in March 1969))

The AMF tables had some interesting features. The bed was 'floating' with a leveling bolt between the legs and the bed. Real easy to work on.

The frames were so hard it was tough to get staples to penetrate!

The feather strips were a fiber/rubber material that would not stretch and worked very well. Surprised others didn't copy this.

The legs were engineered well. The whole leg assemble was very light - but when in place, it was really sturdy.

All in all, a pretty decent table. I did not like some of the hardware around the comer castings. They were not as industrial as I would have liked to see.

Mark Griffin
 
Mark Griffin said:
I worked on a LOT of these tables. The Original Q & 8 opened up in November of 1967 in Anchorage, Alaska. They had 32 of these tables - I carried every slate and put the tables together.

I ended up buying the place when it closed about 14 months later. (Then opened up Q & 8 at 3005 Spenard Road - also in Anchorage in March 1969))

The AMF tables had some interesting features. The bed was 'floating' with a leveling bolt between the legs and the bed. Real easy to work on.

The frames were so hard it was tough to get staples to penetrate!

The feather strips were a fiber/rubber material that would not stretch and worked very well. Surprised others didn't copy this.

The legs were engineered well. The whole leg assemble was very light - but when in place, it was really sturdy.

All in all, a pretty decent table. I did not like some of the hardware around the comer castings. They were not as industrial as I would have liked to see.

Mark Griffin
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Thanks for the post, Mark.

I'm originally from NY, and back in my younger days we used to go upstate to play, as well as into central Pennsylvania. The action back then was everywhere...

The first time I played on one was in a town called Binghamton NY - It was in a Bowling Alley, in fact they had two of them. It was in 1972 or closely there about.

I can remember playing on them in some major east coast tournaments in the late 70's. I suppose that AMF must of been a sponsor.

I also remember a table called "World of Leisure" ... this company also sponsored several major east coast tournaments around the same time, or perhaps a few years later.

I never mistook them for Gold Crowns, they were furniture tables that, well, played like furniture tables. They were not around for very long, and I do not know anything more about them.

The AMF tables that I played in tournaments had AMF in big white letters written on both side rail aprons ... What great tables they are, I would buy one today in a minute if the money was right, and you just might be able to steal one, as I doubt many folks know how nice a table it is.
 
Table

Sweet, I bet you was beat like a rented mule after carrying those slates!
Love the Alaska tales!
Thx!


Rob.M


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Mark Griffin said:
I worked on a LOT of these tables. The Original Q & 8 opened up in November of 1967 in Anchorage, Alaska. They had 32 of these tables - I carried every slate and put the tables together.

I ended up buying the place when it closed about 14 months later. (Then opened up Q & 8 at 3005 Spenard Road - also in Anchorage in March 1969))

The AMF tables had some interesting features. The bed was 'floating' with a leveling bolt between the legs and the bed. Real easy to work on.

The frames were so hard it was tough to get staples to penetrate!

The feather strips were a fiber/rubber material that would not stretch and worked very well. Surprised others didn't copy this.

The legs were engineered well. The whole leg assemble was very light - but when in place, it was really sturdy.

All in all, a pretty decent table. I did not like some of the hardware around the comer castings. They were not as industrial as I would have liked to see.

Mark Griffin
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Here's my AMF. I believe it predates the Grand Prix model but I'm not exactly sure as no one has been able to identify the actual model name. Being as it resembles a Sport King or Anniversary, I'm guessing it is probably late '50's.



Tight Pockets:


Here's the matching light I built:
 
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