Beginning Gold Crown Restoration

[Rachel74557]

A few years back I picked up a 9 foot Gold Crown for the ridiculous price of $400. The owners had the table set up in an open carport here in South Florida and every year or two they slapped a coat of paint on it. I think they used a cat as a paintbrush.

Unfortunately, I hired a local billiards store to disassemble the table at the sellers home and then take it to their store for restoration. In two years the only thing they managed was to find new legs for it. I finally have it back in my possession and I am retired so I have the time to do a very cautious restoration on this table just so long as my age and doctors don't wreak havoc with my free time.

Anyways, I am involved in a project that I needed a spray booth for so I figured it was time to get moving on restoring this thing myself and made the booth 10x10 to I can work on all the apron pieces. There was about 6 coats of paint on everything and I have the aprons and skirts (yep! They painted these too. Same cat brush I imagine) cleaned up and ready for spraying a finish. The stretcher will need two or three small veneer repairs.

The aluminum trim still needs to have the paint removed from it (yep! They painted the aluminum trim on the aprons). I will have to replace 2 or 3 boards in the ball return box as they used huge screws to attach the triangle holder to the bottom of the box and left 14 or so torn out screw holes. The ball storage box will need disassembly to strip the paint and refinish properly. The bezel surrounding the ball storage box really needs to go to a chrome specialist as the finish is bumpy and rough. Any referrals one a chrome specialist would be appreciated.

Now the tricky part. All the paperwork from the seller describes the table as a Gold Crown II. Original bill of sales from August of 1976, service manual, receipts for new cloth being done twice, and delivery and set-up bills. However, I have been reading the forums for about a week and what I read makes me think the GC II might not be. The table has glossy formica rails, aluminum feet (all 8 of them), chrome bezel, and the full ball return system. No bronze color on the feet or trim.

I tried to keep track of the number of coats of paint on the aprons as I removed it all. Looks like a white (primer?), tangerine, blue, and fudge brown (2 or 3 coats of brown). The oddest thing is that they always painted around the decal on the stretcher but when I finally got everything the decal had been scraped off like they used a paint scraper. Don't know if the seller of the company I hired did that.

Rosewood stain is on the way here and I will spray a satin polyurethane on the aprons and a white satin on the skirts. Maybe, white on the ball return box but not sure yet.

I am taking photos as I move along but so far they are of the dreadful condition of the ball return box and skirts and aprons before and after paint removal.

And, danged if I didn't see photos here tonight of someone re-doing the formica on their rails. Might have to see if I can find any Rosewood formica to pretty up the rails. I have a little bit of experience in doing formica for some home projects years ago so I know I can do that if I decide on it.

I guess that is about it for tonight. I am hoping to get moving on this and I may be posting some questions so any replies, suggestions, and/or criticisms are welcome.

 

[boogieman]

A few years back I picked up a 9 foot Gold Crown for the ridiculous price of $400. The owners had the table set up in an open carport here in South Florida and every year or two they slapped a coat of paint on it. I think they used a cat as a paintbrush.

Unfortunately, I hired a local billiards store to disassemble the table at the sellers home and then take it to their store for restoration. In two years the only thing they managed was to find new legs for it. I finally have it back in my possession and I am retired so I have the time to do a very cautious restoration on this table just so long as my age and doctors don't wreak havoc with my free time.

Anyways, I am involved in a project that I needed a spray booth for so I figured it was time to get moving on restoring this thing myself and made the booth 10x10 to I can work on all the apron pieces. There was about 6 coats of paint on everything and I have the aprons and skirts (yep! They painted these too. Same cat brush I imagine) cleaned up and ready for spraying a finish. The stretcher will need two or three small veneer repairs.

The aluminum trim still needs to have the paint removed from it (yep! They painted the aluminum trim on the aprons). I will have to replace 2 or 3 boards in the ball return box as they used huge screws to attach the triangle holder to the bottom of the box and left 14 or so torn out screw holes. The ball storage box will need disassembly to strip the paint and refinish properly. The bezel surrounding the ball storage box really needs to go to a chrome specialist as the finish is bumpy and rough. Any referrals one a chrome specialist would be appreciated.

Now the tricky part. All the paperwork from the seller describes the table as a Gold Crown II. Original bill of sales from August of 1976, service manual, receipts for new cloth being done twice, and delivery and set-up bills. However, I have been reading the forums for about a week and what I read makes me think the GC II might not be. The table has glossy formica rails, aluminum feet (all 8 of them), chrome bezel, and the full ball return system. No bronze color on the feet or trim.

I tried to keep track of the number of coats of paint on the aprons as I removed it all. Looks like a white (primer?), tangerine, blue, and fudge brown (2 or 3 coats of brown). The oddest thing is that they always painted around the decal on the stretcher but when I finally got everything the decal had been scraped off like they used a paint scraper. Don't know if the seller of the company I hired did that.

Rosewood stain is on the way here and I will spray a satin polyurethane on the aprons and a white satin on the skirts. Maybe, white on the ball return box but not sure yet.

I am taking photos as I move along but so far they are of the dreadful condition of the ball return box and skirts and aprons before and after paint removal.

And, danged if I didn't see photos here tonight of someone re-doing the formica on their rails. Might have to see if I can find any Rosewood formica to pretty up the rails. I have a little bit of experience in doing formica for some home projects years ago so I know I can do that if I decide on it.

I guess that is about it for tonight. I am hoping to get moving on this and I may be posting some questions so any replies, suggestions, and/or criticisms are welcome.

I'd love to see the pictures/process and see it go from a turd to a gem! It sounds like a good project.

 

[rexus31]

A few years back I picked up a 9 foot Gold Crown for the ridiculous price of $400. The owners had the table set up in an open carport here in South Florida and every year or two they slapped a coat of paint on it. I think they used a cat as a paintbrush.

Unfortunately, I hired a local billiards store to disassemble the table at the sellers home and then take it to their store for restoration. In two years the only thing they managed was to find new legs for it. I finally have it back in my possession and I am retired so I have the time to do a very cautious restoration on this table just so long as my age and doctors don't wreak havoc with my free time.

Anyways, I am involved in a project that I needed a spray booth for so I figured it was time to get moving on restoring this thing myself and made the booth 10x10 to I can work on all the apron pieces. There was about 6 coats of paint on everything and I have the aprons and skirts (yep! They painted these too. Same cat brush I imagine) cleaned up and ready for spraying a finish. The stretcher will need two or three small veneer repairs.

The aluminum trim still needs to have the paint removed from it (yep! They painted the aluminum trim on the aprons). I will have to replace 2 or 3 boards in the ball return box as they used huge screws to attach the triangle holder to the bottom of the box and left 14 or so torn out screw holes. The ball storage box will need disassembly to strip the paint and refinish properly. The bezel surrounding the ball storage box really needs to go to a chrome specialist as the finish is bumpy and rough. Any referrals one a chrome specialist would be appreciated.

Now the tricky part. All the paperwork from the seller describes the table as a Gold Crown II. Original bill of sales from August of 1976, service manual, receipts for new cloth being done twice, and delivery and set-up bills. However, I have been reading the forums for about a week and what I read makes me think the GC II might not be. The table has glossy formica rails, aluminum feet (all 8 of them), chrome bezel, and the full ball return system. No bronze color on the feet or trim.

I tried to keep track of the number of coats of paint on the aprons as I removed it all. Looks like a white (primer?), tangerine, blue, and fudge brown (2 or 3 coats of brown). The oddest thing is that they always painted around the decal on the stretcher but when I finally got everything the decal had been scraped off like they used a paint scraper. Don't know if the seller of the company I hired did that.

Rosewood stain is on the way here and I will spray a satin polyurethane on the aprons and a white satin on the skirts. Maybe, white on the ball return box but not sure yet.

I am taking photos as I move along but so far they are of the dreadful condition of the ball return box and skirts and aprons before and after paint removal.

And, danged if I didn't see photos here tonight of someone re-doing the formica on their rails. Might have to see if I can find any Rosewood formica to pretty up the rails. I have a little bit of experience in doing formica for some home projects years ago so I know I can do that if I decide on it.

I guess that is about it for tonight. I am hoping to get moving on this and I may be posting some questions so any replies, suggestions, and/or criticisms are welcome.

Welcome! Sounds ike your project is right up my alley. I restored my Gold Crown I about 5-6 years ago: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-barn-find.497624/

From what you are describing, it sounds like you've got a Gold Crown I. If it had been a Gold Crown II, under all that paint would have been a clear top coat and solid color Rosewood stain and as you pointed out, bronze feet and ball tray bezel. Do you recall what the decal on the stretcher looked like or said?

The metalwork can be tricky. Aside from the ball tray bezel, all the metalwork was originally clear anodized; pockets and feet cast aluminum and the rail trim extruded aluminum. There's also a possibility your feet are cast steel pot metal and nickel plated as seen on later Gold Crown I's. My rail trim was pretty beat up so I had them stripped, sanded/polished and anodized. The process wasn't cheap at $400 (what I paid for the table). They wanted $900 to do the same to the pocket castings but wouldn't guarantee the finish wouldn't rainbow, which can happen with old castings. I decided to powder coat the pocket castings and feet in a color that very closely matched the rail trim. As for the ball tray bezel, what you describe is known as pitting which is common, especially on cast pieces. Many chrome shops with touch a cast piece and it will be VERY expensive to have all the pits filled (one at a time with copper) and rechromed. Mine wasn't that bad so I left it alone. A buddy of mine was restoring his Gold Crown I at the same time and he opted to have all the metalwork power coated the same color I did my castings and feet and it turned out great. That might be an option for you.

The Formica is tricky. Remove and replace aside, Formica has long since discontinued the Elegant Rosewood 6211 pattern Brunswick used for the rails. I found that out when I was in the midst of my Gold Crown Ball Polisher Project (https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-ball-polisher.538320/). I landed on Wilsonart Laminate in their Rio pattern which is a Rosewood, kinda similar to the Elegant Rosewood pattern. Kinda. If your formica isn't chipping or have any major dents, I'd recommend trying to restore it. You can lightly color sand then buff it using automotive correction compound and a DA polisher. I just used the compound and polisher on my rails and they came out nice.

Looking forward to seeing your progress and please, post some pics!

 

[Rachel74557]

Welcome! Sounds ike your project is right up my alley. I restored my Gold Crown I about 5-6 years ago: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-barn-find.497624/

From what you are describing, it sounds like you've got a Gold Crown I. If it had been a Gold Crown II, under all that paint would have been a clear top coat and solid color Rosewood stain and as you pointed out, bronze feet and ball tray bezel. Do you recall what the decal on the stretcher looked like or said?

The metalwork can be tricky. Aside from the ball tray bezel, all the metalwork was originally clear anodized; pockets and feet cast aluminum and the rail trim extruded aluminum. There's also a possibility your feet are cast steel pot metal and nickel plated as seen on later Gold Crown I's. My rail trim was pretty beat up so I had them stripped, sanded/polished and anodized. The process wasn't cheap at $400 (what I paid for the table). They wanted $900 to do the same to the pocket castings but wouldn't guarantee the finish wouldn't rainbow, which can happen with old castings. I decided to powder coat the pocket castings and feet in a color that very closely matched the rail trim. As for the ball tray bezel, what you describe is known as pitting which is common, especially on cast pieces. Many chrome shops with touch a cast piece and it will be VERY expensive to have all the pits filled (one at a time with copper) and rechromed. Mine wasn't that bad so I left it alone. A buddy of mine was restoring his Gold Crown I at the same time and he opted to have all the metalwork power coated the same color I did my castings and feet and it turned out great. That might be an option for you.

The Formica is tricky. Remove and replace aside, Formica has long since discontinued the Elegant Rosewood 6211 pattern Brunswick used for the rails. I found that out when I was in the midst of my Gold Crown Ball Polisher Project (https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-ball-polisher.538320/). I landed on Wilsonart Laminate in their Rio pattern which is a Rosewood, kinda similar to the Elegant Rosewood pattern. Kinda. If your formica isn't chipping or have any major dents, I'd recommend trying to restore it. You can lightly color sand then buff it using automotive correction compound and a DA polisher. I just used the compound and polisher on my rails and they came out nice.

Looking forward to seeing your progress and please, post some pics!

Hi and thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, I never saw the decal but it was very obvious that one had been there and painted around. I have seen the repros and cannot figure why they would have scraped it away.

Looking at my formica it is pretty obvious that whoever did one of the cloth replacements hammered the spline into the tops of the rails without a pad or small piece of plywood to avoid hitting the laminate. Hammer dings all the way around the table. Not really deep but annoyingly obvious.

Both sets of feet are aluminum. adjustable, and can be cleaned up quickly on a lathe or large drill press. No idea why there are 2 sets.

Photo of the ball box bezel shown below.

 

[GoldCrown]

Welcome aboard. Who was the company that disassembled. You can PM. Most service in S. Florida got their experience in a butcher shop.

 

[Rachel74557]

Welcome aboard. Who was the company that disassembled. You can PM. Most service in S. Florida got their experience in a butcher shop.

They are long gone. Typical of S. Florida customer service. They disappeared quickly and that is the biggest part of why it was so hard to get my table back.

 

[rexus31]

Hi and thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, I never saw the decal but it was very obvious that one had been there and painted around. I have seen the repros and cannot figure why they would have scraped it away.

Looking at my formica it is pretty obvious that whoever did one of the cloth replacements hammered the spline into the tops of the rails without a pad or small piece of plywood to avoid hitting the laminate. Hammer dings all the way around the table. Not really deep but annoyingly obvious.

Both sets of feet are aluminum. adjustable, and can be cleaned up quickly on a lathe or large drill press. No idea why there are 2 sets.

Photo of the ball box bezel shown below.

That sucks about the Formica. Luckily, my rails were in decent shape.

Your ball box looks about like mine. It's going to be very expensive to restore and replate it. You'll also loose the brushed look where the logo is. Here's mine.