That table looks so nice I had to register and respond instead of still lurking and just reading. Perfect color stain and gorgeous finish on everything there jnyrad.
I'm refinishing a GC2 I just got for a steal of a deal because it looks trashed and is. (Paid almost the same price for my whole table as the cheap plating minimum mentioned above) and I seriously wish I'd seen this thread earlier. I just spent the last week sanding (by hand, no powertools) all the old paint, plating, and scratches out of my castings and legs and polishing them back to shiny and new. My hands barely work now, and now the side rub rails seem even harder to sand and polish, like the plating on them is tougher but they have millions of deep scratches I have to polish out. Have to go deeper than the plating that is on them and totally remove it like I did on the other parts but there must be an easier way.
Anyone got a hint to make that sanding and polishing any easier? Even if I have to go buy a tool I'm up for it. I actually have sanders a cheapo belt and finishing palm type and dremel and angle grinder etc but nothing did an acceptable job of keeping a consistant original shape of the surfaces, made things uneven on the round castings etc, or seemed too scary to try which is why I sanded and polished by hand. Now that I've done all the polishing I might as well do all the side rub rails or whatever they're called... But even though they are mostly flat even my flat palm sander try's to round the edges on them, so back to thinking I'm going to have to do it by hand.
Did you do anything with those jnyrad, the long strips that hold the skirts, you don't mention painting them and they don't really show up in your pic. Is there a more detailed thread on your rebuild?
It looks like someone attacked mine with a studded very hard steel belt buckle for about 46 years, even though the formica on my table doesn't show much of any wear at all... weird...
If anyone reading this knows where to point me for the right info I have a cracked off whole corner on two slate pieces... cracks are in the playfield inches in front of the pockets. Part of why it was practically free.
Whoever worked on this table before me put rail cloth over the area where it supposed to go on all the rails making it bunch up and hold the rails all too high and uneven, and probably overtightened the rails too and snap... One he must have tried to glue on with what looks like jbweld and he didn't even align it properly so I'm going to have to figure out some way to cut it back off and fix it right or try to find a solvent that will eat epoxy or whatever glue he used. It has a lip you can easily feel where the corner piece is glued on too high.
If I get this lookiing anything like yours jnrad I'll be happy to find a pro on here to give her some simonis cloth when I can swing it, but for now I don't have the cash to pay anyone to do anything. I could only buy the table because it was cheap and unemployed or not, broken and beat up or not I had to have it. I had that much in the change jar and figure worst case scenario if I can't fix the slate I can part it out for more than I have into it or buy another slate set later. Alignment pins in the slate are all busted and bent too, they're going to have to go and I guess just assemble like non pin registed slate and bondo that up for now.
Would you guys Bondo the corner pieces back on while clamping them to some straightedge or do something else? (For those who do these kinds of repairs.) You pro's might laugh at me trying to save this table when everything on it needs to be rebuilt replaced or refinished, and say it's not worth fixing with 5 piece slate but I am compelled to fix this thing I've wanted a gold crown forever and this is all I can afford so I must make do with what I have. It may not play nice as a good one set up by a pro when I'm done with it, but it will have to do until I can afford better.
Also all the plastic pockets are cracked and need relacement, and I think I recall hearing a way to flush mount gc5 pockets, maybe it required a little routing out an edge in the castings? Anyone know where a thread detailing that is I don't like how the standard pockets stick up so much, especially the center pockets, so certainly don't just want to replace them with new stock ones. I'm also worried about getting cheap ones that would leave rub marks on my cue or balls so which brand or where to get good black mark free flush mount pockets?
Sorry to ask so many questions in your thread op, I think those pics jnyrad posted got me way too excited about how good this could actually end up looking even though it's a busted pile of junk atm. Those pics look as good as porn to me right about now. No I think better than porn actually. I've look at many gold crown pics refinished several different ways, and that's the prettiest one yet.
Would my gc2 look that nice stripped of it's white paint on the skirts and base or is that a different veneer than mine? I see yours started as stained, maybe your wood is better? My wood looks cheaper. The manufacture date written on the tag on mine says 4/20/1964 if that means anything. .
I must make this look that good even if I have to sand until my fingers bleed.
I will show you what my castings looked like, but more importantly what my feet looked like. In short I sanded them down with the orbital & then painted (yes I said PAINTED them). I couldn't bring myself to spend the $250 on powder coating them. I'm spend thrifty, what can I say. Anyhow, here is the evidence. Criticize as you see fit :frown:
