Gold Crown questions

here are some picture's of an early 1 or 2 with adjustable feet..you can also tell be the size of the ball score counter bigger is 1 & 2 smaller is for the 3's and I belive 4 didnt have any.

Gc 3's use bolts for the blinds instead of the crazy aluminum hinge piece.

I deleted most of my photo's of table's I have owned or worked on mostly have completed photo's now.
but this should help some.


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P1010001-1.jpg
 
jimhuckaby said:
I bought a Gold Crown with ashtray corners, adjustable feet, poplar/plywood base and poplar blinds. On the center part of the base is the Gold Crown decal (no metal plaque or casting). The shop I bought it from told me it was from a university pool hall known to be built in 1952, and that the table itself was from 1952. In a separate thread I was told that Gold Crowns weren't built until the 1960s. Is that right?

Does anyone know what dates the different models (I, II, III, IV) were sold?

All 4 ashtray inserts are missing. Is there any dealer who sells parts like that?
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Try Classic Billiards:

http://www.classicbilliards.net/html/antiquepooltablepartsbilliardp.html
 
good knowledge thanks, i want to change the rubber on a GC3 can i use the one's that on the GC5 that have the pro cut...i think they are extended?? K55?

thanks for the help
 
Firenback said:
good knowledge thanks, i want to change the rubber on a GC3 can i use the one's that on the GC5 that have the pro cut...i think they are extended?? K55?

thanks for the help
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You can use the same cushion but you need your sub-rail extended if you want the pro cut pockets.
 
nyneball said:
The I is the best in my opinion. The pedestals and the skirts are "real" wood, usually maple. I just broke down and moved a GC III and the skirts were particle board, painted black. The frame is what makes the GC tables and I saw no difference in that. The slate bolts of the earlier GCs go into "floating steel plates" in the rails. The GC III (not sure about the IIs) have a different bolting system, too complicated to discuss here, but not as good IMO as the early tables. The GC emblems on the I is a brass casting, the GC III is a plastic inllayed deal. I believe that real wood was an option on the IIIs but not sure. Im not a table mechanic but have assembled a I and a III so far. Depending on the price either of the tables is a good table. Ball returns seem to make more people happy than drop pockets. Good luck with your purchase. Another thing I just remembered.
The Gold Crown I has adjustable feet, the Gold Crown III did not.
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Wow....first of all, if you're going to give info...please give some correct info...meaning don't guess, OK. GC's have never had particle board side skirts...and GC1's didn't have adjustable feet, but all the 2's and newer...including the 3's...did;) The floating nut plates came out on the GC2's and newer, GC1's used a figure 8 steel plate with screws.

Glen
 
Regarding the GC4, it is a great pool table. The one complaint I've heard about the IV is the "flaw" in the frame design that can lead to slate sag at the ends of the table. Obviously this could be a major problem. However, it is easily fixed (thanks to RKC) by adding bracketry at the frame ends to bolster the frame. This fix renders the complaint about the GC4 meaningless. RKC posted a thread on here with pics of the remedy. Let me know if you need the link and I can dig it up - it's somewhere in my subscribed threads.

The flush pockets on the IV are the nuts, as well as the deep buckets that easily hold 9 balls.

A couple of other things that I know about the 4 (not sure about this in the other models):
- It did not come standard with rail counters. They may have been an option but I've not seen a "4" with rail counters.
- I think the "4" could be purchased with 3/4" slate or 1" slate. If you are looking at buying a GC4, you would want to check to see whether the slate is 1" or 3/4".
 
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realkingcobra said:
Wow....first of all, if you're going to give info...please give some correct info...meaning don't guess, OK. GC's have never had particle board side skirts...and GC1's didn't have adjustable feet, but all the 2's and newer...including the 3's...did;) The floating nut plates came out on the GC2's and newer, GC1's used a figure 8 steel plate with screws.

Glen
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Glen, I agree with most of this but I think you're mistaken about the leg levelers on the CG1 & 2's. They were an option on the CG2's and maybe even on the 1's. I have an old catalog somewhere from one of their major dealers which show the leg leveler option for the 2's and I'm pretty sure a couple of the CG1's I had in my poolroom had leg levelers and others didn't. The figure "8" steel plates in the CG1's were left over from the Anniversaries. Some of the later CG1's had a single round under rail disk when the figure "8" disks ran out of stock. Don't mean to dispute you, you obviously are a wealth of knowlege when it comes to pool tables but there are a few of us old timers who've been there and done that also. Best wishes! Sherm
 
My GCIII has real wood skirts.

The feet are also adjustable - they turn to level the frame.

The name plate is brass, not plastic. I know because I polished it, plastic don't polish. :D ...Did that after I routed out name plate recess about 3/32" deeper so that this brass name plate will be flush with the rail (no more scraping the cue). Got the idea from Glen doing a search of past thread - thanks Glen!!!

Pedestals aren't particle board. They are plywood and other woods. I didn't see any particle board on my table anywhere.

Rubber is garbage. Superspeed's from 1996 era. Went bad a long time ago back when they shouldn't have gone bad. Replaced with Diamond K55 Black.

My GCIII has the floating plates for the rail bolts. They put them in by cutting out a channel in the face of the subrail, putting the plate in, and then firing a huge staple from the bottom up caging it in. Making it captive.


Brunswick has definitely been cheapening their Gold Crown table as time goes on, but it's still a very good table. I'd rather have a GC of any model or kind than any other table with the exception of a Diamond.
 
Gc3

Tablemechanic said:
Gold Crown 1, early ones did not have adjustable feet. They all had the rail mounting plate on the bottom of the rail. Very heavy pinned slates from the USA.

Gold crown 2"s. have adjustable feet and they changed the rail mounting to up inside the rail with a floating plate. It works much better because it pulls the rail down from the midle of the rail and not the bottom. Same Slates as the 1's

Gold Crown 3, Changed the frame. much lighter. Also the way it is made, the ends flex. Rails are much lighter, imported slates from South America, bad rubber, They also lowered the table and shortend the pocket shelfs so they played easier. Also changed the way the aprons mount to the table.

Gold Crown 4, completly differnt table.

All gold crowns have wood aprons. And the Brunswick emblem on Gold Crown 3's are metal.

If you have and questions about Gold Crowns let me know, I have worked on 100's of them.

Steve
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good knowledge thanks, i want to change the rubber on a GC3 can i use the one's that on the GC5 that have the pro cut...i think they are extended?? K55?

thanks for the help.. ben
 
Alot of times the tables are mixed. I've seen GC 2 with nut plates, GC3's with 4 frames, 4 with 5 frames. I think brunswick would test the new ideas on the later models. I don't necessary believe the older tables are better either, most of the 1's and 2's I see are following apart. after recovering a table tons of little wood pieces on the floor that have fallen from the table. lets face it alot of the older GC's are no longer in their prime.
 
cuesmith said:
Glen, I agree with most of this but I think you're mistaken about the leg levelers on the CG1 & 2's. They were an option on the CG2's and maybe even on the 1's. I have an old catalog somewhere from one of their major dealers which show the leg leveler option for the 2's and I'm pretty sure a couple of the CG1's I had in my poolroom had leg levelers and others didn't. The figure "8" steel plates in the CG1's were left over from the Anniversaries. Some of the later CG1's had a single round under rail disk when the figure "8" disks ran out of stock. Don't mean to dispute you, you obviously are a wealth of knowlege when it comes to pool tables but there are a few of us old timers who've been there and done that also. Best wishes! Sherm
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When the GC1's came out, the feet didn't adjust, but when the GC2's came out, that was one of the changes made. Now, that's not saying that the GC1's weren't changed in the later production to the GC2 feet, Brunswick has a habit of using left over parts like rails, slate frames, and feet from the previous production run to blend in with the next run until the inventory is used up. That's why you'll find GC4's with GC5 slate frames....they ran out of GC4 frames, but still had GC4 rails and skirts left over. I call GC's like this....a GC1 1/2, GC2 1/2...and so on;) and the figure 8 nut plates are a good example, as the GC2's were changed over to the floating nut plate mounted into the rail by cutting out a cavity for the nut plate to fit. On the GC2's the nut plate was mounted lengthwise, on the GC3's and newer, they're mounted widthwise. GC3's also came out with the GC2 pocket castings and rail mounting hardware, but when that was all gone, then the real GC3's showed up with the threaded pocket casting inserts...also a labeled a GC3, so that's what I mean by a GC2 1/2.....it's half way to being a GC3....but not really a full blown GC3.

Also, for that matter, you'll find GC2's with the timber slate frame laminated together, that was a GC3 change, but once again....they ran out of GC2 frames, and switched to GC3 frames until they used up the left over parts of the GC2's;)

Glen
 
cuesmith said:
Glen, I agree with most of this but I think you're mistaken about the leg levelers on the CG1 & 2's. They were an option on the CG2's and maybe even on the 1's. I have an old catalog somewhere from one of their major dealers which show the leg leveler option for the 2's and I'm pretty sure a couple of the CG1's I had in my poolroom had leg levelers and others didn't. The figure "8" steel plates in the CG1's were left over from the Anniversaries. Some of the later CG1's had a single round under rail disk when the figure "8" disks ran out of stock. Don't mean to dispute you, you obviously are a wealth of knowlege when it comes to pool tables but there are a few of us old timers who've been there and done that also. Best wishes! Sherm
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How can you tell the difference between GC1 and GC2 side skirts?:D

Glen
 
Riddle me this. Which GC did i just move and recover(860 grey bed and red rails:eek:) with adjustable feet and floating nut plates and brunstone AND MONARCH CUSHIONS? oh yea and the miserable plastic ball return cover.
 
I have a GC II...

I have a GC II set up by RKC and it plays top shelf, but from what I've read here any of the Gold Crown models, if the flaws are dealt with and the table is set up correctly, play stellar.
 
pocketpared said:
I have a GC II set up by RKC and it plays top shelf, but from what I've read here any of the Gold Crown models, if the flaws are dealt with and the table is set up correctly, play stellar.
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That would be very true...depending on the person doing the work;)
 
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