refinished a gold crown cue rack

R

rrich1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had JZmechanix install my GC3 last october and wanted the cue rack to match. For the past while I have been using a porper cue holder for the cues I do have. So I purchased an old gold crown cue rack off of a fellow azer.

I expected the rack to be in rough shape for being 50 years old or so. The rack I purchased was sight unseen as he was selling a few of them. I got the rack with intentions of stripping it down and staining it to "match" my GC3 so any paint on it would not bother me. Got the rack in the mail and was pretty pleased with it. The Brunswick badge was in fantastic shape. Only real problems was at the top of the cue rack. Two of the "prongs" were broken off where the rubber insert goes through. Well I needed to find a way to fix that. Here are a few before pics.

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I went to ACE and found some expoxy. Basically you break off a piece of the epoxy and kneed it until the two parts mix with each other. At that point you only have a few minutes to work with before it starts to harden up. I got to caught up with the epoxy and when I went to snap a quick photo with my phone my phone told me my memory card was not inserted so I did not grab a pic of the before. Imagine the prong being completely off where the rubber goes though. I hammered a nail into each prong for the epoxy to have something extra to hold on to and then put the epoxy on. I tried to put more that what I would need so I could sand it smooth.

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I let the epoxy dry over night and the next day I started to sand it down. I think it turned out pretty well! :D

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Next I started to sand all of the THREE layers of paint off! Gray, black, and original white.

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I almost forgot to fix a piece of the top part with some more epoxy.

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I didn't get as much as I needed but it still worked as I needed it to. This part also has the lip for the top of the back insert. Believe the pic is pre sanding.

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With all of the pieces fixed and any dings filled with putty, it was time to start staining it. It took me a while but I finally went with the english chestnut color from minwax.

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My original intention before I received the rack was to stain all of the pieces. But since I needed to patch the top part, I decided to paint the top part and the part where the butt of the cues rest a nice brown color. I went to Lowes and picked out a few samples for like $3.00. First color i chose ended up looking like crap (literally). So i went with the color shown. I painted the insides black for a nice contrast.

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Being the absent minded person that I am, I bought a piece of wains coating for the back but forgot to cut and fit it before I started to stain! Forgetting that set me back a few days as I had to wait for the stain and poly to dry before cutting and fitting. After the stain and poly were done, I mocked up the rack and traced out the rack on the wains coating. Stupid me, I didn't do it right and cut it to short and a little narrow. With me working all weekend, I had to wait until today to go buy a new piece. I went to HD and found some backing board in a 4x8 sheet. I had them cut it into 3 32" pieces in case I messed up again!

This time I used a piece of cardboard as a template and then copied it to the backing board. Somehow I still managed to get it to wide and it took me a while to finally get it to fit. I drilled holes for nails to attach it to the rack after being painted. Finally it was time to paint the back.

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Two coats of paint later, I attached it to the rack and I am done except for putting it on the wall! In case you are wondering we have two accent walls in the basement that is the same orange color. the rack will be going on a different wall to help tie everything together.

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Overall I am very happy with how it turned out as this is the first time I have ever stained anything before. :thumbup:
 
Nice work. I'm guessing this is the rack that Jack referenced in his thread
about the rubber nibs.
 
Very nice. Were you able to find replacements for any of the broken or deformed rubber pieces?
 
Dartman said:
Nice work. I'm guessing this is the rack that Jack referenced in his thread about the rubber nibs.
Click to expand...
actually it isnt. :)

decent dennis said:
Nice job. Good to see someone else use nails or brads like rebarb.
Click to expand...
ya. i didnt think the epoxy would be enough. needed something for it to really adhere to.


Mr Hoppe said:
Very nice. Were you able to find replacements for any of the broken or deformed rubber pieces?
Click to expand...

at the moment that is the only thing i havent done. I need to get some. the rubber pieces are so expensive. I have over half the original pieces. so I would only need I think like 5. I tried going to advanced auto and got some vacuum lines but they are either just a little big or a little small.
 
Very nice work. You have a good eye for detail and I like the English Chesnut you chose. The Orange backing really makes the rack stand out. Great work.
 
You might contact Jack as he was looking for the same rubber pieces.
Ken at Classic Billiards may have them.
 
rrich1 said:
actually it isnt. :)


ya. i didnt think the epoxy would be enough. needed something for it to really adhere to.




at the moment that is the only thing i havent done. I need to get some. the rubber pieces are so expensive. I have over half the original pieces. so I would only need I think like 5. I tried going to advanced auto and got some vacuum lines but they are either just a little big or a little small.
Click to expand...

You can make the rubber pieces you need out of rubber O rings, they cut easy and they're easy to find in the size/thickness you need;)
 
I have the same type of cue holder for my GCIII. Fortunately it was in great shape, except for the nibs, and all I did was strip and re-stain. Came out great.

I ordered replacement nibs from Ken at Classic Billiards.
 
Al-po said:
Looks great. FYI-I used fish tank tubing to replace the rubber nubs on mine
Click to expand...

thanks.

that isnt a bad idea. pet store is next to the auto store. looks like ill be hitting up both places today after my workout. had to work all weekend and didnt get a chance to go yet.
 
I know it sounds steep in price, the stops I have are authentic Brunswick replacements.. Old stock... Once there gone there gone..
 

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