Topic: Tornado rods appear pitted, is this a deal breaker?

[tds73]

I am looking at a coin-op tornado, brown marble, older unit, serial # 205547. I am a total newbie. I have looked the table over and it appears in good condition with cosmetic flaws on the exterior (chipped corner, one leg part of the brown marble chipped off), surface looks good/smooth with no chips, goals are straight( no chipped edges). The concern I have is the rods. They are dirty, feel like they and the bearings need cleaning and lubrication, but they almost seem like cleaning may not get all the crud off and they may have some pitting (for lack of a better term, they look like chrome looks after sitting for a long time). Will this be ok once cleaned and lubed? I am not talking big gouges, just may not clean to be totally smooth. I check the best I could with my limited knowledge and they do not appear to be bent. The table has been sitting in the warehouse of a local dealer/vendor and they had it in a bar for years.
They are asking $500 and from my research on this board, I will be offering less, That is if the rods are not an issue.
Any input/tips would be appreciated.

[alaskan thunder]

Depending on how bad they are, steel wool can work wonders on rods with surface pitting. If the pitting is really bad and in an area that contacts the bearing, you may need to replace. Budget $40-ish. per rod. Cleaning and lube will probably help a bunch if the table has been sitting for a while. If it has been in a warehouse, make sure there is no water or humidity damage. Make sure the interior walls are square and don't have any bulges (particularly around the interior bearings). Also hit a ball around for a minute and make sure there are no dead spots on any of the walls as those are cost prohibitive to repair. Good luck! 

[tds73]

Thanks for the input. I will play a ball for a bit and see. It is a conditioned space, full of pinball machines, pool table, arcades, etc... So i would like to think there are no major humidity issues/leaks. I will check it out.