Hi all, new guy here. Back in my high school/college days I liked to play a good bit. Had an old Rene Pierre table at the local bowling alley during high school, and ended up getting a cheap-o table in my college apartment. Haven't really touched it since I graduated back in the early 2000's. Fast forward to now, at a recent estate sale I was able to pick up an older Tornado table for a pretty good price. It's definitely going to need some TLC, and I'm planning on doing a full restore on it, even though I'm not really sure what I'm getting in to. Here's what I'm thinking of doing...
The table seems to have expanded in some place, hard to explain, but it looks like maybe the wood has swollen in some areas. Not real sure how that happens, but am thinking it might have been kept in an unfavorable environment. Due to this, I'm planning on stripping all the laminate off and sanding everything back down to be relatively square. Once that's done, i'll buy a sheet of new laminate to recover it.
It looks like there is a little mold/mildew on the inside of the table. I have reason to believe this just happened, as it was wet when I first opened it up, and now has appeared to have dried. I'm planning on sanding down the insides and then putting a good coat of white paint on it.
Planning on pulling all the rods to steel wool and polish, and tossing all the players into the dishwasher to clean them up a bit. Will likely do the same with the bearings, as they seem to be pretty dirty too.
As noted, I'm not real sure what I'm getting in to here, so I do have a few questions.
1) Are the roll pins reusable once removed from the players and rod handles?
2) Any ideas on what to do for the wooden handles? Sand them down a bit? Wrap them as is?
3) How many balls are there supposed to be in a standard coin-op game of foosball?
4) Are bearings reusable once removed?
I'm planning on ordering a bearing/rod removal key and roll pin punch sometime tomorrow so I can get started.
Thanks in advance!