C Cubed
C cubed or C to the third power. For a brief time I had more 1952 Seeburg M100 C ‘s than I will ever have again. Three to be exact hence the cryptic mathematical reference. It all started with a C picked up in Oregon that has a refinished cabinet, pretty chrome and glass. I made a comment while posting a picture of the “look what followed me home” type on Facebook and Ryan Seal asked if I wanted a couple more. I ended up getting one good parts C from him. It is fairly complete and could be restored in its own right but I need many parts from it to do the pretty one. I then picked up a C from a fellow down south in Oregon that was strictly a parts box. The mech was rusted and the jukebox was missing too many critical pieces.
I stripped it of what usable parts there were and then broke the cabinet down to discard. I do miss Texas for getting rid of stuff. I could put all metal in the alleyway and it would be picked up by recyclers. Anything else I could throw in the back of my pickup truck for a once a month free trip to the dump. Here in Washington I pay 11.00 just to get into the dump then pay for however much weight got disposed of. So I used a hammer and jigsaw and dismembered the parts C and stuffed it in the garbage bin over two weeks time to get rid of it. I need a larger garbage bin. The recycling one is huge.
This pretty C was someone’s amateur restoration. Very good cabinet work was done using real oak veneer. The coin glasses are new, the dome looks good, all the titlestrip holders and dome framework looks good. Good mechanism cover and stripper plate. And it rolls well. But then the rest….The back is painted a thick dark glossy brown. The upper back door was home made and not too badly but still; and it was screwed down instead of using the factory latches. Even the chrome piece across the top of the upper back door was a homemade aluminum thing. The lower door is cracked and got the thick ass ugly paint on it. Wrong pilasters, no animation, homemade mirrors which someone had put a ton of work into and still looked ugly, wrong gold foil laid down and very wrinkly, and a funky blue grill cloth. All the yellow mechanism pieces were repainted with the correct color but on top of the old paint which looks like crap. One of the glass grill tubes is broken and taped back together. Brown base molding was used instead of black but it looks good and the guy got all the tacks straight and properly spaced so it stays.
I have stripped all the ugly off. Got the cabinet all the way down so I can put it back together correctly. From Victory Glass I ordered side cover decals, gold foil for the inner cabinet, a nice stainless piece to go across the top of the upper back door, color sheets for the animation, animation motor, and a free play adapter that switches between coin play and free play. It is the nuts! It has built-in protection for the latchbar solenoid. Should someone press only one button down and walk off this unit will, after an amount of time, release the button and keep the solenoid from overheating or even catching on fire. And they do, not very often, but I’ve seen enough burned up ones to know that it can happen. I picked up a beautiful mirror set from Johnny Velchoff early on.
As far as the parts from the donor boxes there’s a bunch! Upper and lower back doors, back door latches, animation cylinders and lamp holders, an MRA3 to replace the MRA1 that someone did a amateur cap job on, and the mechanism. Oh the mechanism. As stated earlier all the yellow pieces had been repainted and it wasn’t until I started tearing down both mechanisms for washing that I discovered why. I noticed pretty quick that the selection indicator was the wrong color for the C. It is red which is what came on the prior year B models. In fact the B mechs are either red or green. This juke has a B mech in it that was painted to match a C. As can be seen in the picture below. This will not abide. Stay tuned.
My Seeburg Life 