As we all share the common hobby of pinball machines. I know many of us have other types of coin-operated games in our home gamerooms. Our home gameroom is a mixture of pinball machines, slots, classic vids, and a few other novelties to round it out. That being said, I wanted to share with my fellow pinball com padres my latest restoration project. It may not be a pinball machine, but it was a labor of love...and it does take money to play

I picked up this acquisition at the October 2012 American Amusement Auction in Mesquite, Texas. I picked up a non-working, but mostly complete 1954 Seeburg HF100R Jukebox for a mere $300. I figured for $300...I'd take a poke at it. I mean, if I couldn't get it working, I'm sure I probably wouldn't lose any money with such a small "initial" investment on my part. From initial inspection of the machine at the auction, I knew it was going to need some work to get going. The mech unit seemed to be seized up, title strip glass was smashed, one piece of the side glass was busted as well as one of the decorative waffle glasses down near the speaker grill.

Here is the first pic I took of it before diving in!

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We'll winning the jukebox with my bid of $300 and getting it home and assessing what it needed. It became a parent that if I wanted this juke to look nice enough for my standards I was going to have to put some money into it.

First things first....get the juke working.
-Seized up mech. This was actually an easy fix. I forgot how old jukeboxes have a 3 position mech lever.
Left position = run mech unit back and forth/test mode.
Center position = OFF
Right position = Play Mode

The mech lever was at the auction in the OFF position. When off it won't do anything. Moved it to the right and BINGO! It moved and proceeded to pick up records and play them!

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Now that I could see the mech unit was picking up records and playing them, this was a step in the right direction. It seemed to be playing selections that were made before I ever got it. It was doing good about picking records up, playing them and then returning them to the rack. However two issues.
- I couldn't hear any of the music, only sound could be heard from listening closely to the needle.
- Although it played the 5 or 6 songs that were previously selected, who knows when. It would keep reselecting the same same 5 or 6 songs ..and play them over...and over ...and over.

The problem turned out to be a couple of broken wires going to the small solenoids that hit the pins on the pin bank back to their "non-selected" state. Resoldered the wires back in place, and now each of these records that kept being played..finally returned back to not be played again.

Notice on the pic below the two small rows of teeth.
One row is for "A" sides of records, the other row is the "B" sides. There is a "tooth" for every selection made on the jukebox. Once the customer makes their music selection pushing the selection buttons on the front of the juke, the corresponding metal tooth on the pin bank will stick out, allowing the selection unit to know which records to play.

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Next up was the amplifier.
It was dead. There are cap kits that are made for classic jukes, but I'll be honest with you, they are nothing like capping a video game monitor. A bit to "over my head".

Better leave the amplifier rebuild to the expert.
So I packed up my amp and sent it off to the master, Bill Bickers of Jukebox Friday Night.
http://www.jukeboxfridaynight.com/

Bill had my amplifier rebuilt and in no time. I literally had it back repaired within 1 week of the date I shipped it off to him. As Bill had stated it was long overdue for a cap kit and also one of my vacuum tubes was bad.

Gotta love vacuum tubes!

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After receiving back my amplifier; cleaning and lubricating the credit unit the jukebox was working! It was so nice to hear it actually play music for the first time. Unfortunately each of the side speakers were blown and needed to be replaced. However I was able to track down a couple of original re-coned Seeburg 8" speakers for a fair price and the sound greatly improved.

So now the juke is working. But it's appearance to me was so-so and it was really showing it's age.
That being said..time for the cosmetic restoration. So the tear down began.

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I made it a point to keep all the corresponding screws, nuts and bolts together with everything I took a part.

Each of these pics are how I kept everything together.
Third pic shows the now repainted side speaker grills and their frames.

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Now that it's broken down. Let the restoration begin!
Here is a pic of the now repainted upper back cover and mounting screws.

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Next up began polishing the chrome trim pieces that go along the very bottom edge, aka Kick panels. Each of them were definitely showing their age with over 50 years worth of rust, dirt and grime on them.

Nothing like Mothers Mag Metal Polish....love this stuff!

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I'm pleased to say that Victory Glass is a great place to purchase new reproduction parts for classic jukeboxes. They had many new parts for the Seeburg HF100R model that I needed.
Here is a pic of the old and new instruction glass set I purchased. They made a great improvement on the appearance of the front. Now you may notice the chrome does show some wear. The worst of it can be seen near the instruction glass, and for the most part the chrome still looks very nice on this jukebox. I preferred to leave the chrome original and not get it replated as I wanted to keep some of the original wear on it to somewhat show it's age.

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Next began the huge task of replacing the jukebox siding with new off white and burled wood as it had from the factory many years ago.

I had purchased a formica kit for this particular model jukebox that I found online. The kit worked well and the instructions were pretty straight forward. Installing formica was a learning process for me as I'd never done it before. I'm pleased with the results. I think it came out great.

Here are a few before and after pics.

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Next up was redoing the sides.
I began by filling in the blemishes with bondo and then sanding smooth. Then onto doing the formica.
First piece to install on each side is the off white piece, then the burled wood piece.

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I used a method I had read that showed how to install formica using Wax Paper. It worked very well for helping me line up the formica pieces. The trick on each of the large burled wood pieces is the curve at the bottom front corner. This was tricky as I had to heat the formica with a heat gun, and then had to use clamps to keep it in place once glued.

I knew that collection of every old pinball I've saved would come in handy!

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Next I did the left side.

Here is a pic of the refinished cabinet as well as a close up of the tricky bend at the front corner.

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Next up was grill cloth time.
Of the entire jukebox restoration. This was the part that made me the most nervous, as I was going to use spray adhesive and I knew I only had 1 shot at doing it and hopefully doing it right.
First pic is of my laying it out ..getting ready for the adhesive. The second pic is of it glued on.

It was tricky and it came out great, actually better than I was expected.

New grill cloth made a world of difference in the overall appearance of this juke. The old grill cloth was very worn out, faded, and torn.

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Now begins the reassembly.
Each piece of decorative metal on the grill was polished. It's starting to look like a jukebox again.
Unfortunately I probably attached, detached, and reattached the metal framing on the each side of the jukebox several times as it had to go back together in a certain order for it to all fit together.

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Almost back together now and several hundred dollars in new reproduction parts, or some original parts I had to track down, this once $300 jukebox is probably now cost me over $1200...but so well worth it. Check out the grill

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And now onto the finished juke

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A few more. The sides came out great.
New water slide pricing decal on the dome glass.

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Here are a few more.

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We'll that about sums it up.
I hope you enjoyed the restoration journey through my documentation and pictures.

I'm pleased to add this new addition to our home. It's nice to turn on and listen to tunes while working on games or when we've had friends and family over.

The 1954 Seeburg HF100R Jukebox holds 50 45 rpm records for 100 selections.
Mono - High Fidelity
The juke features 2 x 8" side speakers, 2 x 12" woofers and 1 x 5" tweeter behind the grill.

Here are a few final pics.

And I've made a youtube video playing the Man in Black here.

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Thanks all for your comments. Almost makes me want to do another one. But.....nah, I've only got room for one.

Nice pic there pablo

This thing is even more awesome in person. And it sounds great. Made me totally want one.

I know the feeling, and I own it.
For some reason after restoring this one. I find myself combing Craigslist now daily looking to see what jukes pop up. Actually there is one of this same model that keeps popping up in the area, but it looks roached and the seller is asking $3500

..What's up with that!

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Jukehero1 yours looks very nice as well.
What's with the stereo writing above the rack?

Has yours been converted to stereo or something?

Listening to ours right now.
"I ran so far away" - flock of seagulls

Ours has lots of 80's music in ours.

Glad to see my thread is still alive and kicking.
Were still enjoying the juke, just like we did when i did the restore over a year ago.

Today while out kicking around town with the family, we made a trip to an awesome music store out in Grand Prairie. Ive been there several times. They have a massive selection of vinyl.

Picked up some new 45's today, a lot of classic country. Grew up on it listening to it with my parents.
Weird science - Oingo Boingo
Only Hell my momma ever raised - johnny paycheck
Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner
Crackers - Barbara Mandrell
Sleepin' single in a double bed - Barbara Mandrell
Rose colored glasses/backside of thirty - John Conlee
Come a little bit closer - Johnny Duncan
I'm gonna hire a wino, to decorate our home - David Frizzel