CoinOpCollectorForum.com

Hello.
I’m looking to clean up and possibly restore the paint on our watling rol-a-top. I’m pretty sure it has been repainted at some point but the paint is scratched or peeling off in places. I’m unsure whether it currently has its original colours on it or not? Does anyone know where to find this information out? I’m also looking for advice on how to safely remove the old paint and what type of paint I should use. I haven’t done this before so any guidance would be appreciated! I’ve attached a photo of my machine as it currently stands.
Many thanks in advance.

If that's original paint, the machine is more valuable unrestored.
Even if it's been touched up, I think it looks great. You should leave it the way it is!

Thank you for the response ‘yourbestbet’ - I agree I would rather not touch it if it is original. I’m just not sure if it is or not. I would like to source some of the same yellow paint as some areas, particularly on edges of the inset parts has almost completely peeled off, so even if I were to just touch up tiny areas. Also some of the yellow paint at the top is turning slightly green... do you think this would be off putting to collectors? (Not that I’m planning to sell for the foreseeable future!) The machine is looking a lot better since i very carefully gave the outside a good clean. Came up nicely!

From your photo it looks to be original and with the extra perks, Skill Stops, Vendors and Special Award so I would leave it just like it is just make sure it is playing and paying correctly!
In my opinion being Completely Original and showing patina adds to the value so I would say,
DON'T TOUCH IT!
But possibly you could check with Larry DeBaugh or Watling Boy on this further because they are the GO TO guys on anything Watling!
Heck, it even has the original Watling Tokens, you scored My Friend!
Bona Fortuna!
MONTI

The yellow and gold on this machine have been redone. If you blow up the photo, you can see the coins have gold paint instead of the original gold lacquer. Also the Horn of Plenty was always painted with gold lacquer and never yellow.

George

Hi
Don t worry , not the original paint !! And it s over paint !!! All coins casting details are deleted.

Your Rol come from the French market and must accept 1 francs(Morlon) coin .


Here is how must to be the color schema :
For the upper casting :
Yellow with a gold clear coat on the horn like this model.


And for the lower casting ; (for me) two solutions:


or this :


The locks on the two front doors are not original.



And I m so glad to see Watlingboy again on this great Forum !!! Welcomeback !!

Stephane

Thank you George for your very informative comment!
As I had said "You Da Man" on Watling and I stand corrected as I didn't look at it close enough!
In all honesty I do not see that many Watling Rol-A-Tops come thru my shop and as you and Larry know when I do and need a part it is one of you who I call looking for it!
You and your family stay healthy during these uncharted times My Friend!
MONTI

While most of the things he saw were far beyond my poor knowledge, even I did see that the horn shouldn't have been yellow. But none of the other differences were things I was able to notice.

Thank you everyone, given me a lot of food for thought!
Yes we have managed to source a few extras (some not original as we could not find them!) we added the skill stop which at the moment isn’t connected inside as we found when we tried to install it we found the cogs didn’t fit next to the reels so it seems we need to move the reels over slightly to make space - we haven’t tried to tackle this yet.

Yes the locks aren’t original watling, we couldn’t find these at the time so got something as similar as we could.

We also still need the spindle that dispenses the mints at the bottom of the machine.

So do you think it’s worth repainting the horn of plenty to change it back to the original gold? Or just leave it be?

Also, I was hoping for some advice on the best way to very gently clean the reels? So as not to damage the printing on them. Or is it better to leave them as they are?

The coins we currently have which came with the machine are actually tokens (like you said it has been in the French market, we got it from Belgium). I’ve attached a photo, we have been looking for some more that will work as we’ve tried a few very similar coins/tokens with no luck. I will try the Francs that you mentioned if you think these will work as we definitely could do with more of them to fully fill the machine.

Thanks again

The original color of the Horn of Plenty looks more like silver than gold. I wasn't familiar with why; apparently, as the Rol-a-Top expert on this thread noted, a form of gold paint is used - but it's a transparent gold paint that lets the aluminum underneath be seen.