Help Identifying a Trim Piece

This appears to be a couple of trim pieces from a Rock-Ola, but I can't find any machine that it matches. At first I thought it might be a top center trim piece (because of the curve nature of this piece), but maybe it goes in a grill????? It appears to be made of composite material, maybe plastic, but it is very light weight. Any clues would be greatly appreciated. Found it in a warehouse raid.

Thanks,
Tom

Looks "familiar"--but I can't say where I have seen it--I would guess that it went to any model post mid-60's,as it's not "pot metal"---might check photo's on the "pinball rebel" site- Could also be from any other "machine" that R/O made--such as a drink vendor--
Ron Rich

Ron, Thanks for the heads up. I checked out the Pinball Rebel web site and it appears to be a trim piece from the top of a Nostalgia 1000/1000-3 from 1987 when Wurlitzer closed a factory and Rock-Ola bought some of their cabinets.

Glad you found it--but RO did not buy "some of their cabinets". WurliTzer closed and sold rights, and "left-over parts", to a Mexican company (Sonata), who continued to make the 1050 model, with less and less WurliTzer parts, for a couple of years. At that point, either "Sound Leisure" (European) or RockOla, ( or both ?) purchased rights, and began producing the cabinet, using their own "innards". Ron Rich

Hi Tom and Ron,

it seems that there were two versions of this trim available:
like shown in the photo with the "R" and without. On Oinballrebels website both versions can be seen, too.

When Wurlitzer closed it's factory the tools and dyes for model 1050 had been sold to Sonata, Mexico - like you say, Ron.
In the mid 1980s Sound Leisure (England, still in production) decided to go for a "Golden Era design" and bought several 1050 cabinets from Sonata. Those were equipped with modern Sound Leisure technology (based on German Harting mechanism which can be found in Cameron jukeboxes, too) and renamed to Nostalgia II.
http://www.jukebox-world.de/Forum/Archi ... talgia.htm

If I know right Rock-Ola manufactured the Nostalgia from 1987 - 89. So it seems Rock-Ola were the last ones using this cabinet.
I do not know if they bought rights or also only cabinets.

Kind regards - Hildegard

Hi Hildegard,
From what have see of the Sonata's and the RockOla version, It would be my guess that RockOla at least assembled the cabinets that they used themselves, and, of course, the "works" were 100% RO's. The cabinet quality was much better then on the Sonata-- Ron Rich

Thanks for all the great back story info on this. I found these in a warehouse that a longtime route operator used for misc. stuff over the years, including unkowns like this that were part of a "package" deal where he bought out another operator. Since these appear to have never been used, could they have been a "factory upgrade" or after-market after-someone-bought-out-someone-else attempt to rebadge some of these transitional models into ROs?

Tom

Tom,
It would be my GUESS--that there were some "original" style, trim sections left-over, and RO purchased them. When the originals ran out, they produced the later style with the "R" on it ? Ron Rich