In this Boone County barn, a 'Genius' tinkerer restores jukeboxes and other nostalgia
Bob Peltz is a busy man. Those with the ability to resurrect the dead often are.
From the road, his barn looks like many you would see driving through rural Boone County, apart from a newly installed sign reading "Big Boy Toys Restoration." But inside lies a trove of early 20th century electronics, memorabilia and Americana.
Worn wires spill out like spaghetti from an old pinball machine's control console. The outer shell of a Pepsi machine that once dispensed 8-ounce bottles in the 1940s has been stripped to primer as Peltz lovingly but firmly hammers out its many dents.
In a converted garage, the coverings of a Royal Crown Cola cooler have been recently painted a vibrant yellow — the color of banana Runts candies.
Near the front of the tinkerer's workshop is a pristine Wurlitzer 1015 jukebox, made in 1947 and nicknamed "the Bubbler." It once played 78 rpm records, which Peltz explained fell out of use in the late '50s, but has since been retrofitted to play 45s of the 1960s: "Mellow Yellow" by Donovan, "Surfin' USA" by The Beach Boys and, if you prefer something harder, Cream's "White Room."
"It needs a complete restoration," Peltz said of the Bubbler, which has the iconic '50s diner jukebox look. "But the client just wants me to get it working again."
For 20 years, Peltz quietly fixed generations of nostalgia inside an old grocery store in nearby Fayette. He recently relocated to a new shop in Lebanon.
He can fix pretty much any electronic-mechanical device predating 1975: Slot machines, early arcade games, cash registers, phones, radios, recording devices, you name it. Anything after 1975 is likely to have a computer component, and that won't do for Peltz.
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He loathes computers.
"I have no hair," he said bluntly, removing his cap. "Computers are the reason."
Those in need of his services, however, must be patient.
"We're scheduling about two years out," Peltz said, surveying a full shop sectioned off into tables for each project. He also makes local house calls for minor repairs two days a week. Those are booked through August.
Most are willing to wait. When you see the intricacy of his work, it's easy to understand why.
Karl Schoemer, of Brownsburg, has hired Peltz for several restorations over the past decade — most recently a 1920s Fry "Mae West" visible gas pump, complete with a specially made glass cylinder and 15-cent per gallon price tag.
"It was just immediately apparent that the man is a genius and a master craftsman," Schoemer said.
Radio man stays analog
Peltz and his wife of 30 years, Pamela, started the Fayette venture as an antique store.
"It did not do well," he recalled.
But the store helped Peltz get a feel for old stuff, as well as the auction market and collectors events circuit. There are, he explained, places that essentially work like auto salvage yards but for jukebox and early electronic parts.
Peltz grew up a Navy brat. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and moved around from Pennsylvania to New York. He started radio work as a teenager and later attended Ohio University for a communications degree.
Peltz then worked in radio and television production throughout the U.S., including a stint as an engineer at ABC Radio in New York and as a production manager in Fort Wayne.
Peltz owned his one production company, for a time, before computers did him in. He bought one of the early analog DVD production systems for $250,000, only to have it rendered obsolete by a $1,000 piece of software a year later.
He quit the production business entirely and moved to Indianapolis in 2002.
He's been an avid collector of vintage artifacts since he was 14, when his grandfather gifted him a Ford Model A. He disassembled it in his parents garage, but putting it back together proved a little more difficult.
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About 30 years later, his parents sent Peltz the pieces, and he finally rebuilt the old car. He enjoyed restoring cars, but as one man working as a hobby, projects took too long to finish.
He began to dabble in smaller machines and antiques.
His current venture has grown from a hobby to a decent part-time job for the semi-retired Peltz, mostly through word of mouth. He keeps an old website working and a billboard up on I-65.
Peltz previously allowed walk-in clients, but he's become too busy for anything other than appointments.
"I used to get a call once a month, maybe every other month," Peltz said. "Lately, I get a call or two a day."
Though he keeps relatively busy, he sets his own hours and enjoys vacations with his wife.
"I'm not intent on killing myself," he explained.
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The barn
Peltz's shop contains some interesting client antiques, but an adjacent barn is where the really cool stuff lives — mostly Peltz's own pet projects.
A row of old pinball machines line one entrance, while a massive bowling machine and Skee-Ball games from the '60s shoot up from the back.
The bowling game is a wonder — a six-player arcade machine that keeps score and resets pins purely through electromechanical switches. As Peltz opens up its guts, wires and parts spill out.
"I've done about six of these," Peltz said. "And two customers had to build an addition to their houses. Because when it's done, it's 18 feet long."
Wiring, even at 70 or 80 years old, is generally pretty solid in these old machines, Peltz explained. Usually, the problems are with corrosion and lubrication of other moving parts.
His usual plan of attack with anything is to fully disassemble and clean every part. Most projects don't require too many part replacements, but he keeps rows and rows of spares just in case.
A Seeburg Model C — the "Happy Days" model, Peltz called it, because of its use in the popular sitcom — is one of several jukeboxes in the center of the barn. Peltz also keeps several boxes of 45 records for refilling his jukeboxes that a friend picked up from a radio station's liquidation sale.
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And his collection stretches further back to the turn of the 20th century with a truly wicked pieces.
An Ediphone dictation machine, likely from around the 1910s, bears Thomas Edison's name and records voices onto wax cylinders using a microphone that looks more like a modern shower head than what we're used to.
A National Cash Register — a brass monolith to early 20th century capitalism — sits near the pinball machines. Massive, typewriter-like buttons count dollar denotations.
Worn pieces of these early electronics are worth thousands, with fully restored pieces going for $10,000 to $20,000, or more.
'A talented, special person'
Inside an Avon living room, a piece of Peltz's work could be heard across the entire neighborhood, if owner Donald Moore wished it.
Peltz restored a Seeburg Select-O-Matic 100 jukebox for Moore, installing new speakers and cleaning up its exterior.
"I'd always wanted one ever since I was a dishwasher at a café down in Texas," Moore said.
It was in reasonable shape when he gave it to Peltz, Moore said, but it came back "phenomenal."
Moore, who is retired, joked that the jukebox is also a form of income. In theory, at least.
"Everybody wants to play it, but no one ever has any quarters," he said. "So I have to supply the quarters, too."
Schoemer, who recently had the gas pump restored, first came to Peltz's shop about a decade ago after researching the restoration of an old Pepsi clock and fire captain's helmet he picked up at a secondhand store.
"He was at about 18 months out at the time," Schoemer said. "I got a call 18 months later, and they were spectacularly restored — every single detail, screw, nut, fastener. It was amazing to me."
He began looking around for something else "representative of (Peltz's) talent." He put an old candy machine on Peltz's list, and two years later, it was fully restored and sitting in Schoemer's basement.
"He does research to find the exact, specific part something needs to stay true to its original design and character," Shoemer said.
His new gas pump will go by his pool for the summer, then inside once the winter weather hits. He bought it with Peltz in mind.
"I wanted a piece of Bob, something that captured what a unique, talented and special person he is."
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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryDoesPhonics.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bob Peltz restores jukeboxes, arcade games and more in Indiana barn
