I'm just throwing this out there in case anyone's interested, but I thought someone might be. I'm going to have to be careful because if this keeps up I'll be in danger of losing my class A chief procrastinators card. My wife gave me a pop machine about 10 years ago after telling her how I thought it would be cool to have one. But I was talking about an older one. Little did I know she had a friend who had this one she wanted to get rid of, so she got it for me. And while I thanked her for it, much to her chagrin I promptly disassembled it, redid the control panel with custom labels I made and the aluminum trim (which came from the bottom panel of an old screen door), had the name panel at the top made, started to prep it for paint when life got in the way and it sat on the back burner in my shop ever since. So a few weeks ago I realized I was tired of it looking like a pile, and with the weather nice enough to do something with it, I decided it was time to paint and put it back together. So here's pictures of the progress. Enjoy that refreshing new feeling!


Step 1, spraying the whole thing white.



step 2, masking off the areas to stay white and painting the red.



freshly assembled with all the decals, looking like 1962.




and a before pic in the wife's friends garage as I got it. I think it looks a lot classier now.

 

That's really nice, but now after 10 years does it still work?

 

It does. I put 5 half cases of pop in it, $50 worth, and they're ice cold. It was the wiring on the control panel I was questioning myself on, but it works.

 

That looks great, Wayne. And your paint scheme makes it look older than the original.

 

Looks good, but I think you need a row for Moxie.

 

That looks great!!

I have an old Pepsi machine. Its a Vendolator (or something like that). It held 10oz bottles and sold them for 15 cents.
It came from some apartments my dad was managing back in the late 60's. I typically keep it stocked with frosty beverages. I have to be careful it will freeze some cokes and beers. Most of the time they come out of it just on the verge of slushy. I have to use can coozies or else the cold hurts my hand...LOL.
I've been keeping beers in this thing since I was a teenager. I had it at several jobs I worked out. We kept it in the parts department at a couple of different dealerships...LO

You can kind of see it in the background in these pics;

 

nice work Wayne... I'm sure you know about all the vintage soda sites on line, right ?? I'm redoing a Gilbarco 917 gas pump right now in Sinclair branding
those guys on the vintage sites are as smart and helpful as FTE guys.

I'd love to have an old Coke machine but have no room for it Wife is even shaking her head at the corner in the living room for the pump...
Just finished this

 

Nice but all these square tops in a fat fender forum? What’s going on?

 

Just one question.... what's a "pop machine?"

 

Looks great. You really classed it up with your subtle changes.

 

Looks great, Wayne!!

 

I say pop-tato, you say soda-tahdo.


Thanks guys!

 

Our local Pepsi distributer was right across the street from shop I worked at, he came one day with a stack of Pepsi and Dew said it was the last bottles they had and going to be all plastic. Place 50 miles north of here still gets bottles. I asked cashier for an opener, they looked high and low. Finally came back with a kitchen can opener, she said she didn't know how it worked. It had the hook, so I took it from her and opened the bottles. Sometimes our local grocery has six packs, imported from Mexico.

 

That really looks fantastic Wayne! How did you know you could "retro-fy" that modern machine? Or is that machine an older one that has been updated over the years?

 

It wasn't tough, really. The machine is a Vendo V-231, I believe to be about a 1976 vintage. It probably had the woodgrain front originally. It had been updated with different decals and the black paint. I poured through pictures of old late 50's early 60's machines that I knew I could make this old square machine look like. The paint was easy since that was my background. I used automotive paint on it. The drink button labels was something I played around with copying and modifying pictures I found online until they fit the profile. The aluminum on the panel was inspired from the old machines, many of them had a bright metal panel across the front, and a screen door I was replacing. The embossed aluminum panel at the bottom looked like something a machine could have had, so I cut the holes and bent it around the control panel and glued it in place. I tried to make it look as authentic and period correct as I could given what I had to work with. I always say one is only limited by your imagination, and mine tends to run wild sometimes.