I bought something that I have wanted since I was a kid....

An old Coke machine....I have collected Coke stuff since I was about 12...Started out going to flea markets with my Mom and step-dad...I didn't have much to spend so I keyed in on old coke bottles and glasses....I got my first coke button when I was about 14.....Picked it out of a field from an old burned down farm house. Now some 30 years later most of my coke signs are hung on my shed and the Vendo 80 sits inside.....Pics below are right after I first brought it home. Forget the dates that are listed on the post below....I had to change the dates to keep the progress on the restro in order. I brought the unit home on Aug. 18th 2012.

 

More pics to follow....

Here are some pics of my shed...

Got killer deal on my shed....$700 for the shed but it cost me $600 to have it moved less than a mile...Still $1300 is a great deal for a 12x16 nicely built shed. Brian

I cleaned on it alittle today....

The old coke is tuff to get off....I worked on the main door seal today and just looked the whole unit over...I started out with just soapy water...That didn't work too well so went to simplegreen....Atleast it took the stickness away.

 

 Here is a brittle power cord I found today...It didn't look like it was burned thru so I don't think this is the problem with the machine...The main power cord was cut years ago and the guy I bought it form said the compressor didn't work.

 







Brian

I got it to vend tonight....

The coin mechanism is trashed, missing parts and I'm told prolly wouldn't work anyway even if all the parts were there. So I built a free vend switch and the inside rollers move as they should...It ran nice, smooth and quite as a mouse....I'll have to dig out my case of old 6 1/2 oz bottles and fill it up to see if it will really vend. Now I just got to get it to cool....I found this wire that was brittle but I didn't see any places where the two wires were touching but as soon as I moved the wire it started falling apart. Could this be the reason the compressor supposedly doesn't work....? Or maybe the relay is bad....? I really hope to get the unit to cool again without spending much money. The pics below are not pretty to look at but it's all part of the process.
Brian

Here are pics of the Vendo 23E....

This is the one I sold to my boss.....He really wants a chest type so I'm looking for a trade.

It cools....

When I bought this machine the guy told me the compressor didn't work....It was cheap so I didn't really care or ask too many questions about it.....Well tonight I put a new temporary wire on it in place of the brittle one that went to the compressor and fired it up....Started with the thermostat in the off position and it didn't kick the breaker.....So far so good....Turned it to cool and the bottom fan started right away and ran quite....I could here a hum....I did all this with the door open. In less than 5 minutes the top lines started to frost up so I closed the door....About 5 min later I opened the door and it was getting cool....So I unpluged it and it made the kind of boiling noise I have heard others on the soda-machine site talk about. By the way the end of the power cord looked this machine hasn't been pluged in for year and years....I hope all that was wrong was the brittle cord going to the compressor....At this point I plan on pulling the cooling unit out and replacing the fans and wiring and doing some cleaning. I'm guessing that since it started to get cold that the compressor is not shot....? It may be low on freon and over the years of sitting have moisture in the lines which I would need to have fixed but I think overall I will be able to get the unit in working order.....I hope my HVAC guy can install a fitting and check the freon if not I will need to take it to a guy that works on vending machines. I took a video of all this and will post sometime this weekend. Brian

I got the bottle rack out....

Looks pretty clean....I'm working on my rack for the cooling unit...Should have it out by this weekend then it time for a good cleaning. The more I inspect the wiring the more I think it's OK...covered in coke but otherwise OK....Not brittle at all and no skinned places. I'll know for sure when I get the cooling unit out.

Brian

Got the cooling unit out....

These things are a breeze to work on compaired to a race motor.

I'm not gonna to take the inside shell out...Just give it a good cleaning inplace....It looks pretty damn good for a 60+ year old machine....The bottom where the compressor sits has some rust issues but I hope they are just surface rust....I plan on getting the rust off and brush painting with rustoleum paint that is Coca-Cola red...If it's bad enough I'll use por15 on it and then paint it.

The wire to the fan on the upper unit was smashed bad when the machine was first built....I thought I could just replace the power cord and the cord going to the compressor but it now looks like I'll need to just redo it all.