Project - VMC 81 Pepsi

[Pat Pixley]

Brian I think this is great to show off a round top restoration  .
keep up the good work

[Yarochrehc]

WOW! you did get a great macine for the money,
and as Pat said that will be interesting to watch the restoration procsess.

[BrianB]

Question for all of you powdercoat "users".

Concerning the bottle shelves w/ sliders & springs. Removing the spring and the slider is a no-brainer. What about the black plastic wheel that the spring rides in? I'm thinking that it requires drilling out and replacing. What are you guys replacing it with?

[MoonDawg]

        I posted the same question back in August of 08. You can look it up in the refinishing section of this site. Marvin has a great solution.

[BrianB]

Thanks for the info, Glen! That helps a bunch. Now I just need to take all of my powdercoat eligible parts to the closest powdercoater which is about 20 miles north of me. Hopefully I can get some decent pricing.

[Marvin]

Funny you bring this up.  I have been rethinking this so the next one I do will be more original.  

The original rollers are held by a semi-tubular rivet. The rivets are pretty inexpensive but the tooling to flare them is kind of pricey.  I found this while looking for pinball parts http://www.pinrestore.com/Riveting.html

I am thinking of building an arbor press like this when I get some extra time.

Marvin

[RC kid]

I love seeing other peoples projects, it helps me get motivated.

Keep the picture coming.

[Funtronics]

The spring roller on the bottle shelf is a simple fix. Just drill it out and save the wheel. When you get it back from the powder coater just drill the hole out the next size bigger. Then use a blind rivet (which we sell on our websight under the Vendo 81 section) and drill the hole out on the wheel a little bigger to fit the blind rivet, and screw everything togeter, and reattach the spring and it looks and works better than new.

[SIGNGUY]

I do like Rod said, and maybe they are the same thing.. I've always heard of them being referred to as a sex screw.. or a post screw? but I guess Blind Rivot would be the more PC term? 
They work great though!

[BrianB]

Day #2 - Friday, 3/12/10

Collected my Garage Pass from "Da' Boss" and went on my merry way. Here's what I accomplished:

#1 - Lifted the Main Door off of it's hinges and set it aside. (Thanks for the reminder, Glen!  )

#2 - Removed (6) carrige bolts and nuts from top and bottom hinges. As expected, the bottom set was rusted and required a little more "finesse" to remove them.

#3 - Removed Condensate Drain Tube and hanger bracket.

#4 - Removed Compressor Deck mounting bolt.

#5 - Removed Vendorlator nomeclature tag.

At this point, the cabinet is stripped down with the exception of he leg levelers. I will soak them in pentrating oil before I even attempt to take a crack at them. fNow it's time to turn my attention to the Main Door.

#1  - Removed Bottle Door. (1) hinge was still good, the other was bad. I will replace both. I will break the Bottle Door down to it's component pieces later.

#2 - Removed Main Door Handle.

#3 - Removed Main Door Liner and Rubber Seal. Ran into a little bit of trouble on the bottom row of screws. As is in most cases, the other notoriuos spot for condensation to build up in is the bottom of the interior portion of the Main Door behind the liner. The heads on all of the screws were completely eaten away. What to do......Again I turned to my trusty rotary tool and cut slots into each screw head. That did the trick!! all of them with the exception of (1) came out, using a flathead screwdriver, like a champ. The last one was completely frozen. I cut the back side and the head off flush with the lip of the "shelf" and was able to knock the rest out with a light tap, all done with that!

In the process of removing the Main Door Liner I was able to ascertain that my Connecting Linkage from the Coin Mech to the Vending Stack was still there!! It has just dropped down into the nasty old insulation, one less thing to buy!

#4 - Removed the Bottle Door Trim Assembly.

#5 - Prepared the Refrigeration System for shipping. I ended up building a crate for it and will be taking it to UPS today for shipping.