Restoration on a budget?

[RC kid]

Same here. The hunt is half the fun.

But I have placed limits on how far I will travel for an item and how much I am willing to pay. I am willing to buy any parts machines I can find in the local area so long as I am paying parts machine prices, everyone seems to think they have a gold mine when it comes to old coke machines.  And I am always on the look out for good complete machines. I am slowly building a reserve of parts and machines in which to restore as time permits. I am not spending as much on Ebay as one might expect, to many small issues with items that I was not prepared to handle, like broken vmc 27 drums and rust on an machine avertised as really nice.  So I prefer to buy local and sell local.

I lived out West when I was younger and the stuff I found out there was in much nicer condition then what I find these days on the East Coast, but you have those limitations that life places on you and I am now residing in good ol North Carolina. I used to find many machines still in businesses and many still in use. But now I mostly buy them from individuals who have lost interest in there beloved machine and are trying to now reep a profit from the used machine they have injoyed, and scratched up over the years, or worst, it was there first restoration and they really believe you should enjoy the spray can paint job and sticking coin mech.

I am buying much more these days then I am selling. It seems good deals abound in these troubleling times, but sells are slow. So I try to budget myself monthly. A small amount spread out between collecting and restoring old soda machines and keeping my old vette on the road. Its tough but I manage, and the kids still have food on the table, so I guess I am blessed. And with gas back down to less then $1.60 a gallon, I actually have a little left over at the end of the month to spend on my hobbies.

Scott...AKA RC Kid
North Carolina

[MoonDawg]

Anybody got any idea why there are more machines in one part of the country than others??

     This is because the largest populated areas back in the 50's were in the east.
     

[oscar]

I'm finding more in driving distance so i haven't even bothered to look on Ebay. I'm out of work because of knee surgery so i've been running around everywhere. I'm going to hate to go back to plumbing but at least i'm my own boss so i can't be fired. I really need to build a pole barn for all my machines as i'm running out of room.

[RC kid]

I wish I had the room for a large metal biulding or a pole barn. Then I could do my on blasting and maybe even set up a small paint booth. Just Dreaming.