Vendo39b

I just purchased on ebay a decent Vendo 39b that works and has a side drinking fountain on the side of the machine. Anyone know the value of it and is this a rare 39 model? I see the Vendo 39 eveywhere but never a 39b.

No one has any idea?

[vendobaldtops]

I don't really think the "B" increases or decreases the value of your 39.  Vendo made 80,000 of these types of machines..you can find them all over the place.  Yours might be unique though, not so much for the Model 39b, but rather for the Chia Pet that has grown along the sides from the top.  Now that is cool!  Now only if we can have the Clapper to vend from it!!!!  Sorry, food deprivation......

This has a water fountain on the side of the machine, anyone see one of these before? I also paid $900 for it and it works.

[globalcompressors]

The water fountain was an option on tons of machines.
Your machine, being two tone, is a late model 39. Nice looking.

Eric

[MoonDawg]

Oh no, this is an early model 39, repainted two-tone.  The embossed "ice cold" letters and smaller coin entry bezel were not found on later models.    
     Coke must have thought they hit gold when they introduced their new white top machines in the late fifties. Seems they pulled a lot of these solid red units back in ,to paint the tops white and I must say I agree with them, looks much better.

[Bob K]

Here's a question:

When Coke repainted the tops white they needed to change the "Drink Coca-Cola" embossed lettering from white to red.

How did they do it?  Certainly not hand-lettered, and I don't think they would have taken the time to painstakingly mask off the letters and spray the red lettering.  These were just money-making refrigerators to them, not collectibles.

You can tell from the above picture that the lettering looks factory precise.

So what was the trick?  '>

Bob K

[MoonDawg]

I was told by a retired serviceman, that they used a hard rubber roller, rolled it in paint and applied it. First, the company  had made them padded templates with the letters cut out a little wide, to place around their work.
     I don't know how effective this template was, cause I don't have one, but I bought a hard rubber roller and rolled paint over my letters,  and they looked like..................

[Bob K]

If someone could fabricate these templates, they could make some do-re-mi... '>

[dr galaga]

How about you post a picture of the drinking fountain?  I've heard about these, but never seen one (except for a sketch).

[Eric]

As far as the letters they probably did use the rollers to paint
with and had heavy cardboard stencils to help keep the paint
from getting all over everything.
I have a 1940s Westinghouse Coca-Cola Cooler book I guess that belong to a salesman for the company. In it, it has the junior, standard, etc. models and facts on how much they
can hold and price. There also is a section on parts and repair
with photos. They used a large roller (similiar to the smalls one
used for inking) but these look to be about a foot wide and
they used these cardboard templates cut perfect that layed around the letters. I'll try and dig this book out and scan pictures if you think it would help.
And I've seen it done and it looks awesome. There's a man
in Springfield Missouri that uses this method. He uses a smaller
roller customized with wheels on each end to keep the roller
level, He uses One Shot Sign paint and made stenicls from cardboard and practiced A LOt on a older cooler till he got it
down.
MoonDawg you could do it.. I'm sure after time and time
again you'd be flying through it.
Would loved to have been there when the old timers did it..
They probably didn't even think twice about it... just roll, next roll, next, roll.....  '>

Eric

[Jim]

I have attempted this method and one thing that is VERY important... The lettering has be almost perfect because if it's not, the slight changes in elevation will cause the paint to either not apply or may cause you to apply slightly more pressure resulting in possible bleed over on another edge.

As you practice, you'll see the slight imperfections in the lettering; especially if there was any body work needed...