Vendo 63 Restoration. My first machine!

[Evan E]

Greetings vending enthusiasts,

This is my first post and I'm using it to send a hardy thank you to all of you wonderful people who have taken the time to contribute to this forum.

So, my girlfriend's father spent a few decades as a lawyer for coke and as a result she goes nuts over anything Coke related. For her birthday this year I decided to go all out and restore a machine for her. Got this Vendo off of Craigslist and went to town. Completely disassembled each and every piece, sanded everything down to the metal, refinished every part, rewired, added a free vend switch, 3in1 starter, new insulation, and repainted. Everything works great and I did it all myself with zero prior knowledge armed only with the guidance of your posts.

Special thanks to the ladies of The Soda Jerk Works and Fun-Tronics. They were extremely kind, helpful, and shipped my orders super quickly.

Best of all, My girlfriend loved it and we are currently enjoying ice cold cokes and beers daily.


A few things I still need:

-  The pins in the main door latch have worn a bit over the years and the slack doesn't allow the door to close as tightly as I would like. It still works and shuts tightly but I'd be much happier with a more functional replacement.
-  Still need a coin catcher.
-  I found a set of bottle shelves in good condition but they're a bit short. The shelf section measures ~16" so I'm guessing they're from a V56?
If anyone would like to trade for the correct V63 shelves or has a great deal on any of these parts feel free to message me.

Sorry for the quality of the pics. If anyone wants better or different photos feel free to ask.

[Evan E]

A few more

[Evan E]

And still some more.

[Eric]

Great job... And Welcome to the site!

[cokecolaman]

I'm sure I have a coin catcher… Do you need the bracket also? You can reach me at Cokecolaman@Comcast.net

Ron

[RustyGold]

Nice 63!  I'm a fan of that machine and yours is an early one (or painted like one I should say) which I like the look of.  Awesome job.  Welcome to the site.

[Evan E]

Thanks. Going off the serial number it's from June 1960. Originally it was a Coke machine, turned into a Pepsi machine, and now it's back to Coke. I sanded through 2 shades of blue and 3 shades of red to get down to metal. 

[SodaShopNick]

I am just curious on how you treated the cabinet floor.  Looks like maybe POR15, but how did you fill the holes? 

[jholmgren]

I am just curious on how you treated the cabinet floor.  Looks like maybe POR15, but how did you fill the holes? 

Good eye - I was thinking that looked like POR15 as well.  I used  that in the trunk of my Spitfire on top of some small fiberglass patches.  Worked pretty well.

[Evan E]

You guys are correct. First I attacked everything with an angle grinder. Then, tons of rust remover. Then, more sanding. For the larger holes I used a metal epoxy and attached a few small galvanized panels from the bottom. These were mostly to keep the actual patch from falling through. For the patching I used a compound called Everglass. Its basically Bondo but has small fiberglass strands in it to all it to stretch across small gaps and is Kevlar reenforced. I got it from an auto paint supplier. It's a bit pricier than Bondo and much harder to sand but it is unbelievably strong, waterproof, and designed to stick to galvanized surfaces. It really does stick well. For the 2 spots that the cooling unit rests on I used  the punch outs from a metal electrical box to fill the holes and epoxied them into place. Lastly, everything was sanded, hit with a few coats of Por15 and then All interior parts were finished with silver Hammerite. 

[Evan E]

looking back, I need to learn how to weld.

[SodaShopNick]

I am with you on the welding.  My machine was also a square-top and my first and I tried POR15 mesh, but it did not really help the larger holes and even after several coats of POR15 paint you could still see the fiberglass strands.  I ended up having to also go from the bottom and use POR15 putty, but of course this is not smooth at all as I found it hard to sand.  So from the top there is no issues as it is covered by the tub and from the bottom you can see it, but have to be looking for it.  I should have welded a new piece, but like all first restorations I was way over budget by the time I got to this part!!!   Yours looks great.

[Evan E]

Thank you very much.
I've been pretty lucky and over time I've gotten to learn how to use I wide range of materials and techniques that have gotten me through all the projects I've attempted. Unfortunately, welding is one of the few things I've always been really interested in but haven't had a chance to learn. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up soon.

On many of my projects I make a rule that I have to do it all alone. I'll take advice wherever I can but only I get to touch it. This does tend to slow me down often but there's no better way to learn.

These patches were probably not the most efficient way to go about it but hey did come out really strong and smooth.



After about a week of sanding

[Fire708]

Very nice, my 63 is my favorite machine.