SMC Discussion Areas

Cosmetically... it's done.  It's currently wired to free vend (thanks Tom) but I'm hoping to get a working coin mech soon.

Thanks to everyone for their help.  This site has been a tremendous resource.

oops... I forgot to mention that the first picture is the from the day I brought it home.  It was a craigslist barn find.

Looks great now!

Is the Dr Pepper light up insert original?  I haven't seen one of those before

Looks great.  I wish my USS-64 had the light up sign, what I nice feature.

 Are you only filling it with Dr. Pepper?  The labels look all the same.

I believe it is original.  A few things make me think so.  First, when I found it like this it had been sitting in a barn untouched for 20 years.  Second, when I gutted it I noticed that on the inside back panel (behind the insulation) someone had written in grease pencil "USS-64 Dr P"... almost like it was "tagged" at the factory that way for branding.  Of course, that's all circumstantial evidence.  It did have an original Dr Pepper decal on the ID tag side, too.

And davestar... I will stock it with other stuff but I just liked the look of all the Dr Pepper tags.

Looks really great.  Did those machines come with a light inside the vend door or did you add that?   

it came with a light there. 

Here's a picture of the inside of the machine.  The writing is faint, but I think you can read it.

Is the 'Dr Pepper' light above the coin bezel always on?  I'm curious since on the Coke versions with the 'Have a Coke' light they would only come on after the machine is ready to vend. 

Ha!  You caught me.  I hit the free vend button before I took the pictures just because I liked the way it looked lit up.

I have the exact machine that I'm trying to put back together. Did you have any trouble with the glass door liner? I have it installed but the door doesn't want to close all the way. Any suggestions?

I had the same problem at first.  I'm not exactly sure what combination fixed it, but after adjusting the hinge where it attaches to the door (the slots are slightly alongated to allow for adjusting in or out) and making sure the glass on the hinge side was completely mounted inside the track of the door... I was able to get it to close all the way.

Just got my first machine and it's a Coke USS 8-64, looks JUST like your 'before' picture :) 

I'm thinking about pulling the woodgrain and painting just like you did here.  Just a heat gun and some goo-gone?  Then paint?  The surface below the woodgrain is paint-ready (ie. you didn't have to put any other type of covering over it before paint?)

All depends what the factory painted under the woodgrain!  I have pulled it off 5-6 machines, and most have a black primer under, but my one white coke USS machine (like yours) had a nice gloss white under.

Heat gun will help, but mostly just start peeling it back, it'll come off.  Goo Gone will be your friend when you are done

Great, thanks! Will pray for white before pulling :)

Yeah. My wood grain peeled off pretty easily without heat. It was primed in black underneath.

I sanded and reprimed before painting. None of that mattered in the long run because I ended up covering the door with a large decal.

Score!  Peeled my woodgrain and it's all nice fresh white underneath.  Beautiful!