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I bought this Jacob's 26 in Chicago about 6 years ago. I  loved the old school water fountain and the Dr. Pepper paint scheme.
I found a receipt inside the machine dated 1961 for a case of Dr. Pepper.
As most of us know, Jacob's were non- embossed and made for Coke only.
I like the fact that after finding the receipt from 1961, it is apparent that this machine vended Dr. Pepper most of it's life.
I just pulled it out of the mothballs last week. I have almost 30 hours in resurfacing the paint and detailing it. I had 4.5 hours in hand polishing the water fountain. Everything works great.

That's awesome! It looks like a brand new machine

Very nice 8)

Awesome!!!!!

Amazing what a little elbow grease can do. That looks great.  :drinking:

Very nice machine & great work on polishing things up ! ! !

Love the Dr Pepper look.. what a great survivor! don't change a thing! :happydrinkers:

that is one sweet machine

Dave,

Can you list the process of cleaning it up?  Did you wet sand with 1200?  Did you buff with an abrasive?  I may just clean up my Jacobs 56 Pepsi due to its very good original condition.  Someone else on the board did a step by step "clean up " process that made the original machine look great.  Any help?

That is so cool! I love the look of it!


Brian

Very cool looking machine.

That looks great!  I bet you could do pretty well with the dents if you found someone who does hail damage (paintless) repair.  They have a lot of specialized tools to pop the dents out and get it back to shape.

I love it! I have always liked the Dr Pepper green for some reason. You did an Awesome job on the clean up. Well done!

Really nice machine!  I am guessing a lot of machines could actually be brought back to nice original condition rather than be repainted.  I would be interested to hear your "clean up" process as well as you sure seem to have a number of items that have come back to life through the proper use of elbow grease rather than the paint gun.

Yes, you are correct Brian. I do think too many original machines are being totally restored that don't need it.
I  do have several pieces in my collection that I have spent numerous hours on detailing.  The end result though is
usually a nice original detailed machine. As I have said once before on this Forum, I do actually like nice "restored"
machines, but I personally think that the machine needing restored should be in very very poor shape to start with.
it's alot of work resurfacing the original paint, but its still cheaper than a full resto too.

Dave, what was your secret on getting the paint resurfaced? What cleaning products are you using here? Looks great.

Bcharlton,
You asked about the "clean up" process step by step. First of all I love Meguairs products.
The first step is to bucket wash the machine with a good car wash product.
Then depending on how stained and dirty the paint is, this will determine if a rubbing compound will need
to be used. DO NOT.......I repeat DO NOT use a buffing machine to clean one of these machines with original paint.
The paint on these machines was a single stage paint. There is no clear coat. It would be too easy to burn through
the original paint. I hand rub the paint.  I had to actually use a heavy duty rubbing
compound on the Dr. Pepper machine. Be careful not to rub too hard or too long in one spot. The factory paint
is thin. Make sure your applicator pad or rag is damp too. I keep a clean bucket of water close by.  
The last stages are a 3 step process of polishing with a cleaner wax, clay barring the paint, followed by a couple of
coats of Meguairs gold class caranuba wax. alot of work, but the end result is well.worth it.

Dave, 

That is a beautiful machine.  Great job on the detailing.  Thanks for the tips and advice on the detail process.  I'll be attempting that to my WD-10 over the next few weekends.

Orlando

Thanks Dave,

I will do the same on the Pepsi 56 this spring when we thaw out.

Brian

I love it!

Hi Dave,

First great job on your machine, next what is "clay barring the paint" is it similar to using polishing compound or what?

Ray

Clay barring is actually ... exactly what it sounds like.  Basically, you take a piece of clay and rub it on the surface of the paint (while lubricating the surface with a spray).  It lifts off all the embedded impurities in the paint. 

Meguiars and other car-care companies sell a kit for doing it.   I use it on my Spitfire about once a year - it really does a great job of cleaning the paint.  You do have to follow with a coat of wax because the clay strips all the old wax off the surface, but it is a great prep for waxing.

Jim

Jim, Thanks for the info, and I agree Meguiars make a good product.

Dave, what did you use to polish the chrome water fountain to make it so shiny?  I have a vendo 44 and wanted to see if the area where you drop the coin would polish up.  Thanks and awesome job on the machine

I'm sure Dave will chime in with what he used, but I've used a product called Flitz metal polish on lots of metal , it does a great job with still requires plenty of elbow grease..

Hey John, thanks for the info.  Just to make sure is this the exact stuff that you use before I go to walmart:

(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3534/picture9tqq.png) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/24/picture9tqq.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

I just bought my first machine yesterday and it is an all original vendo 44.  I will post before and after pics along the way using the techniques that you all recommend. 

Yep,

That and some nice microfiber towels and you'll have a great shine..