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Although I have owned restored machines in the past, I will be starting my first full restoration on a Coke Vendo 81D that I recently purchased. Any advice on how I should restore the machine will be appreciated. I will be getting qoutes to do the paint and body work. Is there anything I should watch out for when getting qoutes?
Thanks,
Cameron

        That has a complicated coin mechanism. Send it out to Tom Barnes at the Coin Drop shop. 608 908-7202

                                                                                                                                                    602 908-7202   (thanks)

wrong area code, tom is 602-908-7202.  Eric at Global compressors does great work on the refrigeration unit.  He is extremely helpful.  if this is your first machine, take pictures as you go, so you remember where the parts go when you reassemble.  On my first one i individually bagged and tagged each part.  Funtronics has every part you need, including a part kit that sells every screw you will need.  good luck with the restoration. 

Ditto on the screw kit.   An absolute must in my opinion

Thank you for the advice. I will call Tom for the coin mech.

The machine still gets cold. How can I tell if the refrigeration unit needs to be sent out for service?

I usually buy a couple of plastic parts organizers from Lower or Home Depot to hold all the little parts as I remove them.

Don't throw anything out until you are done with the restoration.

if it gets cold, maybe the only thing you need is a new wiring harness, and to clean it up a bit

There are a lot of hacks out there would recomend network with folks on here based on your location .  Perhaps we can direct you to the right paint or body guy.

Bag and Tag everything and SAVE it all even if you buy a replacement part .  Go slow, no since in rushing personal projects !!!  Take a lot of pics and even videos.

Thank you for the recommendations. Disassembled the machine today. Took lots of photos and bagged everything separately. The breaker strips were hard to get off. I imagine they will be difficult to replace when I start reassembling. I'm thinking of having the bottle stack sent out for restoration. It looks pretty complicated to disassemble.

One of my biggest concerns is that I find a good paint and body shop in the Los Angeles area. I don't know if I should have the embossing hand painted or buy a vinyl decal. If I take it to a local car auto body shop for the paint and body work I'm thinking they will have never seen one of these machines and will give me a high estimate. I've been told to take the machine to the paint and body shop to have them color match the paint. Most of my machine has a thin layer of spray paint from an amateur restoration. Not sure what paint to use to color match. Is there a Coke red that someone can recommend or should I buy some touch up paint from Funtronics and have them match it?

I ordered a lot of parts from Funtronics including the replacement screw kit.

How far are you from Ventura?  Check with Glen ( MoonDawg81) he has some resources there perhaps he can help you .

Yes, the bottle stack will take probably 40 hours your first time !

Funtronics sells the paint, re and white, as well.

Spray Cans

http://soda-machines.com/discussions/index.php/topic,16186.0.html

The stack is not as bad as it looks.   A lot of the same parts that go back together the same way over and over. If you have a place to get the parts re-plated, I think it is the most gratifying part of the restoration.  So many of the parts get outsourced ie body work, paint, coin mech, that there is not a lot left to do yourself.  There are lots of pics and advice here on how to redo the stack.  You can research past posts and pretty much get a walkthrough on how to do it. If you feel comfortable taking it on, its a lot more satisfying to put it back together piece by piece than to just bolt it back in as a whole unit that someone else restored.