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First time ever seen an 81 posted in my home town and it shows up on Craigslist with a great price.  Belonged to the Owner's father and they have had it in storage for a long time.  Supposed to have been inside most of its life and it looks that way. 

The Good: Machine is very straight and has almost zero rust, even the drain pan looks solid.  There is not a single dent on the cabinet, not even on the back of the machine.  Door has one small dent above the coin door you have to look at from an angle to even see.  Side vents are perfect and has all the shelves  Unit vends on a dime. Put in a coin push the level, activate the rack, works without a hitch    Cabinet overall a 9.5 out of 10. 

The Bad:  Coin door has a number of dings and dents, but nothing that can't be easily fixed.  Missing cap catcher, one of the shelves is missing a slide, don't know if it cools, but compressor and coils look great.  Will plug in tomorrow for the big reveal on the cooling.  Seals and liner will obviously have to be replaced. 

The Ugly:  Paint is horrible.  Has been repainted at some time and looks like part of it was done with a brush.  Multiple shades of red covering the machine.  Have a Coke logo has been redone in marker, i'm guessing by a third grader.  Going to try and maybe wetsand it down and see how it cleans up.

The Curious:  The plate over the bottle gates and the bottle door gasket are both red.  I remember a discussion a while back as to whether the red gasket was an original feature.  I would almost guarantee that everything on this machine is original, serial number shows it mfg in March of '56

Not too bad for a 63 year old machine, shook around and kicking and moved many times in that period of time .

81A, B, and C models and the RC 81 used red bottle door gaskets. Nice find on the 81B

Thanks Joey.  Is the red faceplate on the bottle rack typical for those models as well?  This machine has been a nice find.  Coin mech works great and after cleaning up some wiring, it cools like a champ.  Thermostat needs to be replaced as do some gaskets and insulation, but this will be a great useable machine with minimal effort.

Yes, the red face plate on the bottle stack is correct.  Both of my Vendo 81Bs had the red face plate and red bottle door gasket and I kept them that way when I restored them.

Thanks for the feedback on the gaskets and faceplate.  i've had some good luck lately finding great deals on some projects.  Now all I need is some spare time to work on them!  Really looking forward to digging into this machine.
 

Well it's a 81B. She's worth all the attention you want to give it.