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I am trying to restore the interior only of a Cavalier 72 for my own use and am currently working on the bottle stack.  I have completely taken it apart and cleaned everything and am trying to determine if I zinc plate or just paint it with hammertone silver.  If I go the zinc plating route I was wondering if you zinc plan everything as I have read a few forum discussions on how some of the parts could be damaged by this process.   I am going to post some pictures of the parts which don't include the springs and rivets and disregard the gates which I know are painted. 

Picture #1:

Picture #2:

We utilize both Zinc plating and powder-coating for the vending stack parts. Parts that can be problematic are usually made from pot-metal or aluminum. If my memory is accurate, Cavalier did not use these type of metals in the vend stack construction but Vendo did.

Thanks Jim for the response.  If there is no pot metal I guess I could zinc plate everything but the bottle gates.  I am not sure what I could powder coat from the stack since there are so many tight fittings or would have to ask for zero tolerance.  I did already powder coat the tub and actual shelves. 

The tub and shelves are safe. 

If you powder coat the armatures / gates you will have to tape the ends off.  Also be prepared for little things to bind if you powder coat those pieces .  Any moving parts I would zinc plate , or spray and clear coat .

Good points Jared.  So for people that have restored a Cavalier 72 what have they done with the bottle-stack?  Has anyone just used a rattle can and painted it hammertone silver? 

I’m sure many have, its cheap and easy .  I wouldn’t advise as it’s not very durable and doing all that work tearing it down to just spray paint isn’t worth it!!

With everything stripped off the stack you can Powdercoat the stack frame.  If a few holes become slightly out of tolerance you can use a small drill bit to gain the proper tolerance back . 
 

Makes sense.  Then would you recommend trying to zinc plate everything else (not the gates)?   I know the two pieces in picture one sitting next to the stack, the one piece slides into the other so powder coating would not be an option as I would assume they would never fit. 

Correct Nick, parts that slide into each other are good candidates for zinc plating. The bottle gates I have powder-coated white for durability over paint, the vend stack/rack is also a good powder-coat candidate. I would match the shelves and bottle stack/rack in the same color. The gate assemblies, arms that connect to the bottle gate and the rear linkage, can be powder-coated but may require a little work to get functioning smoothly; we zinc plate, yellow zinc, these arms.
To sum things up, you'll need to determine what items require movement or have close tolerances; these parts may be best suited for zinc plating, the others can be powder-coated.
Hopefully helpful...

Thanks Jim and that is very helpful.  Thank you Jared too.

I have two Cavalier 72s.  I have completed the restoration of one of them and I'm currently working on the other.  I use powder coating on the gates, main frame, rail, and the cover that goes over the electrical part where the solenoid is located.  For the rest of the parts, I sandblast them to bare metal and use a three step paint process.  In the first step, I coat the parts with Cold Galvanizing Paint which has a high zinc content.  The second step is to paint the parts with either Alumi-Blast or Cast-Blast paint, whichever is closest to the color of the original part.  The final step is to clear coat the parts.  For my first Cavalier 72, I also painted the little pins that attach to the gate.  For my current restoration, I bought the replacement stainless steel pins that are sold by Soda Jerk Works.  Attached are two pictures that show which parts are painted and which are powder coated.

Hi Vendo81d,

Thanks for all the detailed info and pictures.  I did drop off the stack (main frame) at the powder-coaters to be coated on Friday to match the tub, shelves and cover for the electrical in a hammertone silver.  I wish I would have thought of that when I dropped of the tub and shelves as it probably could have saved me some money, but it is a learning process.  I did not drop off the gates as there were in pretty good shape and I hate to lose the "Have a Coke" if I can help it.  As far as the other parts go I was trying to get them zinc plated, but had absolutely no luck with any companies that do this locally.  The one basically told me they don't do vintage parts anymore because they have damaged some in the past and the other two either did not return my emails and/or phone calls.  So I decided to just paint them with a rustoleum primer and then hammertone silver.  I wish I would have seen your post before starting this process as I already did many of the parts in primer, but what you have done looks great!!!

Two questions I do have.  The first is since I am painting all of these remaining parts in rustoleum would you still clear coat?   The second question is the part in your first picture which has the three pins on one side and one pin on the other, when I cleaned these parts by soaking in vinegar, soap washing, steel wool and the washing again there is a clear film that is coming off almost like a thin skin similar looking to like onion paper.  I can get a close up picture if needed, but did you have this issue and/or possibly know what this is?   I am assuming you didn't because you sand blasted it, but thought I would ask.

Hi Vendo81d,

Here are some pictures of the part I mentioned with the flaking of something coming off of it.  I am sure since you sandblasted it probably took any of this off if you had it, but again I thought it was worth asking.

Picture #1:

Picture#2:  not as clear as the first picture, but anywhere you see the discoloration is where there is this coating that is coming off.

I don't recall anything flaking like what you have.  I sandblast as much as I can myself- even stuff that is going to the powder coater.  The only interior parts that won't fit in my cabinet are the tub and door liner.  I try to scrape out any caulk and then let the powder coater handle sandblasting on them.  He also goes over everything that I have blasted.  I just like to do as much as I can myself first to make his job a little easier and possibly catch some areas that he might miss if he is in a hurry.

When I did my first machines back in the early 1990's, I think I used Krylon Cast Finish on the darker parts and Hammertone on the lighter parts.  I don't think I used a primer and I did get new corrosion before too long.  I also had some problems with the Hammertone flaking off.  I think part of the problem was that I didn't get everything perfectly clean.  Back then, I wiped the parts down with a rag and probably spread some of the dirt around.  Now, I use a spray bottle to wash down the parts.  Also back then, I had an auto body shop paint the gates, but the bottles soon chipped off a lot of the paint.

I think Hammertone has a tendency to wrinkle if you try to clear coat it, so you might not want to do it.

I'm not the greatest painter in the world and I mainly do these small parts because the guy who paints my machines doesn't want to mess with them.  I'm sure if he did, he would have something even more rust resistant and durable than what I use.  I know he has an epoxy primer that is super durable and corrosion resistant.  He does paint my evaporators for me and I've never had a problem with any paint chipping off.  He also fills in any pits in the bottom of my tub and paints over it.  To date, I haven't had any problems with this paint.  Back when I was painting the evaporators myself, I had a lot of trouble with paint flaking off.  My opinion is that anything sprayed from a can is going to be inferior to what is sprayed from a paint gun.

The problem with zinc plating is that it will eventually rust again once the zinc is spent.  It doesn't have a barrier like I do with the clear coat, so nothing is preventing the zinc from corroding which will give you "white rust" until the zinc is gone and then you will get red rust.  I'm trying to get the best of both worlds by preventing most of the water from getting through by using the clear coat and alumi-blast paint.  Anything that does get through, still has to contend with the zinc primer before it can make the metal rust.

Thanks Vendo81d you have provided some great info.  My stack is done at the powder coaters and I will have to do the best I can with the parts I need to paint.  The good news is this machine is just for me, but of course that does not mean I want it rusting or painting chipping, but I am learning as I go thanks to this discussion group.