Your vote is important! Poll open for 10 days only - 1 vote per user.

[memorylane]

I restored a very rare Coca Cola Trash can for Jeff Wolf that no one had ever seen , I took alot of original photos so there would be no question that it was an original Coke Trash Can. Take pictures and restore it. Good luck.

[Seven181]

Though the original looks great, restore it! You will have something nobody else has!

[mznb1u]

Send it to me and I will hang on to it while you think about it!     At that point, I would rather owe it back to you than cheat you out of it!

But seriously folks - - -

While I am a big fan of the original machines, I also love seeing all of the restored machines in Jeff's (and everyone else's) collection--they will insure that these classic machines will live on far longer than any of us.  That being said, I would keep it original for a while until you have a firm idea of what the restoration will entail.  As everyone has suggested--take plenty of pictures and display them next to the cooler upon restoration.  You have a very neat item there.

Geez--I kind of sound like a politician with that answer.

  Tim

[collecture]

Well so far (from the replies) the restore-it's appear to have the vote - it will be interesting to see how it turns out (assuming everyone submits a vote a the top of the page).

Regardless of the outcome, it will sit as-is for a while as I have a lot of other projects to do and it doesn't take up a lot of room (sorry Tim!). The other issue I am grappling with is how it should look. As most of you all know, I am a purist and I like items to look like they just came off the assembly line. And therein lies the issue for me - I don't know what this cooler looked like since the bottom has been cut off. So far nobody (on this site or that I've talked to) has ever seen this model before. I may have a prototype or something and may never know, but I would be more inclined to restore it if I knew what it looked like. At least now I have more eyes looking around, so if anybody ever sees it in movies, flyers, whatever...please let me know.

For now cast your vote everyone! You might sway me in one direction or another.

[bubba]

I say restore it... like everyone else said, take plenty of pics and have at it. Although with the project list before it, it may be a few years before you get to it anyway 

[Eric]

To me, depends on how far gone it is.. though very solid and hard to find.. the lower half has rust... rust will continue unless you treat it...
There are a lot of machines and gas pumps that are a 7 out of 10 that look great left as found.... but this one, to me is past that line,
If it were mine I'd do my best to find what it originally looked like... and restore to just off the line condition.
stuff this rare deserves that...   I will say my Nichol kola cooler was as solid and as nice as this and there is no way after it was painted that I would would go back and leave it in the condition it was in.... It survived being cut up and deserved to be brought back...
I would'nt do all the bells and whistles as I agree that it can go beyond a restoration and look fake... At the very least treat the rust and do something to remove the bolts/screws and support arms.... But after all is said and done... it's yours to do what you want.....
In short ....restore.

[Jim]

I'm also a big fan of "original", even in a "restored" version!
However, there's a fine line when a piece needs to be restored or left as is...
In this case, I think the rust through needs attention and this caused me to vote for a restoration.

[Sodak Bob]

I'm with Eric - I like original, but this has crossed the line and needs to be restored. Restored to original is great - just make sure it is back to original.

[Crazzy Canuck]

I voted. I'd take pics and restore it. That piece would look great restored. I'm a big fan of those Mexican coolers. Like Mr. Wolf stated, he's glad he had all his 81's restored. I'm glad I had my Orange Crush 39 restored. Here's a pic of me in Chicago after I restored it. LOL  Actually I made it for a guy in Texas

[mrsoda]

What a cool thing to do, make a 39 into orange crush, love it. very nice