1) I think someone may have repainted this one at some point, but I'm not positive. Was the underside of the lid painted red or was it just bare metal? How about the underside of the cooler?
the underside of the lid ( food side) never had paint on it, it was usually bare/galvanized metal, if the bottom was raise off the ground (so to speak) & not in direct contact with the "ground" they were also usually just galavanized/bare metal, but some coolers have "flush" bottoms that rest on little emossed "pads" that serve as contact points ( like very short stubby legs of a table) on these coolers they had painted bottoms