Looking to finally restore 81a this year - question about level of restoration

[photogman]

Ok, as I take this apart I will post copius amounts of pictures and everybody can weigh in and be a part of this journey.

[wee]

Has it been repainted some time in the past.....? I wish my vendo 80 was that nice on the outside....Inside they looked about the same as far as condition goes....I just did a good cleaning, rewire and paint on the inside...Outside I left as is....But the outside of mine doesn't look anywhere as nice as yours. I took a tons of pics and kept a blog of the whole process.....This was the first machine I had ever worked on but you might find some useful info on the blog.

www.vendo80.blogspot.com

Brian

[photogman]

All original.

[wee]

WOW.....

[TheGarbageHunter]

 Enjoy it as is!

If you feel like wasting some money send it to me.

[SIGNGUY]

Yeah wow, nice original,, yes refurbishment is what I call what needs to be done here..

couple of other points I'd say is don't rechrome anything.. polish what you have.. new chrome will look out of place on it.. it's ok if it has some blemishes, heck it's over 50 years old..

but yes make sure to take apart the whole machine,, you will have rust on the inside bottom pan and hopefully not too bad that it can' be cleaned up and then stopped with some rust stop and then some POR 15 ... as long as it didn't go through the outter shell... but you won't know till you start cleaning it up from the inside out.. just go slow and be patient..

Looks Great.. would love ot have an nice original A like that...

[photogman]

SIGNGUY, that sounds like a good description - refurbishment.  But like you say, take it apart so you know what you have.  Heck, I don't even know where to start when taking it apart. Mi guess start with what comes off the easiest and then go from there, putting everything in little zip lock bags and put the little bags into larger group together bags, labeling everything and taken tons of pics and maybe even videos of areas that seem complicated. 

Thanks everybody for your advice and willingness to help!  This is a great forum.