Save old paint job

I have an old 30's coca cola chest vending machine that has 2 coats of house paint on it. I want to take off the house paint with out damamging the original coke paint under neath. I tried soap and water. only take off the one coat. heat took it down to the metal. Any ideas?

brian

[Creighton]

Welcome to the board Brian!
I'd start with paint thinner. If that doesn't work then try lacquer thinner. Try both on a small out of the way spot first. If those fail there is "Aircraft Coating Remover" that will do the trick but it is a fine line before it starts to remove the paint you want to keep. Have any pictures of the machine?
Creighton

Thanks for the welcome!

 I have taken some photos of the machine and will e mail them to you. I'm not sure the model or maker.  brian

[Creighton]

Ok gonna try this again. Can admin delete the previous attached pictures. I can't from "Edit" post, strange.

[Creighton]

Here is the third. My apologies Brian. Posted many pics but this attempt fell off the tracks.
Creighton

[MoonDawg]

The cooler is a Vendo Standard. Even if you sucessfully removed all the housepaint, chances are the original 60 year old finish would not look so good either, otherwise the previous owner wouldn't have bothered to paint it at all!  Best bet is to strip all the paint and start over.
     The wood door frame and doors are not original to this cooler. And if you don't have the coin mechanism or the drum you could choose to replace that lid with a pair of reproduced lids for the Westinghouse Standard. This would make it easier to reach inside.

What is the best to take off all the paint .. blast or chemical? How does one do the painting, red and then the white? I'm new to all of this.
You also said something about reproduced lids. Where does one order something like that?

Thanks fo the help!

brian

[sodaworks]

Hello Brian,
  Welcome aboard!, Since the cooler has three layers of paint I would first chemically strip the paint and then sandblast it to remove any stubborn paint and chemical strip residue. Paint the red first and hire a sign shop to paint your lettering or you can purchase the decals from Funtronics (A site sponser here at SMC), lids and gaskets are readily avail. from the Sodajerk works and Funtronics.. Hope this helps you.