Mancave 1950s Beer Fridge Restoration! 1 of 2
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- In this episode (Part 1 of 2)
-We tear the fridge apart, and completely disassemble it
-We grind off the rust and coat the inside with a rubberized rust resistant coating
-we reinsulate the walls of the fridge
Coming in Part 2:
-take out the dents, then Bondo, primer and paint!
-reinstall all the refrigeration components
-final touches
-plug it in, test, and meter the power consumption!
wow, someone who actually understands theses fridges! I have two from the 50s and they are both running on the original compressors. A modern fridge your lucky to get 8 - 10 years out of. And everyone assumes that they use tons of electricity. They don't, no more than a modern energy star fridge as there is no automatic defrost. Great video!
I need a freezer door for a 1952 Westinghouse any suggestions?
Is it still working
That box should use R12 refrigerant. R12 is NOT poisonous. And it does nothing to the ozone layer. That scare was drummed up by Dupont because their patent ran out and they needed an excuse to convert to a new refrigerant.
Thanks for not destroying it by putting modern crap in such a cool fridge! Nice work on the restoration! I've never seen one apart before, very cool.
Thank you - so far so good - it still hasn't blown up on me! We've had some warm temperatures recently and power consumption is still good!! :)
Crazy I’m doing the same thing with my grandfathers early 1950’s Westinghouse refrigerator. He kept in the garage. It still has some of his beers in it rusted over from the years.
I hung onto a 50s model GM fridge similar to this one for years! I found it in an old lake house my family bought I kept thinking I would repair it but never did. Ended up hauling it in for scrap. Wish youtube was there to show me how to restore it 10 yrs ago. Damn. Great video and great job man!
Joes Golden Garage your email is
I have one I want to restore!! Mate, your, video just makes me deeply happy.
I got a 1970s chest freezer I want to do the same to. I just like it, it's a robust and simple freezer and I dislike buying new stuff. The compressor is fine, everything about it is fine except the insulation so why not. Thanks for the vid will help me despite it's different type of device.
Excellent video my friend. I have a 56 Phillco that I have been using as my kegerator and it needs to be cleaned up and restored a bit. She runs great but is rusting and had a few dents. Thanks to your videos she will rise again. Cheers.
I love this restoration and effort put into this old fridge. It is especially great that it was your grandparent's original fridge, which I am sure makes you think of them whenever grabbing a Molson while watching a game in the mancave!👻❤🎱☻🤯🤯🤯
Very interesting project and story behind it! Looking forward to part 2!
+Tom's Turbo Garage I'm looking forward to a new TTG video myself - anxious to see what your next project will be!
Great inspiration. Thank you.
I can verify that the myth that old fridges use a lot of energy is bunk. I have an old GE fridge from the 40s-50s, not sure exact year. Can't find the information, but it sipped electricity when I was using it as my main house fridge. I still have it, plan to restore it some day. It still has all the original refrigeration components and still functions very well as a fridge. It just needs a little love. Mine uses Freon. Also, one interesting thing I noticed accidentally is that the case of my fridge is live at mains voltage and has been the whole time I used it. Luckily, I never became part of a circuit. Probably a cable somewhere is touching the case. Might want to be careful with stuff like that.
Banana Phone those old appliances plugged into a wall receptical that wasn’t grounded. Those old 2 wire outlines have since added a ground to prevent a “live”.
That’s one change that actually made something better.
The "old fridges use more energy" only applies to fridges starting in around the 1960s or 1970s, because that was when automatic defrost really came into play and fridge sizes really started to balloon in a way that they had not done previously. These two things vastly increased power consumption. In those days the average refrigerator was about 10 cu ft, maybe a bit less, and yet average household sizes were larger. People did not necessarily shop vastly more in those days, either. If you look at a modern brand new fridge of a comparable size and without auto defrost, and especially one that is Energy Star Certified, it uses a lot less electricity, but it is extremely unusual to find this. One other factor in this equation is that a lot of these vintage refrigerators had vastly smaller or non-existent freezer space. This is because by and large, the freezer basically made/store ice made in trays and/or a container or two of ice cream or sorbet. There were of course exceptions, but during the 1950s many refrigerators had only a small freezer, if it even had one at all (which was not necessarily a given seeing as frozen meals did not come into their own until the 1960s). The nearest fridge I can think of that is comparable is an LG chest fridge, which is weird because it is specifically engineered to be able to store not only the usual suspects but also to recirculate air in such a way as to aid kimchi fermentation (for those of you who do not know, kimchi is a Korean method of preparing and serving vegetables as a side dish which requires salting and fermenting, and as LG is headquartered in Korea, it makes sense that they would sell such a fridge in the US market). I believe this fridge also cheats by using a linear compressor, which most modern refrigerators do not. Nevertheless, it uses substantially less electricity than a vintage refrigerator does, and it uses less electricity than many mini-refrigerators do. That being said, the average modern refrigerator is way bigger, has a large freezer, is equipped with auto-defrost, and even if it is Energy Star Certified, these refrigerators still use similar or often times significantly larger amounts of electricity compared to refrigerators from the 1950s.
Fantastic job producing this video.
Thank you!
I Want To Build It please do more restoration videos
The old refrigerants wasn't poisonous. Just in 1994 on the Montreal accord. All refrigerants using R11 and R12 and R22 . Should be phased out . As they are ozone depleting. (Chlorine based refrigerants )
Now you know
thank you sir for the clarification! good to know.
hello big reforma , beautiful Geladeira brazil
Nice fridge and great story. I have a GE LH-12 that I am considering restoring. looking forward to your final product.
Thank you! Final video is up on my channel. I"ve built so many things in my life that were far more impressive yet this fridge is what everyone that comes over points out - very rewarding project.
Fantastic video!
thank you!
Great video thank you.
Nice job. Most of the oldies I find dumpster diving have a locked up compressor. Also, I hope you life insurance policy is up to date. I can guarantee with out any doubt that a 1950 fridge had asbestos insulation on it. I would recommend a respirator with a p100 filter next time.
Nice showcase. Neat job man!
Once you're used the sprayfoam, you'll never get it apart again if needed, correct? What about using rock wool(mineral wool) insulation? It's in batt form, insulates better than fiberglass, is fireproof, and major sound deadening properties.
Very cool. Been looking for one to restore also. And PPG is what I would paint it with also.
satajet883 whats PPG? I’m restoring a 1950’s General Electric and I’m researching what paint to use. This is the first I heard of PPG.
I would love to restore a vintage fridge. I've delivered and hauled away appliances for a few years. Probably the coolest design I hauled away was a "kelvinator" from the 50s. Unfortunately all the old fridges I bring back my boss plans of restoring. That's never gonna happen
start holding him to it, threaten to have them listed on ebay if restoration project isnt started within say 3 months of getting it. with the fridge receive date being used to select order of which they start getting listed. If he really plans on restoring them, either it will happen or ebay sales of them will start providing funds to restore the once recieved most recently. win win on his end really.
Can't wait !
Great job! I really hope there was no asbestos in that insulation, maybe should have worn a respirator when dissembling it.
He should have worn a mask for the spray insulation, too - tons of fumes. And while grinding... nice project but pretty amateur on the safety precautions, in my opinion.
he should have more subs than 600
Love the video, I just inherited a vintage Westinghouse MSD-8 fridge. One question I have for you is was there any worry about the insulation having asbestos in it when you were removing it?
Good question. I thought about it, I did research in what common insulation products contained asbestos and determined spun fiberglass batt is usually ok so I took a chance. Nothing is certain though, I recommend being smarter than me, and having it tested.
@@TheTinkereryeah good call, thanks for the info. I noticed your fridge is an MSD-7 and mine is a MSD-8 and they look nearly identical on the outside with my MSD-8 having a more centered freezer on the inside.
Do you know of any info on these fridges? I’m having a crazy hard time trying to timestamp this fridge…unfortunately mine does not have the manual haha.
My grandparents had one similar First thing in common. I associate this with theirs because it was indeed a westinghouse 2nd thing in common. 3rd and last but not least my grandfathers Birthday is MAY 16. Lol. How bout that
Fridges this old really aren't too bad efficiency wise. The worst period for fridge efficiency was the 70s and 80s. Walls and insulation got thinner and you had auto defrost. An old 80s GE I had used almost 1500 kwh per year. Compared to about 350 kwh for my modern (larger) fridge.
They do not make things like they used too. I just replaced my 42 year old furnace and like before had it checked and cleaned again for winter. Two months later needed it repaired 🤷♀️
Wish I knew that about the not turning it sideways, the motor probably wasn't settled I saw white smoke from the crack in my tv, connected to the same outlet so I think it might've burned something bc too much current
thanks for
i have a 50s frigidare that i am gonna do soon so im so lad you made this video!!!!! one thing tho, ik im super late but they do make flame resistant spray foam, maybe they didnt 4 yrs ago idk but just so everyone knows!!!!!!!
at that time things were made outa of heart ❤️️ can last loooong time , nowadays tho things after 2 year brake down
So doing some loose math on that, the space between the interior and exterior shells of the fridge is about 2 inches. The fiberglass insulation has about an R-4 rating. The spray foam insulation has between an R-12 to 14 rating. That fridge is WAY more efficient! excellent choice with the spray foam insulation!
Hows it holding up? Do you have to de-ice it as often since the motor isn't working as hard to keep things cool?
Great job! Not many people have the skill or capacity to undertake such a project, so it's always good to see! Still working? Never caught fire?
Spray foam will keep it from getting hot will stay nice and cold ln hot summer days in the ac
R-12, deadly, yeah right!
May not have been R12. I near killed myself breathig in a Sulpher based refrigerant once,
Rotor Thermotech r 12 is not poisonous it depletes the ozone layer
Sir you've earned my sub!
Wow!!! You are awesome... please can you help me with a few questions about my "new" vintage fridge!!! So wish I had your skills!!! First, it's been unplugged and evidently hadn't been defrosted in 3 years.. so it's leaking out the bottom seemingly a lot.. of course a little water goes a long way.. already got all of the ice out of the freezer section.. but still leaking out the bottom... Let it sit after the move for two days and just plugged it in. compressor cut on and light works so fingers crossed it will work properly.. I told them NOT to lay it on their side, but they did it anyway!!! Also, can't find the model number for parts... not on the inside or the bottom edge it's a buckle handle hot point two door.
Nice Video. If you had to do something differently, what would it be? I have one that is from my grandparents house that I plan to do. Lot's of good childhood memories going to the "Icebox"
You were probably dealing with r12 which is NON toxic.
If I had to put in a new compressor it would probably be a SECOP one, and the system would be charged with R-152a.
When you said "Expanding foam" I shook my head violently. How did you ensure that you had no voids in the application? Granted I do like the finished look but I'd have to be sure I got a good fill in all the nooks and crannies.
+Joshua Cook LOL - I don't blame you for shaking your head... But it worked quite well... the key was to only do a little at a time over several days, a whole week even... spray a bit, wait till expands and cures, then go back and fill whatever crannies it didn't fill... I actually plugged the fridge in last night and it's working very well - stay tuned for episode 2 - will be uploading hopefully tonight if i can finish the editing...
Hello! Nice video! Do you know if you cans take the built in freezer out?
In these old fridges, all the cooling coils for the refrigerator surround the freezer compartment. Therefore, if you removed the freezer compartment, there would be no interior cooling coils.
i have an old fridge like this and want to use it as prop and make it lighter - if i gut it how much lighter will it be? feels like the thing weighs 300 lbs
Wouldn't it have been so much easier to use some sort of blanket insulation like they use on old stoves? I know that is readily available and obviously not a fire hazard.
LOL warranty paperwork? How generous. These machines seem to never break down.
The old fiberglass would still had been very good as insulation.
Just course would the insulation used in those old refrigerators contain asbestos because I would like to try to restore a fridge like that myself?
I need a freezer door for a 1952 Westinghouse refrigerator any suggestions on where to find it?
Hi Gabriel - i have an old Philco fridge that I just want to make light, for a storage box, essentially. How can I rid it of massive weight? I think it's clocking in at 400 lbs . .
possible it could contain asbestos?
It's fiberglass insulation
That's what concerns me too. I have 2 1951 Philcos. It looks like fiberglass.
Fantastic job on the restoration! I also have a fridge of that age and wonder if you offer your services or know someone who might? I'm located in Ontario.
Forums? There are forums for refrigerator restoration. Gotta find it.
Hi great videos, very detailed thank you !! I am going to try to restore an old Hotpoint and need to change out the cord as it is completely frayed, I see you went to a grounded cord, is that difficult to do? Do any other changes need to happen to make it grounded? Thanks !! Victoria
I haven’t seen and comments answered. I was looking forward to more videos. If anyone has a 1950’s refrigerator similar to this I’m looking for a wiring diagram.
At 5m45s you used some sort of gromet to plug the insulation holes. What were those rubber deals and where could I find those? Im in the middle of a restore on a 1950s Hotpoint fridge myself and am attempting to stick to your plan. Also did you do anything to the chrome handle or Westinghouse emblem to restore those? Great put together video btw!!
+xfirewa11x Those are rust proofing plugs :) they are the plugs used by rust proofing shops when they drill holes at the bottom of your door to oil spray the inside they use these plugs to plug the hole. I bought these at an autoparts store, I think all autoparts stores should have them, a pack of 100 was only 2 or 3$.
If you watch the 2nd video i made of this, you'll see the finished look of all the holes plugged after paint. I did not restore the handle or the logo, the logo was already in great shape. The chrome on the handle is pitted as you expect old chrome to be, but I liked leaving small unrestored components to remind you that it is actually an antique fridge that has survived the decades.. gives a nice contrast with the modern metallic paint I used.
Hope this helps, And Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
+I Want To Build It helps a lot! And excellent point about the pitted handle, mix old with new i like that line of thinking.
Hello! I’m working on a similar project. What did you use to plug the holes you drilled for installing insulation?
Hi Brett - I used the little plastic plugs that are meant for plugging holes they drill in cars for spraying rust proofing, you can get them at automotive stores. Take your time with the foam, once it's closed in it won't cure, only do a little at a time, and wait a long period in between. That being said, this fridge still works like a champ years after I made this video. It's never been unplugged since! Enjoy your project.
@@TheTinkererHello! how to paint the inside? can you tell me? and with what? Thank you!!❤
@@user-ix1pn5gu2p Sorry, unable to comment on that since I did not repaint the inside on this fridge, it still looked nice after a good clean so I left it as is.
@@TheTinkerer 🙏🏻☀️🌈спасибо вам!!
How did you get the trim off between the cold box and the outer wall? Great Job!!
In 1950 it would have been using R12. Not flammable or poisonous. Don’t know where u get your info from but it’s wrong
lol - I got it from google 8 years ago. Not surprised it wasn't accurate, I figured better be safe than sorry. But even then It's still working today, I think my point was that It wasn't worth tampering with the refrigeration system that was working perfectly fine, and it still works like a champ today 8 years after i made that video, so glad I left it alone.
Wish we had seen this before we tilted and plugged in our vintage fridge! Now that we have damaged it, any idea how to fix it? Where does one get a new compressor?
Tina Turner ‘sometimes’ you can get lucky and let the refrigerant drain back to the compressor by just leaving it upright for a few days before plugging it in.
hello i have an old coke machine when i got it it has no gas in it i don’t know how long its been seating do i need to do somethingto it or just add gas thanks
I have the same fridge. Any Idea where I can get a replacement handle?
It might last 70years but no idea
I have the same fridge. How did you get the trim off between the cold box and the outer wall?
Did you spray foam the door to? Just got a free old fridge like this . Might be a project in the making . Want to do what u did
+Mike Davis I did not spray foam the door for a few reasons. The mechanical handle has moving parts inside the door, Also I didn't want to leave a gap behind the door's panel that might create condensation, so short of drilling holes in the door panel that would have to be covered up later, i didn't really have a good way of doing this. not sure if you seen part 2 but it shows what I did with the door: ua-cam.com/video/HHumm7VDcsY/v-deo.html
Hey Gabriel, just bought an old fridge. I was using a DA sander with 80 Grit to rough up the porcelain. Not working to well. What did you use to scuff up the porcelain to take body filler, or paint? Thanks!
mine was not porcelain.. it was metal with a baked on enamel so sand paper worked worked very well.. I started with 400 grit to make it easier smoothing it out later... if it's real porcelain it would be incredibly dense very difficult to scuff... not sure what to suggest...
Hey so glad I found this video! I’m doing the same exact fridge, which door gasket did you use?
Michael Delaura do you have a email
Could I get a copy of the manual , I have that same fridge
WHAT DID THE LETTERS SAY???
Thanks ! You know a lot! U do this for a living?i live in southern Ontario come refinish mine lol
+Mike Davis Thanks! I'm in the Barrie area.. it was a fun project, but one was enough! ha ha.
+Mike Davis I don't do any of this for a living no... just a hobbyist!
anyone know how I should get rid of one from my parents garage? I'm in Portsmouth Virginia HELP me find a home for this 1950's Amanda
Hey my name is GABRIEL
Did the old insulation have asbestos in it?
I'm sure it did.
Awesome video, I am currently restoring an old 60's SMEG fridge. I was wondering what the products you used were to achieve the nice smooth bodywork. Mine has quite a lot of surface rust on the sides etc. Cheers.
Hi Matt - thank you - I just used standard auto body stuff - Bondo body filler for the big dents, a urethane high build filler primer after that.. several applications and sanding... then i did an epoxy primer to seal everything up, very strong epoxy primer, but hard as a rock, difficult to sand, and painted with an automotive PPG paint, it all worked very well!
Can a Girl restore their 1950 Sevrel.........................
drinking game: take a drink every time he says man cave within two minutes you’re drunk enough to keep watching
What is the old insulation? Asbestos?
Fiberglass
What about using rock wool insulation? fireproof, great insulator, batt form.
I have one from 1948 with a freezer. Free to you. I'll subscribe so you can find me.
thank you - I am not planning on doing another one, this one had sentimental value. Thank you though.
Asbestos insulation without a mask
Professionals don't use foam in a can lol
Like he said, the professional grade foam insulation was beyond the scope of the project. He was making a beer fridge out of it for personal use, not restoring to factory conditions for resale.
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