Painting interior Marvel mid 50's Fridge

Hello Rod. if the bottom surface is porcelain, it will be very hard to get paint to stick to it. Some people have had success with painting porcelain, but nobody shown any results which convince me of good, longterm adhesion. I would be especially worried for the longterm durability on a high wear area such as the bottom of a cabinet liner.

Another issue I have noticed is paint odor. My 1926 Frigidaire M5-2 had a factory-painted liner. The paint had failed over time, and I had the liner repainted along with the cabinet exterior. It was painted with a high quality automotive paint. In spite of this being two years ago, there is still a paint odor in the cabinet when the door is closed for an extended period of time. This is not very noticeable with the refrigerator powered on and the cabinet cool; however if the unit is powered off, such as when I leave town for work, the odor is objectionable after a few days. This odor clings to the outside of cans and bottles, and permeates through plastic bottles and contaminates bottled water. It also causes a bad aroma when drinking from cans or glass bottles which have the odor clinging to the exterior. For that reason, I would highly recommend not painting the cabinet interior.

One alternative you could consider is applying vinyl to the floor of the cabinet. This won't have fumes like paint, and would be removable and replaceable if that became necessary. I buy the rolls of permanent high gloss vinyl from Hobby Lobby under their Paper Studio brand and it works well.

As for the cracked plastic trim (breaker strip) that can be repaired with acrylic adhesive. The following product is what I use.
https://www.jbweld.com/product/plastic-bonder-syringe
This is an incredibly tough yet flexible adhesive. I always lay a thin flat aluminum bar behind the trim and use the adhesive to attach this to strengthen the part.

First, sand the back, or glass-bead blast it to remove all oxidized plastic and dirt. Then, put masking tape over the visible side of the trim so that it is not going to get adhesive on it. From the back, apply a heavy coating of adhesive on the plastic trim, ensuring it flows into the cracks. Lay the strip of aluminum over the adhesive and push it into the adhesive. Make sure the adhesive flows around and on top of the aluminum to ensure it is retained. Once the adhesive sets, the front can be sanded / filled / painted as necessary.

Hi David,

I am glad you mentioned the leaching smell from paint. This was a huge concern of mine before asking the question. I like the idea of a cover for the bottom. At one point was considering cutting a piece of shower wall that you can get the big box stores and cut it to fit in the bottom. It's already white.

I will look into the Hobby Lobby product.

I like the idea of reinforcing the plastic trim, but it's so brittle that any effort to remove it results in heavy cracking.

Anyone used Appliance epoxy for the exterior. I was considering painting the vent I mentioned in my initial post, but I am afraid that it will look out of place once it's painted because the original paint while looks adequate, will probably not match the gloss of the appliance epoxy. The grate only has a few rust spots, I am almost okay with just leaving it with rust spots rather than risk the paint not matching which I suppose would magnify a larger area vs. a few small rust areas if I keep it original.

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Rod

Has anyone tried kinks 2 part epoxy ? It comes from Canada. I used it on a antique sink and works very well. I have a frig that I painted the bottom with and brought it a half inch up the sides. Its been 6 months and there's no noticeable smell and its working fine. How long is the question. Might check it out.