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Post by mixmansc on Feb 6, 2014 14:16:50 GMT
Hi All-
Don't have tons of free time but I'll try to update this as I get things completed. About a year ago I bought a property for my company and in one of the buildings as an LB6-G flat top. Poor thing had been sitting for quite a long time. Fast forward a few months and we are moved in and our modern fridge died. I figured what the heck - I'll drag that old fridge that came with the property out of the back building and see if I can make it run. Brought it up to the main shop and cleaned it up first. Then visually inspected the cord and visible wiring. All looked good so I plugged her in. No start, turns out it the relay was shot. Replaced that and gave it another go and she fired right up and seems to work perfect! Ended up using it as-is for a couple of months until we got another new modern fridge.
So at this point I'm thinking I need to overhaul this thing and make it into a killer old fridge and the journey has now begun.... I've already done quite a bit. As it was it is missing one shelf, one shelf support peg, and the bottom front grille. It does have the glass drip tray which is a plus and is otherwise complete. I've sent the handle, handle cover, hinge covers, strike plate and emblem off to get re-chromed since the original chrome was rough and pitted. It also has a nasty ugly yellow poorly done paint job that someone gave it at some point in it's life. I'll try to get a lot more of the details together soon and will post them in hopes that others might find some of the information useful like on what I used to replace certain things like the door seal, the thin strip that goes between the flat top and the main body, specific type of wheels I added, etc.
I do still need to either find a lower grille or fabricate one as well as one shelf for the inside. If anyone has any ideas for those let me know. I'm debating on just getting some round rod stock and welding up an entire new shelf but I'd rather find an original... Since I have a graphics company and cannot really afford to go for a full out high end paint job right now I think I'm going to wrap it in vinyl for now. I have some unique materials that I think will look cool and have temporarily applied some to the lower front panel just to see how it will look. Specifically thinking on brushed steel and black metallic with blue chrome. Love it or hate it.... probably going to be what it gets done as for the time being. The new chrome work already cost a painful bit (over $200) and all the other bits I'm buying are adding up fast. I'm doing a couple of very minor mods that I hope will not hurt the value. One is I have added very low profile wheels, second will be updating the light, probably to LED but I might stay with incandescent, the third will be adding a bit to the back of the lower front panel and hinging it to swivel out giving a small storage bin in the bottom front. I think that is actually a factory option on some models. I'd love to see detailed photos of how the factory would have did that.
Anyways here is a couple of photos - one in its where and as found spot as well as a couple of shots of it in progress..... currently it still has a long ways to go. The last shot shows the black brushed metallic with blue chrome I put on the lower panel as a test.
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Post by allan on Feb 6, 2014 14:35:26 GMT
Neat project. Keep the updates coming!!
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Post by cablehack on Feb 6, 2014 22:20:27 GMT
Excellent stuff! That is one of my favourite styles of Flatop cabinet. I see the cooling unit sitting behind the bench. Is it a CF-1 or CF-2?
One of the guys in the Flickr or Yahoo groups actually did make his own shelves along the lines you suggest and you couldn't tell them apart from the originals.
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Post by mixmansc on Feb 6, 2014 23:30:46 GMT
Its actually a CJ-2. Finless and fanless. With a helper I was able to swing the compressor out and we simply lifted the entire unit up and out in one move. I first made sure to have that table which was about the right height to set the freezer section on with the compressor on the floor. I could actually plug it in as it sits and it will run and cool. Currently the only thing disconnected is the light and light switch. The original switch was shot, broken internally. It was a pretty simple affair though just attached to the top strip of prestolite. I found a modern replacement which will fit in and work fine. Not exact by any means but it is black (not as easy to find) and very very close to the size of the original. This is the switch I bought
www.ebay.com/itm/360796112142?item=360796112142
and these are the wheels I bought and installed
cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390502594233
I've also found that a good cleaning with xylol followed by rubbing compound then a coat a wax make the prestolite strips look near brand new. I've also carefully cleaned every single one of those little flathead screws with xylol and also polished them with rubbing compound. Here is a neat tip - if you are missing any of those around the prestolite there are a few more used internally in places that are not seen - good place to use modern replacements that do not quite match then you can use the ones from inside as replacements for the outside. On the shelf peg that was missing, I found a rubber type of nut at lowes that is near the exact size and look of the originals. I'll install that one in a back corner so it will not be obvious. Another thing I found at lowes near the shelf liners was a very very very thin black rubber sheet type material which I'm going to put strips of behind the prestolite to help seal the tub. The bottom pan under the tub was rusted out. I cut that out and cut a piece of .060 aluminum I had around to fit and glued that in. The original cardboard insulation was mostly "ok" except for the bottom which was just nasty and rotten. Going to layer modern foam panel insulation in to re-insulate it. Couple more photos as well. One shows the rubber vintage car fender welting I got to replace the strip around the top cover, the new bottom pan, a few of the bits just back from chrome  , and a shot of a 4 door Kelvinator I'm trying to work a deal on. I think I might be getting addicted..... goes along well with my other hobby I have been into for years. Antique electric fans...... I like things that are useful. Check out the AFCA website and moreso the forums if you want to seem more about antique fans. I'm a member there. www.fancollectors.org/
The new chrome looks amazing. Hard to photograph it.... I still need to add the background color fill back to the tag. I still have a good ways to go and not a lot of free time to work on it but it's coming along. Lots of sanding already done on the shell but lots more to go.
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Post by cablehack on Feb 7, 2014 0:18:27 GMT
I wondered about the short condenser - CJ explains it. The serviceability of these Flatops would have to be the best of any fridge ever made - just being able to slip the whole unit out and get to absolutely everything.
You'll be better off with modern insulation. The old Thermocraft is nice from an originality point of view, but as I found with my CA-1, it's a rust causing, and moisture absorbing, hazard if the seals aren't 100%. The modern foam sheet works better too - I was able to back off the control two divisions for correct temperature calibration.
Those low profile wheels are an excellent idea.
The storage bins are briefly described in the service manual on p176 and 177, but searching through old advertisements may also help - there's always Flatop ads on ebay. Also check the GE patents of the era - they go into quite a lot of detail. You can look up all the patent numbers on your cooling unit and cabinet.
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Post by coldspaces on Feb 7, 2014 5:09:25 GMT
Nice job so far! Looks like your gonna have one nice flat top when you are done. The rubber fender welting is what you are using for a door seal? Or maybe just the top seal? looks like a great substitute if it fits. Good luck with the rest of the restoration!
Coldspaces
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Post by mixmansc on Feb 7, 2014 13:55:38 GMT
The fender welt is for the flat top cover..... The original seal there was brittle and crumbling so I had to come up with something. The tricky part on that was finding one that the bead was a small enough diameter and also made of rubber. Most welt is plastic or vinyl covered and with a larger bead. This particular one has a 1/8" bead. I'd actually prefer the bead to be even smaller but finding a smaller one is near impossible. For the door seal I've already made a new one out of a particular 3/8' x 3/4" neoprene that fills the gap just right. Just enough give to not make the door hard to close but enough to assure a good seal. The trickiest part on that is making the corners nice. I cut 45 degree angles and then carefully glued it together with a flexible adhesive. On the welt for the top I'll just cut back some of the flat to make it go around the curved corners.
Still need to get the rust off the condenser and compressor and spray a fresh coat of black on those. Also replacing all the wire (and adding a ground) and have some 1/8" neoprene pipe wrap that I'm going to wrap the copper lines with. On the tub itself the finish is excellent on the top back and sides but the bottom is pretty scuffed up. I'm thinking on taping the bottom off and spraying that with white appliance epoxy and using the same to paint the shelves. I'd love to have the wire shelves chromed but that is cost prohibitive and I think white will look good on them too. They can always be stripped and plated later.
On the wheels - this thing is stupidly cumbersome and heavy and does not move about easily at all. There are 4 square metal pads at the bottom 4 corners that actually have a threaded hole in each so I'm thinking it must have had some adjustable feet at some point. Adding wheels is an obvious plus for making it easier to move it around but I have seen many others where people have added wheels and I just did not like how it looked with a huge gap at the bottom due to the size of the wheels so I hunted down the lowest profile wheels I could find that would be reasonable. I did not use the same holes though - I drilled new holes dead center in the 4 bottom metal pads which just happened to be the exact size of the wheels I bought. Each wheel is actually 2 wheels and they are only a hair over an inch tall so it raises it up very little. |
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Post by coldspaces on Feb 7, 2014 17:52:51 GMT
Those do look like a good choice of low profile wheel, I like it too. I will keep these in mind next time I look for wheels.
Coldspaces
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Post by mixmansc on Apr 28, 2016 23:40:29 GMT
I have not forgot about this site..... got crazily busy with the shop and things are still not really slowing down much. So the old fridge has sat in pieces over in a corner. Well I was not really liking the brushed black and blue chrome vinyl so I stripped that off. A tone of body work, and a half a dozen coats of paint and clear and this is where we are now. I'm digging it.... power blue with a creamy white up the middle. Now I'm really itching to finish this up. I'll post again soon as I make some progress. Sure looks a lot different than it did a couple of years ago.
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Post by coldspaces on Apr 29, 2016 2:00:14 GMT
I like the new color combination.
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Post by ckfan on Apr 29, 2016 2:50:04 GMT
I like that color combo too. Looks really good. Looks like you are doing a bang up job on it.
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Post by mixmansc on Apr 29, 2016 11:38:57 GMT
I think its going to come out pretty darned slick when I'm done. Early on I was seeing photos of customized hot rodded looking units and that caught my eye but then I started thinking I'd like it to look a little more retro. So the color choices are actually original GE colors (not necessarily how GE would have used them obviously). The blue is a pretty close match for the blue used on the freezer door on the inside. Still not totally decided on what I'm going to use for a new door gasket. I have one I've made up that will work but I'm not totally happy with it. Since this thing now realistically has a paint job that would cost over a grand to have done I'm wanting to really make it very nice. I'm thinking on converting the light to LED for one. I still need to also figure something out for a lower grille for the front. I did find a seller on eBay that has been selling off a ton of various model parts and managed to snag one lot that had the missing shelf I need as well as a better condition narrow plate for the thermostat. I probably should have posted about this sooner.... www.ebay.com/sch/daddymaxretro/m.html?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEFSXS%3AMESOI&_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2654keep and eye on their auctions. I wrote them and they are not really willing to try and dig and find some specific thing for you so you can only just keep an eye on their listings. However if you win an auction and do not want everything they will pack just what you want to save you some money on shipping. |
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Post by mixmansc on May 7, 2016 17:16:33 GMT
Couple of new photos..... no guts in it yet but I had to see what it was starting to look like together. Still have to also fabricate something for the lower toe grille. The color also comes out looking much "bluer" in these photos. Its really a very light powder blue in person.
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, and a shot of a 4 door Kelvinator I'm trying to work a deal on. I think I might be getting addicted..... goes along well with my other hobby I have been into for years. Antique electric fans...... I like things that are useful. Check out the AFCA website and moreso the forums if you want to seem more about antique fans. I'm a member there. 
