Fridge restoration

On Sunday afternoon, I finally decided to get down and dirty with my old 1950’s Kelvinator fridge. I started by stripping off the door seals, taking out the screws that hold the door insulation in place and taking off the door and thermostat cover at the bottom of the fridge.

The seal was rotten at the bottom where water had obviously pooled. The insulation in the bottom of the door was also moldy and the screws along that section were rusted away. The rest of the seal had become brittle and crumbled in my hands as I removed it.

I got the old electric sander out and sanded the thermostat cover, the small door from the bottom of the fridge. It doesn’t show up that well on the photos, but the bottom door is now white again. Unlike the rest of the fridge which is a dirty ivory colour still.

Below are some of the first photos of this project.

More fridge restoration photos.

Post Author: admin

6 thoughts on “Fridge restoration

    6000

    (27 July 2010 - 18:28)

    That’s gonna cost a bomb to run!

    Incidentally, we were on Fishhoek beach the other day and there was a rotten seal…

    Emm

    (27 July 2010 - 19:41)

    🙂 That is such a novel exercise but I have to ask why??? Apart from how gorgeous and retro it will look when finished, what made you want to restore this old atmosphere-destroying thing?

      Del

      (28 July 2010 - 10:42)

      @Emm: All in the name of beer. It will become a brew fridge. And there are no atmosphere-destroying gases in this old baby; there’s no compressor!

    Talon

    (8 July 2011 - 15:28)

    Restoring a old Kelvinator to! Keep up the pointers. Where in the hell am I going to get seals for this thing? Should I use any special paint or will automotive paint be good?

    Victor

    (8 June 2015 - 12:03)

    I also would like to know about where to buy seals. I have 58 kelvinator coke fridge and being a spray painter I plan to restore a few of these old fridges so any tips or bad experiences please let me know. In fact here is my number 0448373671 . Any advice at all please text me or reply on here. Thanks. Victor

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.