Official Fridge Transformation Thread

[strnge]

Post your before, during and after photos of your fridge. Please include what you used to make the change. Paint, tools, etc...

Here is mine:

Ugly Brown Whirlpool Fridge I Got Of Craigslist for $25. Works Great!

Washed It Inside And Out For An Hour With Simple Green. Fridge Was In A Coffee Shop.

Took The Doors And Door Handles Off. Wire Wheeling The Door Handle.

Here Is One Door Handle Half Way Through.

Next I Sanded The Entire Painted Portion Of The Fridge With 320 Grit Sand Paper. I Then Washed The Fridge Again To Remove Any Dust And Grease.

Fridge All Taped Up So I Don't Get paint On The Inside. Ready For Primer!

Primered The Fridge.....(I Would Not Use A Spray Can Again, It Burped About 6 or 7 Times)

The Other Side Here.....It Took 3 Coats Of Primer Since The Fridge Was Brown.

Door In Primer.........I Used Rustolium Primer For Existing Paint.

Primer Done.

First Coat On One Of The Doors.

First Coat On Fridge Using Rustolium Safety Red...(I Got It From Home Depot)

One Side Done.

Drum Roll Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ta Da!!!!!!!!!

I Am Waiting For My Craftsman Badge Which Matches My Tool Boxes To Arrive. I Am Going To Mount It On The Right Top Portion. The Red In This Photo Does It No Justice.....It Is Much Brighter In Person. It Was Foggy Outside When I Took The Last Photo.

Mike

 

[KenS]

Did you roll the red finish?

 

[KCarGuy]

Great Job! I have an old one that is Red with all the edges faded inward with Brown Paint...from the Factory.
But, I like the straight Red color. Cant wait to see it with the decals.

 

[hguerrero]

looks great!

 

[strnge]

I rolled on the red with a short nap roller and thined the paint with mineral spirits. I used 85% paint and 15% mineral spirits to total 100%.

Mike

 

[chrislehr]

Fantastic job. Can't wait to see the final pics.....

 

[Boyd Who]

I don't have any "build" pics, but this is a 50's era Frigidaire that I turned into a neat little luggage trailer to pull behind my T-bucket. It worked surprisingly well!

 

[bugdust]

I haven't got around to redoing it yet. It is a 50s Westinghouse. It works like a charm, will freeze your beverages in the fridge part if you set it to. I got it off craigslist free and I gave the guy $20 to deliver it to my work.

 

[Gary S]

I transformed my ugly empty garage fridge into an ugly beer fridge with just one trip to the liquor store.

 

[e-tek]

GaryS - Funny!!

I'd like to have a fridge in the shop, but with 'only' 1000sq ft, I only have room for car-related things!

 

[Fidget]

Hey STRNGE, I have the same wire wheel stand that you do!!

Fridge looks good!

 

[HOTFR8]

I don't have any "build" pics, but this is a 50's era Frigidaire that I turned into a neat little luggage trailer to pull behind my T-bucket. It worked surprisingly well!

I have seen that done before and I am told it towed like a .........fridge ( not very well ) so how does yours tow ? Those rear wheels look very small.

 

[Boyd Who]

HOTFR8...it towed like a dream! I never had any issues towing it, although it was a ***** to back up. It never swayed or pogoed and you rarely knew it was behind the car, even at 100 mph.

 

[strnge]

Anyone else make a fridge transformation?

 

[Bull]

Anyone else make a fridge transformation?

No, but this is inspiring...nice work, I like it!

I regret not grabbing the very old and excellent condition 50's vintage fridge that my wife's gramma sold at a tag sale. But, at the time, I didn't have a garage to put it in!

I do want something out there for my beer....

 

[nonhog]

Anyone else make a fridge transformation?

Not yet but I just drug one home actually (get this) my wife picked it up for me since she was borrowing my truck.
I plan on gutting it and using it for my paint and such. But maybe I'll plug it in 1st. The guy said it should work ?
Pics coming ..............

 

[dodgepolara500]

I grew up in San Francisco, so i know something about Fog! Lucky you had a warm enough days to prime and paint on!

 

[marty_p]

RE: Fridge Transformation

Mike:

Awesome work to be proud of, my man!

One Q. Does the Rustoleum Safety Red that you used match typical Craftsman Red under interior lighting, in respect to color and gloss? I also remember reading a post mentioning a great rattle can match for Craftsman Red found at TSC (Tractor Supply Co.). Does anyone remember seeing that post or could describe the color?

-Marty

 

[Costner]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but those old refrigerators are horribly inefficient. In fact, some of them can cost you over $100 to $200 MORE in electricity for a single year than a newer model. So in many cases you can go out and buy a brand new fridge and the electricity savings will pay for it within a matter of 3 to 5 years.

If you have a Kill-A-Watt or other similar device that measures electricity usage, hook it up to your old fridge and run it for a week. I hooked it to my main fridge which is only a few years old and it told me it costs around $50 a year to operate. I then took it to my father's garage and hooked it up to his 10-15 year old fridge and it showed it cost about $185 a year to operate.

For that kind of money, I'd think long and hard about buying a new no-frills model just for a dedicated garage fridge. Then again, I might feel bad about painting a brand new fridge and anything that is cheap will probably be plain old boring white - and the newer models will never be as cool as those old round-top models!

 

[KL120]

OK, try to hold yourself back when you see this transformation:

Before

After

Actually I have a mini fridge that this post has given inspiration for. Neat idea!

 

[SWT Racing]

I like the stripes KL!

I'll be moving into my new house in November and will have to keep that idea in mind.

 

[wtfovr]

For some reason I would want a large Swingline emblem like the stapler company on the front of it. lol

Looks good.

 

[strnge]

John told me his red fridge died and he painted another one. Anyone else restore or modify their fridge?

 

[RCR]

How about this look

 

[61scout80]

i painted one with chalk board paint. It came out nice, but i have no good pics...

 

[Falcon67]

I used to have a mini in the shop, but repurposed the space when it died. After seeing the red re-do, now I want another and a tool box logo LOL.

 

[vettebrett]

How about this, not mine but this is what everyone is talking about, I am doing mine this way this coming spring.

 

[MN BIANCHI]

Just a little word of advice on those thinking of using older refrigerators.

The energy consumption of a 20 year old refrigerator is going to be at least TRIPLE that of a new one.

The average operating cost of a typical new 18 cu ft top freezer refrigerator is something on the order of $45.00 per year based on the 2007 national average price of electricty.

Triple that would be just shy of $150.00 per year and if your old beater was a larger refrigerator the cost of operation only goes up.

A better plan is to buy a new Energy Star refrigerator.

 

[nonhog]

I bought one of those tool cool kits that make the fridge look like a big tool box which when single would have been cool since my real tool box was in the dining room anyway
Heres the pic of my current fridge waiting for its turn for some TLC. Will be good for painting practice.

 

[truckdriver]

To everyone who chimes in with"those old fridges are terribly inefficient" I'm pretty sure we all know it. The older fridges had character. Just like my 69 F100 BB uses way more fuel than a new truck would. In this case the cost of character is worth it.

 

[jkherd]

How about this, not mine but this is what everyone is talking about, I am doing mine this way this coming spring.

These kits were nice but I believe the company closed sometime ago.

 

[kharma]

No pics yet, but I picked up a black Kenmore chest freezer that I hooked up to a temperature controller and will be using for beer mostly. Eventually the plan is to start kegging homebrew and build a collar with taps etc... too many projects right now though.

 

[jack bacon]

I will be painting my upright freezer bright red and then apply Coca Cola vinyl decals (from funtronics.com)

Jack

 

[Kevin54]

I bought one of those tool cool kits that make the fridge look like a big tool box which when single would have been cool since my real tool box was in the dining room anyway
Heres the pic of my current fridge waiting for its turn for some TLC. Will be good for painting practice.

Are you still using DuPont Lucite paint or is that an old pic? If that is a new pic, I didn't even know you could still get it.

 

[nonhog]

Its like lots of the paint and chemicals I have REAL OLD ! It is on its way to the inside of that old fridge till I figure out how to dispose of it.
Have some old DP40 also. (the good stuff except its so old its probably the bad stuff now)
I've been told some chemicals(paint supplies) never go bad.
Also been told all chemicals go bad.
Think I'll play it safe
Some day the fridge will store "fresh" supplies.

 

[rickairmedic]

Guys a little secret if you want to roll your paint on your fridges is to use high density foam rollers . You wont end up with a rough finish unless thats what you want . I havent painted my fridge yet but heres my current Boat project painted with sunrise red and white with the foam rollers .

Rick

 

[Engine-Ear]

A comment and then my fridge...

To everyone who chimes in with"those old fridges are terribly inefficient" I'm pretty sure we all know it. The older fridges had character. Just like my 69 F100 BB uses way more fuel than a new truck would. In this case the cost of character is worth it.

A-MEN, truckdriver. Style is worth paying for.

In addition, I disagree with speculative claims of "triple the operating costs" and all that ... I put a W-h meter on my '57 Philco and found it uses 23% more energy than the late-model boring white box in our kitchen, which is far from triple.

Also, I challenge people to think about the environmental angle from another way:

The NEW "Energy-Star" fridge is full of plastic (an awful lotta energy and carbon went into production of the raw materials, the molding processes and its packaging) and parts that eventually got here via fuel-consuming ships originating from foreign ports.

Then there are the trucks that consumed plenty of energy to deliver it to your local Home Despot.

And THEN, in 10 years or so, said fridge will join all the packaging AND that 50 year old fridge that was tossed into the landfill.

...OR, you can spend a bit more to operate what is already here. I feel I'm keepin' it green, indirectly.

Attached pics are representative of what I have in my shop: a 1957 Philco "Automatic". I love it! The paint and emblems on mine aren't as nice, so I plan to restore it to 'showroom' at some point.

 

[Bear]

Re: A comment and then my fridge...

Not to mention that the "energy star" was probably built in China where they puked a bunch of **** in their air and water in the process. Yep - maybe not so green!

 

[tweidman]

I spy a single speed. Nice to see a fellow singlespeeder on this forum.

 

[Jack Olsen]

The Red In This Photo Does It No Justice.....It Is Much Brighter In Person. It Was Foggy Outside When I Took The Last Photo.

Here is is in something more like Craftsman red: