New World Datsuns...

Again, cut, paste, and edited from another forum. Please excuse any inconsistencies. Project was started right before Thanksgiving 2012.



It's been ridiculously slow and boring around here for the last few weeks. I've been trying to stay busy with projects that don't eat into the savings if at all possible. These two old refrigerators have been sitting in the corner of the paint shop for a few years so I thought I'd finally just dig in.

The one on the left is a 1941 (Nash) Kelvinator that was given to me by my buddy Jerod. It sat on his grandparents back porch in Eastern Oregon for decades. When they died and the family was cleaning out the farm he grabbed it for me, along with another for himself. I love the art-deco details. The one on the right is a 1946(?) Frigidaire that used to live right next to my Cutlass in my grandpas garage. I brought it home after he died a couple years ago.

Started by dragging out the hose and some cleaning products and scrubbing out the insides. I followed that with a good scouring with hot water and a Scotch-brite pad on the outside.


Once I got them into the booth it was time to start the initial sanding just so I could get a handle on how much body work will be needed.


I started to focus on the Frigidaire first by taking the door apart so I could remove the handle and emblem. After that I removed the door, did another round of sanding, and laid on the first round of filler.


The paint scheme/theme for the Frigidaire is probably going to be black and gold/beige with a nod to Cadillac. The Kelvinator is TBD but I'm open to suggestions. Feel free to chime in. I'll probably take tomorrow off to binge eat then get back to them on Friday. Stay tuned.

It was in the low 40s when I got started today. Fired up the heater...

...and in about 30 minutes the booth was a comfy 65 degrees.

Just some more boring body work on the Frigidaire:


Stripped the door and trim off the Kelvinator and started in on it:




I'm not great at body work and absolutely hate it. HATE IT! Anyway, both of them are roughed in and actually would probably be straight enough for white paint. I think I'll just let my brother do the finish work since he makes it look so easy. He'll be back in town Monday.

Just for educational purposes, I thought it was interesting how they used such different means of insulation when I disassembled the doors. Frigidaire had very heavy fiber insulation. Reminds me of carpet jute used in '30s and '40s cars.

The Kelvinator just used stacks of corrugated cardboard. Huh? I wonder if that's what's used throughout the whole thing.

My brother stopped by after work tomorrow and we (mostly he) worked on the Kelvinator for a couple hours.

Body work is done. I cleaned the booth, masked and staged everything. My brother was going to stop by on his way home from work Friday and shoot the primer. Never showed - never called. That's really nothing new. I had to go out of town yesterday (Saturday) but when I checked the booth this morning I got all excited because I saw fresh primer...



...but that was pretty short lived. Not sure hat happened but for some reason the job was only half done.


I guess maybe I'll find out what happened when/if I finally hear him. Divas :roll: .

Okay, here's what went down with the primer. He had a small amount left in the bottom of a can and decided to use it. It wasn't enough to cover everything but did cover all the actual bodywork. Since we were going to use a sealer coat between primer and base the unprimed sections weren't really a concern. So, I was given instructions to sand it one more time to feather everything in and knock the peel off of the primer. My brother came over Wednesday night and shot the sealer, then the silver/gold, taped it off, and shot the first 2 coats of black base. We went in the booth to look it over before he laid down a wet 3rd base coat and saw some horrible scratches popping through. Not sure how, but it looks like I got something in the paper when I was sanding. It didn't really show up until that point. We put on the brakes and decided it's time to back up a couple steps. Here's how it looks right now:


I'll go out later today and sand it down a little and then we'll rebase it and continue from there. I know it's just a beer fridge but I'd still like it to look nice. I just know if I don't at least try to fix the scratches they'll drive me crazy every time I look at it. If I fail...at least I tried. We'll see how it comes out.

Mystery black from an unmarked can. Very light subtle metallic in it. The other color is Harley Davidson Pewter Silver. There's a couple little saggers that need to be cleaned up but otherwise it came out really nice. We had the booth up to 75* but got down to mid 40s after running the fan for a few minutes so we were expecting some run issues. All in all I'm really pleased. Now I need to start polishing all the chrome and put it back together. Some red pinstripes coming soon.

My brother came by this afternoon and shot the sealer on the Kelvinator.

Hopefully some color tomorrow.

Ran out of reducer mid-job. This is after 2 coats of base. It'll be a shade brighter and more metallic after another coat or two and the clear. Stay tuned.


The paint is left over from this job. Gets really vivid under direct light -- not so much on a cloudy Oregon summer day.

The rain is back so the temps are up a little. The pewter was resprayed and cleared:

Then he shot clear on the green Kelvinator parts:



Next is the flat black stripes on the raised portions. We'll see how long that takes. My brother has a couple Harley jobs to do so I think that's the motivation to get the appliances done and out of the way.
Is it just me or is this project taking forever?

I really do need to get a new camera -- it really doesn't do justice to a lot of the stuff he paints. The problem is that he layed it on too nice. If you notice the embossed grooves where the pewter is, those acted like nice little ditches for the clear to settle and then run over the edge. The clear wasn't intended to be shot so cold. That's what needed to be repaired.

Waiting for final buffing and assembly:

The flat black on the gloss green makes a nice contrast -- at least I think so:

Kinda reminds me of a fat guy in a bowling shirt:

Mostly put back together:







On the Kelvinator, I can't put the inside of the door back together until the handle is screwed back on. I need to clean/fix the handles first. Thinking about wrapping them in leather. The Frigidaire is pretty much done -- just one more final detail.

Finally put on the emblems:

It's from an Escalade grille IIRC.




On the Kelvinator, I tried doing a wrap with some suede. Not sure I'm in love with it but it looks okay and is something a little different.

The door handle will need some repair before I wrap it. A previous owner kind of butchered it in an attempt to put it back together. It's pretty much the only thing left to do.

Wow, best fridge thread.. ever!
You seem to have the same sense passion for all your projects. It makes for a great read.

Appreciated. Sadly, I suffer from a short attention span. The broken handle has been sitting on my work bench for at least 3 months. I need to finish it.

I love old stuff,anything old.
And the kelvinator hot damn

I think the Kelvinator needs some traditional pinstriping. Eventually.

Some nice fine line hand stripes?

Some type of scroll work. When we were masking it off we used a yellow fineline tape that looked pretty good in contrast to the green and black. I'll probably just let the artist decide.

There are some amazing stripers out there, and th right contrast,would bring out the accents like nothing