1955 Frigidaire Cycla-Matic Fridge Restoration

[58limited]

Well, due to continuing work on hurricane Ike repairs I don't really have time for this, but a local high school needs it for a school play. They were pretty specific in wanting a '55 Frigidaire but were also interested inmy '54 Frigidaire. I told them that for now the '54 is my only working fridge in the house so they can't have it.

I got an auto body guy I know to do the paint and metal work. I agreed to disassemble the fridge for him. This took about 1 1/2 hours this morning - 20 minutes spent with just one hinge pin (there are four so you know that one has to be a b*&#h). Here is the fridge with the door removed. Four large phillips screws to remove, that's all - so much easier than the 1952 GE I restored 7 years ago.

I am missing one shelf and the little plastic shelf over the vegetable drawer - if anyone has these parts let me know.

 

[58limited]

The door part 1

I removed the door shelf unit. The bottom mounting surface (partition in the middle of the photo) has a lot of rust that I didn't know about and will require a patch panel. The door gasket is shot and I'm going to call around Monday to try and find one.

 

[58limited]

Door part 2

Got the insulation out and removed all of the chrome trim. I'll see about rechroming it this week, but might not have enough time, depending on when the high school needs the fridge.

 

[58limited]

Finally, I removed the plastic spacer pieces that go between the fridge box and the outside. This was held on with clips similar to automotive trim. I used my fingers, no tools. No cracks or breaks in the plastic, but did have the occasional pinched finger. No I'm just waiting on the repair guy to refinish it.

 

[58limited]

The fridge will be painted with automotive paint. I will probably paint the two turquoise metal pieces with engine paint for my '58 Buick - it is a similar color and I already have some. Automotive paint is rather expensive and I don't want to color match and buy the turquoise just for two small pieces.

 

[goatfarmer]

Looks good, David!

 

[autowasherfreak]

Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[rickr]

WOW!! This will be a beautiful restoration David. Can't wait to see the finished results!

Did you ever ask Bruce at A1-Marks if he would part out the 55 he has?

 

[58limited]

Actually I forgot to call him, just been too busy lately.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Wow!!

I can't wait to see the restoration. GOOD LUCK!!! What a nice fridge!!

Rich

 

[rickr]

Do you still have the phone number? Let me know if you need it again.

 

[58limited]

Yes, please send it again. Thanks.

 

[rickr]

Will do

 

[danemodsandy]

Gotta Ask:

Why so much restoration work on a stage prop? I could understand if this was for a movie and it was going to be used in a fairly close shot, but this much excellent work isn't really going to be apparent to a theatre audience.

Or are you getting a head start for when they're through with it and you're putting it in shape for yourself? ;-)

 

[58limited]

I'm restoring it for myself. The fridge works, I used it during Hurricane Ike to preserve the vaccines from my clinic. The high school teacher wanted to paint it to hide the surface rust and I was thinking that a cheap coat of paint over rust would be one more messy thing to have to strip off when I restored this, so I decided to restore it now. I will oversee transporting and moving it to avoid scratching and other damage when the school uses it.

 

[fltcoils]

That's my mom's fridge, or it was

nice to see an example of my "growing up" fridge.

It worked until we moved it.
I think we tilted the compressor enough to get compressor oil in the capillary tube. From there it just couldn't build up enough pressure to clear out the oil and get freon flowing thru the high pressure tube again.

 

[58limited]

I took the fridge door to the auto body shop to have the rust patch panel welded in place. The repairman will do all of the other work at my house: I have a compressor to run his air tools, and I have a paint gun. The local chrome shop wants $300 to rechrome all of the trim, waiting on a response from the shop in Houston that I usually use. I didn't have time to call around for the door gasket, maybe tomorrow. Welding, stripping, priming, and painting will probably be done by Sunday. I'll post pics as the work progresses.

"It worked until we moved it.
I think we tilted the compressor enough to get compressor oil in the capillary tube. From there it just couldn't build up enough pressure to clear out the oil and get freon flowing thru the high pressure tube again. "

Interesting, I've had my '54 on its side and even upside down and never had a problem. The '55 was transported in a pickup truck from Alabama to Texas on its side, and it was facing the wrong way so we tipped it out of the truck upside down, then laid it on its side, then upright. Maybe some debris in the system blocked the tube? I let my fridges sit for 24 hours before plugging them in if they are ever tipped more than 45 degrees.