Painting washers & dryers:

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kenmoreguy89

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Feb 23, 2010
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Valenza Piemonte, Italy- Soon to be US immigrant.
I was watching my Filter Flo tonight and an idea just passed through my mind about painting it my favourite color, teal color so I started googling but no much advices on the web.
I start with saying I never painted something, I'd need to learn also how to do since I have a Zoppas 50s refrigerator in my garage to restore, internally is like new just need external painting...
Someone have advices to give? Do you think is a thing that a non expert person can do alone?
I can read the paint is used is Rustoleum enamel paint....
Look how pretty these people made their painting on their appliances, I'd like a result like these, Impossible task for a non-expert?:
[this post was last edited: 12/25/2012-17:29]

 
I guess it is up to you. Do you want a paint job that looks like it came from the factory that way, or do you want one that looks like a home paint job? I have a 1949 Hotpoint refrigerator that I had painted by someone who paints cars. It was painted as if it were a car. Here is the results. It looks like it came off the showroom floor like that. It was originally white.

countryford++12-25-2012-23-45-34.jpg
 
Nice refrigerator there!!!
painting should have costed alot!
I was told to bring the refrigerator to one of these car painters once but I wanted to get some more info first....what technique and paint they use? I guess is not a thing you can do yourself at home the same way they does...
Looking what these people made with their appliances looked like a DIY job and result is almost a "out of the factory" at least from my screen, but your refrigerator just leave me amazed! Fantastic job! If you would not have told me that I would have never tought it actually was of another color originally!
My Filter-flo got some very light scratches so I thought to try to change color, maybe it is better to keep it so for now, I will consider it later when and if it will get major scratches and estetic imperfections..

For the refrigerator I should ask how much would cost me

How much did you pay if I can ask?
Thanks
 
The guy who painted my fridge is an auto/aircraft painter and therefore uses the same paint that he would on a car. He is also a good friend of the family so therefore only charged me $150 to cover the cost of the paint. I can't imagine how much it would have been if I would have had to pay for the labor as well. I know he sandblasted it down, and got all the dents out of it.
 
Paging rickr!

Freddy:

Rick (rickr) on this board has painted quite a few machines in non-factory colors - if you will search on his name, you will be able to find his posting history and see some of the photos he's posted over the years. He has even painted washing machines' porcelain tops, and claims good results.

So, maybe Rick can come around soon and give you some pointers. He doesn't post as often as he used to, so he may have other things going on.
 
I had the son of one of my employees and his friend paint my '55 Frigidaire. They work at an automotive paint shop and charged me a total of $350 parts and labor. They sanded the fridge down to metal, applied two coats of rust inhibitor, one primer coat, and two paint coats.

 

They sanded it at my house (I have a large compressor) and then we took it to the paint shop to finish it. I painted the toe plate.

 

 

 
David, what beautiful job on that Frigidaire!

Well, that's alot of money 350$ for painting,  but considering work behind that's fair, I had it donated from a granma of a friend, but I can see that it goes up to 900 euros in good estetic conditions so I could even spend that much, I want to keep it though!

We have friends that are into painting though now that I think about it, not cars.... but I may ask them, their son painted himself his Harley Davidson and did a wonderful job.

Also this is a job we could  do at father's farm, we have 3 large compressors and alot of space.

I hope Rick will come along to this thread, I'm really curious to discover how he does, I will try to find him and write a few lines, hopefully I won't bother him.

Thank you for the info guys!

I'm attaching links of refrigerators like mine:
(Internally mine is even better than this, original seal okay and no yellowing, no chips and bottle shelves  intact)

 
The problem these days with spray painting is that the favourite DIY spay paint, cellulose has been banned and the replacements tend to be more dangerous to use. You generally need airline fed respiration equipment if using 2 pack or the water based car paints.
 
In 1966, my parents had their double-door white Frigidaire refrigerator painted turquoise to match their new Flair range, and Frigidaire diswasher. It was painted by an auto body shop. 40+ years later, the refrigerator is still running fine, and the paint job has also held up during all that time.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how one would re-paint laundry appliances that have porcelain tops, but I'm betting someone on the AW site knows this answer. ;o)
 
Presumably it was not a new fridge or they would have bought one of the same colour as the other appliances.
 
Actually, what happened was that in 1965 the refrigerator was purchased in white a year prior to their purchase of the turquoise Flair range, and turquoise Custom Imperial push-button dishwasher. (No timer knob) My mom loved the turquoise color so the appliance dealer lined them up with an auto body shop (The local Buick dealer)for painting the fridge.
 
Idea

I was just re-reading a post in the Imperial Forum about the pink 1956 Frigidaire laundry pair and it occured to me that this would be one way to achieve colors on washers and dryers. Frigidaire kept all tops white (porcelain) and only painted the bodies. For newer washers and dryers, with and without porcelain tops, why not only paint the cabinets? If it worked for Frigidaire back then, why not make it work now?

lawrence
 
Lawrence:

That would just depend on a particular collector's approach. There are some people here who do some very intriguing and creative modifications.

OTOH, there are those of us - like me - who value originality, and like to keep things true to factory specs, or at least within factory specs. Example: If I miraculously stumbled on a Maytag 906 pair in Avocado - a color I can't abide - I would be okay with finding White cabinets for them. I would not be okay with painting them and their porcelain tops Turquoise, because Maytag didn't do painted tops at that time.
 

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