A couple of months ago I found a busted down vintage GE refrigerator freezer combination with original ice tray online for about $100. The owner told me it didn’t work but that it should be an easy fix, so I took the risk and drove a couple of hours to San Diego to pick it up. It was in muchhhh filthier condition than the pictures lead on, and had some old wires sticking out of the back, but I figured I’d already invested the time and money to rent a pickup truck and drive out, I might as well just lug it home and see if I could bring it back to life. It’s hard to find the right sized vintage appliances to fit apartment kitchens, and this one was the PERFECT size for mine so I didn’t want to give up. I should note I also drove to Newport Beach, another couple of hours from San Diego, on the same day to pick up a 1950s gas stove that didn’t end up fitting my kitchen. More on that later, but I was extra determined to make the fridge work after that defeat.

Here’s what I was working with.

1950s GE refrigerator Refurb before

Rust, scratches, dirt, grime, and slightly corroded chrome. Not terrible.

But inside was much worse. Rust, mildew, a weird smell, so much grime. What did I get myself into?

1950s refrigerator before

Since this was going to be the place I stored our food I wanted to be cautious about what I used to clean the inside. I didn’t want to use anything that would leave a lingering chemical smell or residue so I turned to the following products and methods, and used A LOT of elbow grease.

First, I removed all of the shelves and drawers and soaked them in my sink and scrubbed the hell out of them. Then I did a whole general scrub down with Simply Green and let it air out with the doors open. I did this a total of four or five times until it was clean enough to move on to the rust and mildew.

For the mildew and rust I used a mixture of good old baking soda and vinegar, a Scrub Daddy sponge, and a toothbrush. The gaskets were still supple and the seal on the doors were good (test with a sheet of paper, if it slides out get new gaskets), so I just I applied the baking soda and vinegar paste and scrubbed over and over until the mildew was completely gone. Some of the rust spots corroded the paint, but I was able to use extra-fine sandpaper to buff it smooth and applied appliance touchup paint over the smaller chipped spots as needed. On the bottom the rust was too extreme so I used a couple of coats of white automotive spray paint. I wouldn’t recommend painting the whole thing that way, but it worked for this small part.

1950s refrigerator Refurb After inside

Now onto the outside! The original paint was mostly in ok condition, so I just wanted to fill in a couple of scratches and bring some lustre and shine back to it. For this I used automotive detailing supplies. I applied several layers of a buffing cream and car wax with an electric orbital buffer. Just as you would detail an old car. I used a chrome polish and superfine steel wool to bring as much shine to the chrome as possible. 1950s Refrigerator Refurb After

And there it is! The only thing was it still had a lingering smell. Not a horrible smell, just that general old freezer smell. The only thing that worked was these miracle Arm and Hammer Fridge-n-Freezer Packs. They’re super cheap so we replaced them every couple days until the smell was completely gone. That took about a week and now we replace it as needed.

The last thing I needed to tackle was the mechanics. After all of that cleaning the damn thing didn’t work. I consulted a few vintage message boards, and spoke to a repair shop, and was confident it just needed a new relay. The problem is the replacement relay for this model is long gone so I had to rewire it with a new universal relay. This was way easier than it sounds, you literally just follow the directions on the package. Definitely consult with a repair shop or the manufacturer if you have questions though.

As soon as I plugged it in the compressor kicked on and I jumped up and down and ran around in circles because WOW WHAT A PAY OFF! IT WORKS!

I know old refrigerators have a reputation of being energy suckers, but our bill and usage hasn’t gone up at all compared to our modern fridge. From my understanding the high energy consumption comes from older models that incorporate an automatic defrost system. This model needs to be defrosted every couple of months, but I simply use a blow dryer and old towel and it takes me about 15 minutes. Another issue of concern for some people is size. It is smaller inside than a modern refrigerator, but we don’t store very much food at once, so that hasn’t been a problem for us.

Here it is living happily in our kitchen! Perfect fit. I love it.

1950s GE refrigerator in modernized kitchen.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

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10 responses to “How I Fixed Up My 1950s Refrigerator”

  1. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    We used to defrost the freezer with a pot of hot water, close the doors and wait. Then pull off the ice, wipe up and go.

  2. Pat Avatar
    Pat

    Wow! I love it too.

  3. Cara Avatar
    Cara

    It looks so good!

  4. Lisa Shore Staats Avatar

    Krys, this is AMAZING! You are so talented. GREAT job! Enjoy your beautiful refrigerator [words I never thought I’d use…LOL].

  5. imgsrc Avatar

    Your wallpaper related kitchen is very nice keep positing and i also have related stuff in my website

  6. DIY: Here’s How I Colored My Appliances with Heat Wrap Vinyl – Melodrama Avatar

    […] my best friend. I even covered my modern refrigerator in a cute retro blue before I brought in my vintage GE. Unfortunately, temp wallpaper isn’t ideal for stoves because they get hot and its unsafe and […]

  7. Nippon Avatar

    Worth Appreciating. Great work.

  8. Allison Avatar
    Allison

    hey there i have a 1950s GE fridge and the door handle has broken, in that the hinge/inside the door must have broke off or something because when you use the handle, nothing happens, there is no grip on the door itself. anyway, my question to you is… during your renos, did you
    a) take the entire door off from the fridge, and if so how did you do that?
    b) take the inner liner of the door off to get a the inside of the door, and if so how did you do that?

    Thanks for any tips you can give. i’ve had this fridge 20 yrs, and it has survived nearly 70 so i’m not throwing it out over a door handle but for the life can’t find a replacement door handle anywhere so my only possible fix is to have a locksmith/machinist i found fabricate whatever has broken off from inside the handle that grips on to the pin in the door and pulls it out to lift up the latch and thereby open the door.
    Allison

  9. […] 12. How I Fixed Up My 1950s Refrigerator – Melodrama […]

  10. […] 12. How I Fixed Up My 1950s Refrigerator – Melodrama […]

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