With a day off on my hands and my engine off to the machine shop, I thought you guys might like to see what I found today at my local scrap yard. This place is a tetnus shot waiting to happen but they still allow me to search around and pick through the piles. Today's treasure is a Cronstrom aluminum picnic cooler. With the exception of a few dings and missing a rivit for one of the hinges its in great shape. I've searched around a bit online and found that these were made in the 50's and 60's. Its gonna look swell keeping the drinks cold in the bed of my '64 F100. I traded them straight up for 20 pounds worth of empty beer cans. Pretty good deal I thought. Lets see some pics of your cooler's guys!
That just brought tears to my eyes ,I commend you on such a sweet find to keep the Beer cold.Nobody likes warm beer.
I have seen a few up here, but mostly steel ones with the bottoms rusted out. You might even be able to find seals for them.. Al
Here is mine. I can tell you its heavy when empty and almost unbearable when loaded. Also, the foam insulation is likely copllapsed and fell down to the bottom of the sides as it will not keep anything cold for even 5 mins.
It would take a shit-ton of filler to smooth this one out. It has a textured finish, most of the one's i've seen painted up are smooth to begin with. I may ask my beer rep for a big ass High-Life sticker though. The seal on this one is in great shape, not dried out at all which is a surprise considering it was found in a scrap yard in Arizona. It has one tiny little tear near one of the hinges.
Man, sure dig them coolers, I'm lookin for one for the side car/cooler for my grandaughter minibike. Any leads?
I've striped up and sold several. just realized i have no pics of any in my hamb profile, I'll have to get a few up. (couple of them on FAS were mine) Still have 2 in the garage awaiting paint and stripes to be sold
You will soon learn why they are not used anymore,,they wont keep anything cool for long,,,they sweat and will soak everything they set next too. They do however make a great looking box to keep cleanup supply's or tools in. Back in the 50's and early 60's you went to the local ice plant that was in just about every town an bough blocks of ice and a ice pick and put Hugh chunks of ice in the old metal chest,,, They are cool but really impractical for keeping drink cold. BTW,I still have several old metal Pepsi metal coolers ,,one looks very similar to yours.HRP
Looks like there's enough prime real estate on the sides of that thing for some stickers or maybe a even a soda related decal. With a little imagination a guy could turn it into a Orange Crush or Stubby Cola cooler... Nice find, the price was right... .
I just thought it was cool to find on at the bottom of a scrap heap in such good shape. Here in AZ nothing keeps things cold for very long. My brand new igloo is only good to keep things moderately cold for a few hours. Knowing me i'll trade this thing for something even less practical anyway.
The Jalopy Journal
