Heintz Gullwing

This Gullwing was discovered at a swap meet in Fremont Nebraska.  Dan from MO tells the story: 

I'm more into restoring cars but was not finding any good parts for my current project (a 56 Chevy Cameo Pickup) so I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket when I came across the Gullwing.  As you can tell from the pictures it was pretty rough, but I had never seen anything like it so for $300.00 I became the new owner.  The top had been removed and there was so much accumulated dirt inside I couldn't even see the chain and sprockets.  Once I got it home and started researching it I began to realize how rare it was because it still had the bottle vending mechanism.  Of everyone I talked to who had a Gullwing none of them had the vending mechanism or had even seen a picture of it.  I wish I had found an original compressor / condenser but maybe if someone sees it on your website that still may happen.  

The restoration itself was pretty standard.  Cut out the rust and replaced it with new sheet metal (beat to fit and painted to match).  Then the lettering was done by a local pinstripe / graphics guru.  I replaced the sheet metal in the bottom of the inner bin and then had it regalvanized which turned out to be a mistake as the heat from the process warped the metal but with a little hammering it still fits quite well.  A local sheet metal fabricator made a new cover for the coin mechanism and of course you know who's responsible for the restoration of the coin mechanism itself.  (SJW did the coin mech restoration)  There were two mercury switches that control the vending mechanism that were a little hard to find but when I did find a company that had them they were willing to send me some "free samples" so that I didn't have to pay a pricey premium order.  I was lucky enough to find a local refrigeration expert who was able to marry the original evaporator to a modern compressor / condenser assembly.

All in all it turned out very well.

If you would like to see this machine in operation, please check out our Heintz Gullwing Coin Mechanism Restoration: