My second Mills Vest Pocket restoration.

[shortrackskater]

I finally got to repairing another of my 6 or so Vest Pockets. I had about a quarter can of Rustoleum Hammertone deep blue that looked great on my other machine (blue body, gold ends), and decided to paint this one entirely blue. I got the machine prepped and started painting and promptly ran out of paint.
To my dismay I found NO ONE carries that color and that Rustoleum apparently discontinued all the nice colors! 
So I reluctantly bought a dark gray Hammertone, sanded the blue off and started over.
The paint job came out great. I reassembled the machine, took a look at it and hated the color! 
So I went on another search and found a nice Aqua Hammertone, from Amazon. I took the machine back apart, sanded the gray off and prepped it again for painting, and used the aqua. A friend suggested I keep the back door and payout flap gray, painting the end and reel flap in the Hammertone gold, that I still had.
How does a VP look in three tones? The more I look at it, the more I like it. 
Looking for my only "before" shot... just picture a really scratched blue... then sanded to nearly bare metal.
Note the original locking payout flap. Dave Berten is looking for a key.

[mvco]

Very nice!  I need to pick up one of these someday.  Cool little machines!

[shortrackskater]

Very nice!  I need to pick up one of these someday.  Cool little machines!

They're on eBay frequently although we seem to be in a phase where people think they can sell them for $600 or more. One seller had a beat up VP and was asking over a thousand! Those just sit there for months until the seller realizes that no one will pay that price.
Lately I've bought them when they list at a fixed price with a "make offer" option. I'll throw out a number, or negotiate by PM with the seller until we reach a fair price.
They're fun to work on but can be tricky. I'm still learning each time I repair one. The biggest problems though are when the parts just break inside. People get to forcing stuff and that's when problems happen, like on the coin slide. It's good to have spare parts. I have about 6 more and hope to get two good ones from the batch I have. Most parts machines get gutted for the coin slides. Light duty welding skills are nice to have too! That's next for me, but I've actually used a high wattage Weller soldering gun for some light duty parts.

[shortrackskater]

Added a "before" shot. Well it had been sanded, painted, and sanded again!