The Coca Cola Vendo 39 Coke Machine was Vendo’s first coin operated upright machine for smaller locations. This was the smaller version of the Vendo 83 and worked on the same principle. To operate the Vendo 39 Coke Machine, you simply inserted 5 or 10 cents in the slot, the coin mechanically allows you to crank the handle, this action turns the bottle drum inside and retrieves 1 of the 39 bottles this machine will vend. The Vendo 39 Coke Machine will only vend one selection and will only hold the new 8 oz Coke bottles or 7 oz beer bottles if your wish. Having been manufactured for smaller locations, the Vendo 39 was seen everywhere from outside of general stores to gas stations. Vendo built around 80,000 of these so, they are extremely common

The Coca Cola Vendo 39 Coke Machine was manufactured from 1949 – 1957. From 1949 – 1955 the Vendo 39 came in solid red and “ICE COLD” script at the bottom of the front door. The coin entry plate was stamped stainless steel. From 1956 – 1957 the Vendo 39 came in two-tone paint and “Vendo” script at the bottom of the front door. The coin entry was a chrome casting. Vendo hauled production on the Vendo 39 Coke Machine after the 1957 model year

In 1956 Coca Cola began a new advertising campaign focusing on a fresher new look. From 1956 on, all Coca Cola machines would have the top 12″ painted DuPont Iceberg White. For the 1956 and 1957 model years, the Vendo 39 was painted with the new two-tone paint scheme. Coke brought some Vendo 39 Coke Machines back in for a repaint to the new 1956 paint scheme. You can easily spot tell these re-painted machines not only from the two tone paint scheme, but because they really didn’t mask the machines very well, painting right over the door gasket. Also, machines originally painted with the two tone paint scheme came with stainless steel trim separating the two colors. Repainted machines would have chrome tape instead or screwed-on trim.

Since the Coca-Cola Vendo 39 Coke Machine was a very common, popular machine and it was on many locations already, many people chose to convert their V-39 to a multi-drink machine rather than purchase a whole new Coke machine. For the conversion,  a plexy glass window was added to the inside of the main door. A hand crank was also added to the front of the machine in order to turn the drum. Now, the customer could turn the hand crank to view their selections through the plexy glass window. Once there selection was visible, they would insert 10 cents, cranked down on the coin mechanism handle, this action would lock the drum in place so you could not pull out more than one bottle. And slide open the plexy glass window to retrieve their selection.