Wow, what a cool fridge. Who was making refrigerators for Sears back then?

 I agree that this box appears to be a late-ish '50s Coldspot, likely made by Seeger as opposed to Whirlpool.  It's a perfect size for a spare fridge, and I'm betting it has a true freezer that maintains zero degrees, which can come in handy when the main fridge's freezer is packed full.

So was GE the only manufacturer of two-door frosts-freely models to furnish a drain in the freezer section?  That is a huge defrosting convenience I don't see on other makes from this period.

Some car cleaner/wax and plenty of elbow grease should restore the exterior finish to a respectable level.  Fingers crossed that the freezer door gasket still makes a good seal, otherwise you could be defrosting a few times per year.

I hope you let it stand for about 48 hours after moving it, and before plugging it in.

 The reason is that the refrigerant changes state from a liquid to a gas as part of the normal refrigeration cycle. This is true of all compressor-type refrigerators and air conditioners and is the reason they can move heat from one location (the evaporator) to another (the condenser). However, liquid cannot be compressed so if some liquid refrigerant gets into the compressor the latter will be damaged. When upright the cooling system is designed to keep any liquid out of the part of the compressor that compresses gaseous refrigerant but once laid sideways all bets are off. When the unit sits upright the liquid will gradually return to where it is supposed to be.

Is not likley to hurt anything, and you can stand it up and plug it in IMMEDIATELY with no possible harm.

In a refrigerator that is not running all refrigerant is in a gaseous state, there is no reservoir of liquid refrigerant.

The only possible problem with moving a refrigerator on its side is IF you take a running ref and unplug it and immediately place it on its side before the high and low side pressures balance out you could force oil out of the compressor into the refrigerant tubing. To prevent this be sure before placing the ref on its side that it is defrosted [ if manual defrost ] or just allowed to come up to room temperature if it is a frost-free model [ leave doors open for an hour or so ].

Even if you fail to observe the above cautions you can still take the ref out of you van stand it up and plug it in right away, the worst thing that could happen is the compressor will not start and trip out on the automatic overload for a while till the oil runs back in place.

We have moved HUNDREDS of refs [ new and old ] on their side over the last 40+ years, only once when we failed to observe the above precaution about letting it warn up before tipping it on its side did we have a problem. When we got a used WP FF ref to the customers home and stood it up and plugged it in immediately it failed to start for about 5 minutes, after this it was fine.

John L.

Well, IMHO the term "Cycle Defrost" still doesn't equate with frost-free.  It sounds like a similar system to other makes from the '50s, which prevents frost from accumulating in the fresh food section, as witnessed by the tilted serpentine coil and trough with drain cup below, but the freezer still gets frosty and requires manual intervention (this is the situation with my '57 GE Combination).  I see no drain in the freezer, either.

I think you're on the right track by disabling the heater, which I don't think is specifically for the door seal, but it shouldn't be getting that hot regardless.  Freezer temperature may improve as a result.

Looks like it cooked itself to pieces!

These were necessary to prevent condensation on the outer edges of the cabinet during humid weather, unfortunately if the freezer is not staying around 0F these heaters will get too hot and do them selves in.

You can use the ref without this heater [ and you will even save a few dollars a month ] but the cabinet will likley sweat badly in the summer and rust, mold and leak on the floor as a result.

PS, The door gaskets were sticking to the cabinet because the ref was just repainted, not because of the cabinet heaters, this often happens when refs are repainted, often the paint used is not comparable with the vinyl door gasket material.

John L.