Bye-bye, old refrigeration unit

[ILikeRust]

My boat (1968 Pearson) currently has an aged refrigeration unit on it. The galley has what I believe originally was just an icebox, and I'm assuming some previous owner added the refrigeration - I'm guessing probably late 1970s/early 1980s.

The fridge unit itself is under the starboard aft quarterberth, just behind and above the Atomic 4 engine, with lines run forward to the icebox, which has the chilling plate thingy in it.

The fridge unit currently does not work. And I'm doubting it will work, in any case. Even if I did get the compressor running again, I would bet a large sum that all the refrigerant is gone. And I'm doubting it would be worth the effort and expense to try to get this 30 (or so) year-old refrigeration unit running and properly working anyhow.

So at this point, as far as I'm concerned, it's just extra weight and taking up space. It looks like it would be a bit of a hassle to take it out, since it's in a very awkward location (still trying to figure out how the hell they got it in there - probably will have to remove half of the quarterberth) but I'm not so much bothered by that potential hassle as I am by the presence of a useless hunk of machinery on my small boat.

I really doubt I would use a refrigeration unit all that much anyhow - my boat is very simple, with very simple "systems" (to the extent it even has any "system") and I like it that way. I really doubt I'm ever going to spend more than a couple nights at a time on the boat, and I don't have a lot of power on board anyhow (no generator). So even a working fridge would work only either in a slip on shore power, or would suck up the batteries right quick.

So I plan on tearing it out, removing the wires, lines, etc., and cooling plate from the icebox and just using the icebox as an icebox. And then just scrap the fridge. Less clutter and weight on the boat, and potentially a new space to make a small storage bin or something.

Any thoughts, ideas, comments, helpful suggestions, snide remarks, etc.? I don't suppose this thing has any value, beyond scrap metal prices.