the old school IGLOO ice chest.
 

the ones with the crappy plastic hinges and latch.

I have one. it is stupid efficient. it kept two 10lbs bags of ice dang near dry frozen from CA to Texas in the back of a jeep. trouble is, once I got home and looked at the box wrong, both hinges imploded. I have long updated both hinges to the stainless ones, but the holes are slowly enlarging. in Texas I walked into an Academy Sports store with every intention to buy a new ice chest and to dump the old igloo into their dumpster. $400!!!

Well,yesterday I stared at the box and thought.. "drywall inserts!". I should have superglued them in, but alone they cinched up tight!! tighter than new for sure. I think I pushed back the dumpster run for my beloved ice chest one more year. hahah.

Fantastic. I have the same era Igloo. Replaced latches and hinges. What were they thinking???

Also, I truly think that it came from the factory with some white duct tape on the bottom to hide a crack or something. Odd.

My son had one of the GIANT ones with the lid in the lid for getting beer out without opening the whole thing up. It had bad hinges and the latch was not working either. He was going to toss it. I grabbed it and refurbbed it, cleaned it up with a magic eraser so it looked good as new. Put it out in the shed. Cleaned out the shed a couple years ago and took it back down to my son to use at their new ADU. Those BIG ones are pricey, I couldn't see tossing it out.

Yessir. I've had the same plastic coleman for at least 30 years, and it's still working just fine. Handles are still intact, hinges are still hinging, the top still sealing watertight. I see no reason to buy a theft-magnet like a Yeti or any of the Yeti clones.

I'm impressed with how capable they are, but 400 bucks buys a lot of ice.

I no longer use the big ice chest. The old Igloo has had cheap stainless door hinges holding the lid on with a metal thumb latch holding it shut. It should hold up unless it get dropped off the second floor. Not that drain plug is another story.

I spent an hour Looking at Yeti coolers yesterday.
Very well made, but not $400 worth.
I still might buy one of the soft ones.
You only live once

Awesome idea, like you I have a big white that has not missed a hunting trip in 15 years and I have fixed the latches and hinges. I will try the drywall insert trick.