Snap-on Toolbox hit by car Repair

[Waggoner72]

Thought I'd share some stories of my toolbox games I've had lately. Had a Snap-on Krl722 toolbox for sale. This one to be exact...


Great condition, asking $2700. Guy messages me saying he had the same box that got hit by a vehicle and was waiting on the insurance check but wanted mine when he got the money. Usually these types of deals fall through "I'm waiting till pay day" "let me ask my wife but I want it". So I blew it off. Couple weeks later, guy messages me back saying he's got the money but will have to get a trailer. We had agreed on $2500, which I was very happy with, so I offered to bring it to him since he was fairly local just for the cost of my gas. I was feeling generous. Also, I didn't want to wait any longer for the deal to fall through...
So I load up and head to his work, I take the money, all is good, he's happy with the box.
I get to asking him about the box that got hit, and he still has it. This one to be exact....

Bottom two drawers won't open and it's bowed out the side of it.
Me being the dog I am, I ask him what it will take for me to buy it off him. I've still got the ramp on my trailer down and the cash in my hand he just paid me.
Yada yada, I buy it from him for $650 and load it up.

Here's some pictures of the damage once I got it back home

Side was pushed in, moving in the mounts for the slides, not allowing the drawers to come out. Also the drawers were hitting each other.
So me being the experimental 20 year old that I am, had a plan in mind.. I used a portapower once before and it seemed to be the perfect tool for the job to straighten out the drawers and dent in the side.
Here's how I did that.
Straps to keep it from busting the spot welds. Slowly used the portapower on the garage floor to bend the drawers back


Now for the box. I put the box up against my retaining wall with some wood and moving blankets. Then backed my truck up to it to serve as a solid pushing point and slowly worked my way down the crunch zone



Continued on next post.....

 

[Waggoner72]

Since these boxes are double walled, I need to pull out the drawer slide mounts.

Couple ratchet straps and we are in business.
Dent out the best of my 2nd time using a portapower ability.

Bam, fully functional again. Now to reattach trim and take some beauty shots for reselling


Yes the bottom drawer does still have a slight bend, I did the best I could for the time spent



Yada yada, relisted it for $2300, sold it to a guy for $1500, a reasonable price for one of these boxes, especially with damage. I expected to get $2000 out of the non damaged black and red box.
I didn't hide the damage in my resell post, I made sure to point out and use as the reason for the lower price.

Hope y'all like this post. Thank you for reading

 

[Rogue1987]

Eagerly awaiting the next post!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Hammer1963]

Fantastic that you have decided to tackle such an odd and difficult task. Great way to learn many facets of metal working. I have made similar repairs to several tool cabs in my area. Fixed one hit by a fork lift for a customer of my Matco dealer a it kinda snowballed after that. Very similar damage. I constructed a pulling system from 2" x 3" quarter inch wall tubing that I mounted to the castor mounting holes and used it just like a frame rack. Very difficult damage to repair. Flat out stubborn. Had to fab a few pieces on some of the boxes and a lot of hammer/dolly work. The best thing is you are the guy that is learning from this and the one that will reap the rewards!

 

[NUTTSGT]

How many boxes have you fixed now ?

 

[Greasymofo]

Awesome man good job

 

[Waggoner72]

How many boxes have you fixed now ?

3 so far.
One major one that you may be referring to.. Rust repair on a triple bay a while back.


Then had another smaller one that I just had to hammer the drawer handles back out...... If that counts.

 

[Waggoner72]

Fantastic that you have decided to tackle such an odd and difficult task. Great way to learn many facets of metal working. I have made similar repairs to several tool cabs in my area. Fixed one hit by a fork lift for a customer of my Matco dealer a it kinda snowballed after that. Very similar damage. I constructed a pulling system from 2" x 3" quarter inch wall tubing that I mounted to the castor mounting holes and used it just like a frame rack. Very difficult damage to repair. Flat out stubborn. Had to fab a few pieces on some of the boxes and a lot of hammer/dolly work. The best thing is you are the guy that is learning from this and the one that will reap the rewards!

Part of the reason why I wasn't scared to tackle it. I only had $650 into it and I am always game to learn when I have the time. Body work is something I'm lacking in but I'm learning a few tricks here and there.. Not sure how it comes to car body work but atleast I learned some things and made some cash in the process.

 

[Can I try?]

Excellent work, and well done on turning some sweat equity into profit.

 

[PFSard]

Very nice job. How many hours do you figure you have into the repair?

 

[rockinacummins]

That's awesome. Definitely good profit on that job. And quick turn around!

 

[rsanter]

That was awsome.
I knew a guy that bought a freight damaged box for cheap. He worked at a body shop so he actually used the frame machine to do something similar to what you did, however his box was more damaged.
After fixing he used the box for years. Not,perfect but very workable

You done great

Bob

 

[Mikerodrig27]

Awesome work. I bet that mechanic is kicking himself on the money he could have made on that bent up box.

I have a top/bottom blue point box that I fixed a lot of dents and bent up drawers on. It used to get hit by tires probably 5 times a day so it had a lot of dents. I hammered them out and threw a fresh coat of paint on.

 

[zkling]

Good job. When I read the title I was a bit concerned. I've ran into a few "hit boxes" what you have to watch out for is when the spot welds give away between the outer and inner wall. Usually this happens when the box is hit at a shallow angle to the front. Those you want to run away from.

Just use caution popping out drawer faces like that. Try to limit the force path on any repair to just the parts that really need it. For instance to repair a bent drawer face like on your bottom drawer. I prefer to put wood blocks on the outside ends of the drawer face to protect the spot welds, a heavy bar or even wood plank spanning them and then squeeze the bent drawer face from the backside between the bar. That way you are not loading the sides of the drawer or spot welds in tension.

 

[captain14]

Good job and interesting story behind it.

 

[Waggoner72]

Very nice job. How many hours do you figure you have into the repair?

I'd say I have 3-4 hours in the repair. Nothing major. I could of done it better if I put more time into it. I wanted the box to just be functional again for a quick flip. I was pressed for garage space at the time.

 

[NUTTSGT]

3 so far.
One major one that you may be referring to.. Rust repair on a triple bay a while back.


Then had another smaller one that I just had to hammer the drawer handles back out...... If that counts.

Yes, that SO rusted box is the one I was thinking about.

 

[Waggoner72]

Yes, that SO rusted box is the one I was thinking about.

Yup, here's some pics of it

Top of locker




How it was when I first got it, locker is in back of truck

Fully finished

 

[Waggoner72]

Then the guys who ended up buying it load it like this after all my hard work. Still irks me but oh well.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yeah, that box came out looking nice. I remember a few doubted that it could be fixed or how it would look afterwards.

 

[bry@n]

Great job and nice profit.

 

[Nermal43]

Yeah, I remember following your work on that first box. Keep these interesting posts coming. Good work.

 

[leadfoot415]

Nice work, always envious of your repair jobs and just for buying and selling so many boxes and making a tidy profit.

I would have definitely bought that orange box for $650 for home use.

 

[Waggoner72]

Nice work, always envious of your repair jobs and just for buying and selling so many boxes and making a tidy profit.



I would have definitely bought that orange box for $650 for home use.

I was really surprised the guy let me take it from him for that price. I guess he saw it as not fixable since the side was pushed in. He was talking about replacing the drawers, which would be about $600-700, I figured I'd get them functional, not perfect, then get rid of it.

 

[Waggoner72]

Nice work, always envious of your repair jobs and just for buying and selling so many boxes and making a tidy profit.



I would have definitely bought that orange box for $650 for home use.

Also, the guy told me the insurance company told him, "we will give you $5500 and we will take the box, or we can give you $5000 and you keep it" he chose the $5000 option, spent $2500 buying my box from me, then sold his old box for $650 to me.
Atleast that's what he says..... Which sounds good on both parties if all is true, depending on how much he owed on that box that got hit.

 

[nti06]

Are rust issues on Snap-on boxes a common issue? I have a 9 year old Classic 78 with a rusting bottom corner. I have a Snap-on rep coming to look at it Monday.

 

[Waggoner72]

Are rust issues on Snap-on boxes a common issue? I have a 9 year old Classic 78 with a rusting bottom corner. I have a Snap-on rep coming to look at it Monday.

I would say no as long as you take care of it. Out of the 10 Snap-On boxes I've had, only 1 with a rust issue and it was in an extreme environment. I also believe it had a battery leak on it causing the main issue.

Now the last two Matco boxes I've had, had a rust issue.... One was in a shed with one corner of it exposed to wind and also rain coming in. Where it had been hit scratched/dented before started bubbling with rust. You can tell a difference in the powder coating between snap-on and Matco..... In my personal opinion.

 

[warmpancakes]

there is a certain Period of boxes that snap on knows are more prone to rust , I was looking at a used box last night and my driver told me where to look,

 

[Waggoner72]

there is a certain Period of boxes that snap on knows are more prone to rust , I was looking at a used box last night and my driver told me where to look,

I would agree, you can tell throughout the year ranges on snap-on boxes which ones have a better powder coat job or just "look" better. I beleive at a certain year point they weren't even powdercoated.