AndrewMarek
Active member
Hello all!
I’m a lurker that finally signed up for an account.
I inherited an old 1981 vintage 26” Proto box about 15 years ago from my father. He got it (if memory serves) for $35 in the mid 90s at a surplus sale at the chemical company he worked for. Somebody there had rattle canned it - painting over some stickers and while adding a few more. After my dad had a stroke it sat in his barn for at least 5 years before I got it when he passed and it was in my barn for the last 8 years or so after I moved. I finally got to a place where I wanted to start putting my tool sets in boxes and when I looked at this one again it looked pretty far gone/more trouble than the time I had so I bought a 44” US General. After I filled that one up my mind turned to this one again and decided to see if I could get it back in shape so I started lurking here a couple months ago.
I finally hauled it up the hill from the barn and started working on it last week. Things are going pretty well so far. I have removed all the drawers and hardware and am in the process of getting all the old paint and rust off of it. I only plan to rattle can it but hope to do a much better job the last guys did. 2 things I am running into that I was hoping for some help on are as follows:
A replacement lock. It never had a lock since we owned it (it was how my father purchased it). Looking at cross references etc and I don’t see anything listed for that vintage. The hole measures 3/4” X 5/8” and it is ~3/4” from the face of rolling chest to the stud. The stud looks to be 1/4" X 1/8”. The locks on Grainger and Zoro don’t give much in the way of size specs but it looks like a Westward 07-27B might work? But there are no size specs and no pictures of the back. Anyone have experience with these models and their locks?
Advice on cleaning/restoring the pulls and metallic badge. I don’t have a lot of experience outside of sanding and repainting stuff. The chrome and black paint are mostly intact but they are really dirty and some oxidation is present. What would be the safest way to clean these? Was going to start by degreasing but chrome is not something I deal with at all. I do have a vibratory tumbler and some “rust cutting resin” media that has worked ok cleaning up some old chrome plated tools but I would think it might take the paint off.
Thanks all for any and all help!
I’m a lurker that finally signed up for an account.
I inherited an old 1981 vintage 26” Proto box about 15 years ago from my father. He got it (if memory serves) for $35 in the mid 90s at a surplus sale at the chemical company he worked for. Somebody there had rattle canned it - painting over some stickers and while adding a few more. After my dad had a stroke it sat in his barn for at least 5 years before I got it when he passed and it was in my barn for the last 8 years or so after I moved. I finally got to a place where I wanted to start putting my tool sets in boxes and when I looked at this one again it looked pretty far gone/more trouble than the time I had so I bought a 44” US General. After I filled that one up my mind turned to this one again and decided to see if I could get it back in shape so I started lurking here a couple months ago.
I finally hauled it up the hill from the barn and started working on it last week. Things are going pretty well so far. I have removed all the drawers and hardware and am in the process of getting all the old paint and rust off of it. I only plan to rattle can it but hope to do a much better job the last guys did. 2 things I am running into that I was hoping for some help on are as follows:
A replacement lock. It never had a lock since we owned it (it was how my father purchased it). Looking at cross references etc and I don’t see anything listed for that vintage. The hole measures 3/4” X 5/8” and it is ~3/4” from the face of rolling chest to the stud. The stud looks to be 1/4" X 1/8”. The locks on Grainger and Zoro don’t give much in the way of size specs but it looks like a Westward 07-27B might work? But there are no size specs and no pictures of the back. Anyone have experience with these models and their locks?
Advice on cleaning/restoring the pulls and metallic badge. I don’t have a lot of experience outside of sanding and repainting stuff. The chrome and black paint are mostly intact but they are really dirty and some oxidation is present. What would be the safest way to clean these? Was going to start by degreasing but chrome is not something I deal with at all. I do have a vibratory tumbler and some “rust cutting resin” media that has worked ok cleaning up some old chrome plated tools but I would think it might take the paint off.
Thanks all for any and all help!
. That Reddit thread has a lot of good suggestions I’ll follow up on. THANKS so much for posting.
Harry
