A Brown Elephant! (Kennedy 11 Drawer)

[Air21]

Its been icy off and on here in the Metroplex so on one of my snow days from work I wandered into a pawn shop and saw this mammoth beast of a top box for $75. It is greasy, full of what looks like grass or straw, some blistery spots and rust, but its a Kennedy

SO what do you guys think my options are? I work as a machinist and would like to get it into the shop sooner rather than later, but id really like to try and touch up the cancer spots and give it a real deep cleaning. I already own a can of the Kennedy wrinkle spray.

HOLD ON FOR PICS :/

A guy at work said to just hit the rusty spots with some light sanding and rust reformer then spray over them with the Kennedy wrinkle finish. I'm concerned that the color wont really match, or the texture, and that spray paint is kinda spendy to try and redo the whole thing...

I have an 8 drawer already in the shop that I'm still growing into, so I suppose I can afford to keep this beast at home for a while if I have a good plan to put it back in working order.

So what do you all think?

Also, I'm trying to see if anyone can point me towards a source for some little bolts like this? It came off of a Volstro rotary milling attachment and id like to use similar ones on some tooling just for cool factor.

 

[loudog212]

Fix your pics please

 

[jakemac]

Well, since I can't see the pictures right now, I'd say that the answer to your question is - Gouda. And perhaps some strawberries on the the side.

As for bolts - they can be found on every car in the parking lot (as long as the owner's aren't watching).

 

[zkling]

The one with felt? On the seat of my chair.

 

[Air21]

Pics! Finally, thanks for nothing Photobucket :/

 

[bubinga]

just hit the rusty spots with some light sanding and rust reformer then spray over them with the Kennedy wrinkle finish,
is all I'd do.
It should look good enough.
Sand the spots down, then wipe down with paint thinner, dry, and touch up.
IMO.

 

[burnedzr2]

I would pull the rivets out and get the handles and latches powder coated, they would look new. There is a nice chrome powder coat.

 

[jakemac]

The handles and latches can be cleaned up with Nevr-Dull and A LOT of elbow grease. But to get them to look like new, you'd have to have them stripped and nickel plated.

Kennedy recommends cleaning the paint on the box with WD40. But if you put new paint on the bare areas, the new paint won't match the old faded/aged paint on the box. To get it all to match you will need to paint the whole box.

I have no idea where to find the bolts you're looking for. They may have been proprietary hardware made specifically for a manufacturer, but you may try digging through the catalogs of McMaster-Carr, Grainger, or Zoro.

 

[lilcraigford]

I'd tackle that deep clean, then see what kind of shape the finish is in. If the color is faded at all you might be out of luck on a seamless touch up. Maybe try it in an inconspicuous spot? Or touch it up the best you can and set aside the time and money for a full respray at a later date? Either way it looks like a great box. Good luck with the refurb!

Edit: Jake beat me to it... too slow at the keyboard.

 

[Bigplum]

I need a door for one of those , well mine has a waterloo industrial badge on the front , but the box looks very similar , even down to the rusty handles ,

Waterloo said front doors are NLA

 

[jakemac]

I need a door for one of those , well mine has a waterloo industrial badge on the front , but the box looks very similar , even down to the rusty handles ,

Waterloo said front doors are NLA

I don't know if the Kennedy parts will fit on the Waterloo, but some of the parts can be bought here -
http://www.kennedykeys.com/
Click on the "specialty items" link in the menu bar for the doors. They ain't cheap though.

 

[Air21]

The volstro head has a few adjustment bolts like that so I hoped somebody might know where I could find a baggy of them. A different volstro head has wing nut style adjustment screws, so I dont know how they decided what to use.

I could turn some down for sure, its just near impossible to get machine time in the shop for things other than real work. I guess you'd call it a handle nut?

So far its had a good wipe down with alcohol which seems to have really brightened up the paint and degreased whatever was spilled on it, so maybe tomorrow ill try a test spot with the paint.