Craigslist score / restore

[number9]

So, this one is a little different than the normal "tool" find.

I ride motorcycles and have several sets of gear (leather suit, leather & textile jackets, pants) that I need to store. I had the in-side closet space at our old house, but we are now living in a smaller place until we get a new house built. This new place has relegated my motorcycle gear to out in the shop. This gear is far from cheap and I need it "out of the way" and protected from dust/spiders/cobwebs/etc. So...I began looking into "garment racks" only to be severely let down by the flimsy construction of the offerings on the market. A few weeks searching on CL and these pics popped up locally and I couldn't get to it fast enough to buy it.

CL pics

It's from a department store in the local mall. They used it to transport clothes between their stores in delivery trucks. It is very well built with HD casters, steel frame and thick vynil "bag".

Funny how some things look worse when you get them home. It only took a few minutes to decide I had to clean this thing up if it was going to live here.

I took it all apart, straightened the frame and removed all the surface rust and gunk with a flapper wheel. I primered with Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and covered it with Rustoleum Sunshine Red paint. It took a LOT of elbow grease with a scrub brush and SimpleGreen to get the vynil cleaned up. However, the zipper seems to have skipped a tooth during the cleaning as it worked perfect before and not so much now

I don't really like red, but a lot of items in my shop are red (tool chests, HF motorcycle lift, Handy wheel balancer, etc) so I thought the red would make it look more "at home".

Inside view

It's really worked out great for my needs and I am tickled to death to have found it.

...

 

[jnicolds]

that looks great. I'm impressed with how well that vinyl cleaned up

 

[CNGsaves]

Nice . . . that IS perfect solution for your motorcycle gear in large shop. Great being portable to roll around where needed, depending on the season.

Cleaned up nice, and the red looks good.

Let us know what you paid, so the YS awards might follow !

 

[articsilber323]

very nice

 

[d430]

That'd be nice at the track to stow gear.

 

[wolverine22391]

Great idea!!!

 

[toplessHO]

might want to put a desiccant bag inside to keep the mildew and mold at bay

 

[pancho400cid]

Nice score. Nice job on cleaning it up. Looks great!

 

[NUTTSGT]

While that would be useless to me, that's an absolutely awesome solution to hold your riding gear. Not only does it close up, it rolls around for easy movement.

 

[CNGsaves]

Thought of improvement you might consider. Build a cedar box on bottom that would have flip-up lid so you could store riding boots/helmets or other gear on bottom, which could provide some rigidity as well (bolt to frame). Cedar is natural deterrent for critters, and you could even padlock the lid if necessary.

 

[kriv4o]

I need one of those badly....

 

[AE2]

Along with the desiccant that was recommended, around here it would need a couple of the glue traps but if the seams are tight it may not be necessary.

 

[Gotcha640]

Also looks like the frame is solid enough you could hoist it up and hang it on the wall if you have an off season. Or maybe you have so much space it's not a concern.

 

[tmike14400]

If anyone wants one of those, ask around at old hotels in your area. When I was a kid, I was a bellhop at a hotel and we used those to move returned customer's suits that had been sent out for cleaning. Hotels probably don't use those much anymore and might have some in their basement or storage area. Take a picture of what you're looking for - describing that thing could be challenging.

 

[404]

I second the concern with mildew. Maybe a heater or mothballs. I don't know what keeps mildew at bay, but some grew on my Dennis Kirk suit and I was not happy. Got if off with isopropyl alcohol.

 

[tipsy]

try some silicone spray or wd-40 wiped onto the zipper to help it work better.
Nice restoration!