My first toolbox restoration

[porphyre]

I've been inspired by the vise restoration threads I've seen floating around (plus I needed a cheap toolbox) so I decided to pick up a box that needed work.

It's a Craftsman 706.657570 from the mid-90's. It's beat to hell. Guy on Craigslist wanted $50, I gave him $30 and (after inspecting it) I think $20 would have been more fair. Oh well.

Everything on it works. I shot the slides with silicone spray and they're working decently. I'm not going to do a full paint stripping restoration, but I will be knocking off the rust and repainting everything.

This thread will chronicle my experience as a first time restorer and also serve as a place where I can ask questions.

Stay Tuned!

 

[porphyre]

STRIPPED

Tonight, I pulled all the drawers and all the slides. I still need to get the side handles out, remove the aluminum from the drawer pulls, and pop out the lid rods. I'm not as experienced in the garage as some of y'all, so I lost motivation about 9pm and the 3rd beer.

I found the cutest little baby wrench I've ever seen. It was lost in the bottom under the bottom drawer. Craftsman 5/32, 3/16:

I also found a gasket. 5 Man-Points (tm) to whoever can identify it.

Here's the box stripped. Most of the brackets for the slides are straight. The rust is 100% surface rust except for in the back right corner. That area goes a little deeper but should be no problem with some rust neutralizer followed by good primer and paint.

Slides and lock bars that came out.
Lockbars: Just bang out the hinge pins. Slides: Took a bit more effort. Small flat-blade screw driver or punch jammed into the oval hole will bend the stop out of the way of the catch.

Anybody know what the long bar with the tapered end and hole is? It looks like a lock bar but I couldn't find a place it seemed to go.

Yes, those are friction slides instead of ball bearings. I'm investigating putting ball bearing slides in, but the budget I've set for the restoration is $30, and I assume most of that is going to be taken by replacing the lock and the "Craftsman" emblem. You can get a ball-bearing slide box brand new from Craftsman today, on sale, for $110 (model 62020 reg $170). The "Quiet Glide" eg, friction slide, is $95 (model 13600 reg $140). So I guess the savings is there... but a $90 converted & restored ball-bearing box will move the project from "money saver" to "why bother?"

Drawers have tons of surface rust. I still need to slide off the aluminum pulls. Also need to buy some sort of buffing wheel to bring them back up to snuff.

Questions
1) How do I get the side handles out? I poked at them a little, I notice the bottoms bend. I tried bending the bottoms up, then wacking the back to try to pop them out. No dice. Maybe I wasn't violent enough.
2) How do I / Should I remove the lid? There appears to be a single 26" long hinge pin. I used an improvised punch and a hammer to attempt to bang it out, but it didn't seem to go anywhere and I didn't want to mushroom the end. My initial feeling is that I don't want to paint it in place because I won't get full coverage on the paint.
3) Color Choice! The drawers will be black, but should the box be red, orange, or yellow?

Answers
Rocket - You can see from today's photos the box is pretty beat up.
Ironheadtom - NO!
Everybody else - Thanks!

 

[porphyre]

CLEANED

Everything is all cleaned up. Well, not "all" cleaned up. I got tired of messing with some of the rust, so I'm just going to trust in the Rustoleum "Rust Stop" primer to take care of it for me. I guess we'll see how that works out!

Drawers:
These were hit with Purple Power degreaser, wire brush, 0000 steel wool, 100 grit sandpaper, then washed with Dawn soap and water.

Shiny Stuff:
The aluminum was soaked for an hour or two in soap and water. I then cleaned them out with a toothbrush. I tried doing a little polishing with Brasso and a rag, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

The slides were soaked 24 hrs in pure vinegar, then polished out with 0000 steel wool.

Chest:
Purple power then everything except the kitchen sink - including a razor paint scraper. The tenacity of the grease in the top and rust in the bottom was insane. This'll need like 8 coats of primer then leveling via sanding.

Stay tuned for paint!

 

[porphyre]

PAINT

Well, more cleaning first. I went after the box again, more aggressively.

You can see I straightened up the dividers. I wasn't able to do a 100% job, but it's better than how I got it. I used chunks of 2x4 and big C-clamps. You can use the clamp to compress the metal straight and you can also clamp an edge and use it as a lever to straighten things out.

Here's my poor man's paint booth. Ime dun't think I keeled two many brian sells...

You can't see it, but there's a window in there, where I placed a box fan for exhaust. This setup kept the garage remarkably clean of overspray/spray mist. What did get on the floor, which is epoxied of course, came up quickly with a deck brush and Purple Power.

Here's the drawers in primer. I used Rustoleum Sandable Primer.

And here are the drawers in color. I used Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel.

And here are the drawers finished with pulls attached. I'm decently satisfied with the gloss level, but I think it would've come out better if I'd actually SANDED the sandable primer....

Box is actually done, but it's dinner time now. So stay tuned for the finished product!

Edit - See post #17 for the finished product. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=885606&postcount=17

 

[Rocket1]

That's the same box my dad has... Yours looks new in comparison to his though

 

[arkangel06]

Cool, I still have to finnish my restoration!

 

[MarshallGirvin]

I just bought an identical box a few months ago. I like it but I'm out of room already. Can't wait to see this done.

 

[ironheadtom]

Are ya done yet ?!

 

[Mr.Nutcase]

Cool........

 

[Coleman]

Dude..just stripped one just like that..it's reall easy to strip! Best of luck

 

[porphyre]

I guess editing a post doesn't bump the thread. See post #2 for updates.

 

[larry_g]

If I may suggest, if you are in a semi clean area then use some grease on the slides, they will work smooth. If in a fab shop or desert climate with sand then don't grease. The grease will make things work but it will attract stuff and if the stuff is abrasive than you have a nice abrasive paste that will grind the slides. If you do grease then be prepared to clean and regrease annually to keep things in good order.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[porphyre]

Larry G - Thanks, I've got a can of lithium grease sitting on the shelf. Might not use that due to it being white... but grease does sound like the way to go.

I'm painting right now. Drawers will be done tonight but the box won't be done for 4-5 days.... I've got some other stuff I need to be done and dried (24 hours done) by Tuesday evening, so that's got priority over the box.

See updates in post #3.... http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=857910&postcount=3

 

[porphyre]

Long time, no update... box is done, pictures will be up in a little while.

See updates of the drawers in post #4.... http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=857911&postcount=4

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Looking good. I did the top box in the picture, and it was in similar shape as yours when I started. Did the roller and sidebox too.

 

[Tim Cowan]

I liked your "poor boy paint booth". About 40 years ago I was the shopman at a NAPA store. One Friday night I stayed late, after closing time and painted a Cornwell roller cab red. I didn't notice until the next morning with the sun shining thru the big window that I had oversprayed red the complete store inventory. I left that job to return to college about a year later, and some of the store stock was still red. I got fussed out by the boss, but I still use box combo. Your box is looking good.

 

[porphyre]

Finished

It turns out I didn't take any pictures of the box in primer.

BEFORE

AFTER - Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel, Sunrise Red:

I purchased the replacement "Craftsman" nameplate direct from Waterloo (original manufacturer). Cost about $2.50. I tried to buy it from Sears, but they said they were out of stock. And even if it was IN stock, it'd cost $4.25

I know most guys don't put liners in the top section, but the paint in the top was very rough. In hind sight, I probably should have used a wire wheel on a Dremel to take the entire inside of the top down to bare metal.

I chose not to replace the key-lock b/c this box will be in my home garage and I can't see myself EVER locking it. If I ever re-sell the box, I'll probably put a lock in it, just to make it more valuable.

The gloss is pretty good. I wet-sanded the primer with 1500 grit, waited 24 hrs, then shot a thin cover coat of gloss. Waited about 15 minutes then put on a HEAVY (too heavy in a few spots) 2nd coat. That's it.

I haven't polished or waxed it yet - might not even do that. You can't see in these pictures but the top cover has some pretty bad fish-eyes. Oh well. Not too bad for aerosol spray paint in my garage.

When I reassembled, I lubed the friction slides with spray white lithium grease. Boy, was that a mess! I guess we'll see how well it works when loaded, but I'm not too impressed so far.

Galaxie - You've done some great restorations. It was after viewing your threads that I went back and hit the main box more aggressively with the sandpaper.

Tim - Ha ha ha. I was also shocked by the amount of overspray. I've never done any painting this "serious" before. When I shot the red on the bottom of the box, I didn't have my mask on completely square, paint got in a little and it looked like I had a bright red ****** nose!

Thanks for viewing.

 

[Scout Driver]

That box looks great! Awesome job on the paint. It's beautiful.

Scott

 

[Coleman]

Awesome job man! Me likey!

 

[D Force]

Real nice job and great finish on the box. All that elbow grease really paid off. I like your paint booth too! You'll always have something to look at with pride in your shop.

 

[whelenfan]

greaat job! it really is worth it when the finished project looks like that!

 

[Pukeballs]

Man, that looks better then new. Great job! Lol on the poor mans paint booth. Time for a respirator maybe?

 

[porphyre]

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

Yeah, a respirator may be in order.... the window and the fan back in the "booth" is pretty large, but I'm still breathing a bunch of this junk.

Coleman also just finished a restoration on a box very similar to this one. His thread is here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63550

 

[Indy_500]

nice job on the box! can't wait till i find something like that to restore!

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Very nice job! I always spray my boxes outside. That sunrise red does a real nice job, but it will suffocate you if you're not careful. When I did my Snap On box, I covered my old Matco cart with plastic, did all the work on it, would spray it outside, then wheeled it in the garage to dry.

 

[TroyW]

...
2) How do I / Should I remove the lid? There appears to be a single 26" long hinge pin. I used an improvised punch and a hammer to attempt to bang it out, but it didn't seem to go anywhere and I didn't want to mushroom the end. My initial feeling is that I don't want to paint it in place because I won't get full coverage on the paint.
3) Color Choice! The drawers will be black, but should the box be red, orange, or yellow?
...

AFTER - Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel, Sunrise Red:

...

You did a great job! I'm starting a similar project to yours. It's a bigger Craftsman box (40" ... actually 41" but all the marketing says 40"). I really appreciate all the information you've shared. Very helpful!

How did you resolve the top lid? Did you remove the 26" pin? Or did you mask off the hinge and paint around it?

I'm also struggling with color choice. I really like the brightness of Safety Red compared to Sunrise Red. I'm thinking of painting everything including the drawers with it. But when I see your pictures I start to think of copying you, because it looks so good.

The Safety Red is available as the Rustoleum "Professional", whereas the Sunrise Red is only available as Rustoleum "Stops Rust". I wonder if the "Professional" series has a harder enamel, or if the only difference is that it dries faster. It's been a few months since you painted it. How's it holding up?

As far as primer, you mentioned "Sandable". All I could find for this is the Rustoleum "Automotive" primer. Is this what you used? There's a "Professional" primer, but I'm not sure if it's sandable, or if that's going to make the box alot more glossy. Did you sand the primer for the red parts of your box?

Here's a picture of the box I picked up (off CL):

It's a ball bearing model. I've got all the drawer taken off and apart. I'll follow what you did for the aluminum handles (soaking in soap/water). I'm going to clean off all the old lubricant from the ball bearing glides. The old stuff is getting sticky. Then I'll re-lube it with petroleum jelly ... I think. That's was the owner's manual says. Although I've heard that Teflon "Dry Lube" is better. Not sure what's best.

Thanks for anyone that can help me with these nagging questions!

--Troy

 

[TroyW]

I'm making progress. This is my first major spray paint project, and I'm learning alot as I go.

Here's the boxes in Rustoleum red sandable primer (wet sanded to 600 grit, then 1000 grit):

After my first 2 coat of paint within an hour of each other (Rustoleum Sunrise Red), it had many surface imperfections. My hunch is that I'm not using enough paint. (I'll try harder next time.)

After 48 hours, I wet sanded w/ 1000 (mostly trying to flatten down all the fish eyes, orange peel, and other...). Then I sprayed 3 top coats within an hour of each other. I learned that it helps to look at the surface from the side while I spray so I can really see where it's getting wet and where it's not getting wet.

Overall, I'm very happy with how it looks right now. It has an overall consistent glossy look about it. It's much better than the first time around. I think I'll stop w/ this coat ... except for one little blunder I'll have to take care of:

I wasn't patient, and I started handling the box before I should have about 8 hours after I painted. I left a small mark in the paint skin causing a small wrinkle. I thought I'd quick spray some paint on the spot (a little heavy) to cause it to not be so noticable. When the can of Rustoleum says you should top coat within an hour or after 48 hours, they mean it! That picture above shows what it looks like if you spray more paint on after 8 hours from the previous coat.

I'll wait another 48 hours or more, wet sand the problem area, mask around just the 2 beams w/ this problem and repaint them. With my new painting skills, I'm confident it'll look great. I'm just frustrated I have to wait another 2 or 3 days. This project is taking along time.

--Troy

 

[DanCo]

Nice work porphyre!

 

[Gregg33]

Nice work. You've inspired me and now (once I get my shop set up) I'm tempted to do a resto on my Gray bottom box and my Proto top box.

 

[TDITS]

Just a word of caution; I would wait the 48 hours AFTER you wet sand it. Reason is the paint cures from the outside in. When you sand it you will expose paint that hasn't cured as well and if you spray right on top of it with out waiting some more time it may wrinkle again.

 

[SweetD]

I have almost the exact same box as porphyre that I am going to restore this Spring...got it on c-list for $20. It's beat, but restore-able...

How did you guys get the aluminum pulls off of the drawers, and the aluminum handles off of the sides of the box?

Thanks!

 

[DRhodes]

Wow! You did a great job. Troy keep us posted on your resto.

 

[z28snksknr]

Nice work here. I have a hand carry box that's waiting for some much needed attention. Threads like this are getting me closer and closer to actually doing it.

 

[hobie1dog]

Thanks for all the pics...I have one I need to do the same thing with.

 

[porphyre]

Hey Troy, looking good. Sorry I didn't see your questions in this thread.

My advice on fixing the boo-boo is, in addition to waiting a few days, heat it up some. If you've got a space heater, that'd be ideal. Get the problem area in the hot air flow from the heater and let it sit 8-10 hours. You don't want it to be like 200 degrees, but heat will help it harden faster. Like TDTS said, you'll just sand off the cured paint and get to the just-soft-enough-to-cause-trouble paint below.

SweetD - The drawer pulls remove from the side. Remove the drawer from the box. Squirt your favorite penetrating oil down the channel of the pull. Set the drawer on end on your bench with the handle/pull hanging over the end of the bench. Take a deadblow hammer and a chunk of wood and bang the pull off the drawer.

The aluminum handles on the sides, I can't really remember. Once you get the drawers out, it's obvious how they're put in - it's just a press fit. I think I put a flat blade screwdriver between the bottom of the handle and the box... wedged it in there, then smacked the back of the aluminum handle from the inside with a hammer to pop it out.

Good luck.

 

[cowboy73]

Wow! You did a great job repainting that tool chest.

 

[SweetD]

SweetD - The drawer pulls remove from the side. Remove the drawer from the box. Squirt your favorite penetrating oil down the channel of the pull. Set the drawer on end on your bench with the handle/pull hanging over the end of the bench. Take a deadblow hammer and a chunk of wood and bang the pull off the drawer.

The aluminum handles on the sides, I can't really remember. Once you get the drawers out, it's obvious how they're put in - it's just a press fit. I think I put a flat blade screwdriver between the bottom of the handle and the box... wedged it in there, then smacked the back of the aluminum handle from the inside with a hammer to pop it out.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice- can't wait to get going on mine...hope it comes out as nice as yours!

Dave

 

[TroyW]

Just a word of caution; I would wait the 48 hours AFTER you wet sand it. Reason is the paint cures from the outside in...

Thanks for that advice. I went pretty thick with the paint coats, so that alone should be enough to slow down before proceeding! I'm learning the importance of patience w/ spray paint jobs. Haste definitely makes waste!

--Troy

 

[TroyW]

Hey Troy, looking good. Sorry I didn't see your questions in this thread. My advice on fixing the boo-boo is, in addition to waiting a few days, heat it up some. ...

Thankfully the high for the next few days will be in the 80's. Nice benefit of being in FL this time of year. I'll roll my box out into the sun for a few hours.

Thanks to everyone for your positive feedback. It's encouraging. I'll definitely keep you all posted as things progress.

--Troy

 

[porphyre]

Ack... Florida. Yeah... (Porphyre looks out window at fresh snow. )

You're right... just roll the sucker out in the sun. Try to put it somewhere a bird won't poop on it. Bring it back inside in the evening, wait for it to cool, then get to work.