painting a tool box

[donnykooy]

Has anybody bought a new tool box knowing you were going to paint it immeditaly. I am thinking of having my friend send me some Gray tool cabinets from Canada. The pro series is what I want but it only comes in red. Well I just have to have black with chrome trim, how should I go about doing that? My plan was to sand the red down, put on a few coats of primer, put on two coats of gloss black, then two or thee coats of clear coat cause I really want it to shine. I have almost no paint experience.

 

[OHMS LAW]

I bought some pink craftsman 3drawer chests and immediately painted black.

 

[ZRX61]

Why not just buy black Craftsman boxes locally?

 

[creativecars]

First thing is to see what they use from the factory on the cabinets. If it is baked or powder, sand with 400 and 600 wet or dry paper. Using water. Or 600 dry with a DA. If you have little experience and you want it done well the first time. I would check with a local body/paint shop and see what they would charge to spray on an automotive quality finish. You can do it yourself, but you will have a learning curve that goes along with learning to spray.

 

[donnykooy]

I think the Gray tool cabinet pro series has a powder coat finish. Thats what it looks like to me in the pictures anyway. I may look into having a body shop do it, then I know it would be perfect. Then again I am ambitious and perhaps I could begin practicing. I am not going to buy craftsman for many reasons but mostly because I love the Gray tool box configuration, the vintage handles, and I really want friction slides. I know it sounds crazy but these slides hold 350 pounds per drawer. I have a lot of heavy tools. How much do craftsman hold? some 25, some 50, some 70 and their industrial line hold 200. No thank you Craftsman. Anyway, thanks for the paint lesson. I will post pics when its done.

 

[OHMS LAW]

Because they were on clearance for 20 bucks.

 

[HMCFab9]

If you have no bare metal, i'd say skip the primer, unless your topcoat requires it.
The only reason I can see any need for a primer is if the existing finish is baked on which can make it extremely hard for a new coating to stick.

 

[PetesPonies]

clean well, sand with 400 wet. Then hit with thinned epoxy primer. Wait 30 minutes then top coat with whatever you have chosen to use.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

If you have no bare metal, i'd say skip the primer, unless your topcoat requires it.
The only reason I can see any need for a primer is if the existing finish is baked on which can make it extremely hard for a new coating to stick.

Agreed no need for primer if the paint is in good shape. Just degrease, scuff/sand, clean and degrease again then paint.

Glen

 

[PetesPonies]

That's not true. There are different primers for different situations. Use a thinned epoxy as I suggested gives you two advantages. One . . the epoxy has superior adhesion properties and two . . it acts as a sealer. You shot it thinned, wait only 30 minutes and hit with top coats. This is called a wet-on-wet application where not sanding is required after the epoxy. You really get good adhesion this way.

 

[John in OH]

I think the Gray tool cabinet pro series has a powder coat finish. Thats what it looks like to me in the pictures anyway. I may look into having a body shop do it, then I know it would be perfect. Then again I am ambitious and perhaps I could begin practicing. I am not going to buy craftsman for many reasons but mostly because I love the Gray tool box configuration, the vintage handles, and I really want friction slides. I know it sounds crazy but these slides hold 350 pounds per drawer. I have a lot of heavy tools. How much do craftsman hold? some 25, some 50, some 70 and their industrial line hold 200. No thank you Craftsman. Anyway, thanks for the paint lesson. I will post pics when its done.

After visiting the Gray Tool website, I can see why you like the drawer configurations! The 40" roller chest is really nice. It appears that some of the 40" wide boxes come in a gray color that might be easier to paint over than red. What size box/es were planning to buy?

 

[donnykooy]

Thanks for all the excellent advise so far. Im going to buy 2 of the 11 drawer pro series cabinets and make a workbench out of them with a galvinized top. They each hold 12,000 cubic inches so thats a lot better than a Craftsman box with the same outer dimensions. The craftsman 8 drawer I am refering to has only 10,000 cubic inches of storage.

 

[allinon72]

Yes, I bought a Masterforce box and immediately broke it down and painted it once I got it home. You can see pics of the process in my garage thread below.

 

[Bradford]

Hi Donnykooy,
I bought used tool box from my friend in appealing price and painted tool box next year as only thing bothers me was tool box rough paint. At the time of purchase it was black and then I painted it brown. As you have no paint experience so use gloves and goggles before painting your tool box.