Painting an Old Toolbox

[DawgPaw]

How much trouble am I looking at to repaint, including a color change, a box like this? Am I crazy? How much of a nightmare is it to get it apart and do prep?

I don’t have any sort of automotive paint set up. Would it be absolutely impossible trying to do this with rattle cans?

It’s a case of not valuing my time, and I guess I need all of you to talk me out of this lol. I have a color scheme going. Kind of Jack Olsen’s 12 gauge garage but in blue.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Its only time and effort. I have an old craftsman that was horribly faded. I scratched it up with a red scotchbrite pad and rattle-canned it. Turned out pretty nice imho.

 

[seber]

Depends on how perfect you want it to be. A quick scuffing and rattle can job will look like a new box from a couple feet away. That might take four or five hours. If you want perfection you could be looking at full week of work. If you want a really quick job, just remove the drawer pulls and shoot it as a complete box. Might not take more than an hour or two. It will look fine until you open a drawer.
I should add, that small surfaces like this will look just as good with Rustoleum can as it will with a professional gun. Indoor use will never see a difference,

 

[The Cobbler]

as previous posters have said, it depends on how much time you want to put into it .
you can do a decent job with rattle cans, but I see a compressor in the picture... just buy a cheap spray gun and use that . you will get better results and have a lot more choices for colours as you can get virtually any colour mixed .

 

[Shelbylex]

... I know it's not what was asked, but to get more options to DawgPaw - can anybody who works for a body shop give an estimate for professional respray? (with minimal prep and with proper prep)

 

[Mr_B]

If you want a color change you certainly want go cheap spray gun and use better epoxy primer & 2k single stage paint.
Doesn't work out that expensive in materials but it will take fair bit of time & thoughtful working practice for a worthwhile end result .

 

[y'sguy]

Don't count out painting on rust-o-lem with a brush. The paint will go a long way versus a spray bomb. BUYING AUTOMOTIVE PAINT AND REDUCER AND MATERIALS. (Sorry hit the all caps). Prep is everything. You will be pleasantly surprised at applying this paint. It flows out extremely well. You can thin it somewhat or use a hardener mixed in as well. If you have an area you don't think turned out well enough, just wet sand and rebrush.
Spraying the inside of each drawer with all of the angles, has a lot of blowback to learn how to handle. I'm a convert if you could not tell, haha.

 

[subroc]

I wouldn't paint the inside of the drawers unless there was significant rust. I would just spend a little premium on some nice drawer liner material. I would paint where the drawer faces roll around any edges top/bottom/side. I would paint the inside of the top box. I doubt I would change the color much especially if you don't paint the inside of the drawers.. I might bondo or filler where there are some small dents. Complete disassembly. Don't lose any hardware, a drawer pull is $20 if you can find them. Clean the drawer slides. Orbital sander. Little bit of hand work. And it could be ready to paint.

Now if it is worth it or not is hard to say. A good result can certainly be satisfying.

Good luck

 

[dnschmidt]

It all depends on your standards. As a car painter my standards are very, very high and normally I don't care what things cost. You need to decide what you want to achieve. Mr. B's suggestion to use a spray gun with epoxy primer and single stage is also the way I would go. You can get decent spray guns from China for less than $100. I've got one from Ali-Express called Ntools that cost $50.00, see Pete's Hobbies:

and sprays as good as my SATA's. It's not going to take the beating my SATA's do but how many tool boxes are you going o paint in your life.

 

[1982fxr]

Depends on how perfect you want it to be. A quick scuffing and rattle can job will look like a new box from a couple feet away. That might take four or five hours. If you want perfection you could be looking at full week of work. If you want a really quick job, just remove the drawer pulls and shoot it as a complete box. Might not take more than an hour or two. It will look fine until you open a drawer.
I should add, that small surfaces like this will look just as good with Rustoleum can as it will with a professional gun. Indoor use will never see a difference,

Remove pulls and shoot it? It needs a serious wipedown for that.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

I've used spray bombs on several boxes. I wouldn't recommend them here because it will take a shitload and spray paint and primer has really gotten expensive. It's $7 a can at the local big box stores. I would recommend the brush on Rust-Oleum like y's guy said, or look into using a two stage paint process with a spray gun. I have an old Snap On taco box to do someday and one of those methods will be the route I go.

 

[F-22]

If you have a shop that does it nearby, you could also take it apart, have them sandblast it and powder coat it. That would be better than any homemade solution and sometimes isn't necessarily that expensive either.

 

[lilredex]

That's a really big job, but can be done with rattle cans, if you take your time. The below project was a rattle can job using "Sunrise Red".

 

[txvwnut]

It’s a case of not valuing my time, and I guess I need all of you to talk me out of this lol.

You picked the wrong group for this.