An old safe, safe at last

[zourtney]

Last weekend, I acquired an old floor-standing safe. It's about 30" tall and delightfully well used. I believe it belonged to my Grandpa Christensen before my dad "inherited" it. As you might be able to see (below), it's old, full of cobwebs, and a bit dinged up.

I don't have any lofty goals of trickin' out my safe, yo, but I figure it could use a fresh set of paint. It has a single metal shelf which is a bit bent up. If I'm feeling crafty, I might like see if I can fashion a suitable replacement from wood or a straight piece of sheet metal.

Any ideas or suggestions? Cody said use spraypaint -- metal specific spray paint.

Now...what to load it up with... 

It's not much to look at -- nor should it be.
It'll live in the corner of a closet indefinitely.
And by the way, it's still in my trunk because it's too
heavy/cumbersome to move more than a few
times by one's self.

[Nick]

Paint a tree on it

You should cut a hole in the top just big enough to slip coins in. The most over built coin jar ever!

[zourtney]

Hehehe  Wouldn't be very fire safe then, would it? 

[zourtney]

I got paint! Black "hammered" Rustoleum spraypaint. Oh yeah, livin' large.

[Nick]

Nice. Do you have to sand or anything first?

[zourtney]

I don't think so. It's in decent condition (once I knock the cobwebs off). I'm just not partial to 1974 Montomery Wards tan. Who knows; maybe I'll take a closer look at it and call it fine as is..!

[zourtney]

Nick (and others),
I'm still up for a round of painting tomorrow (Monday), if you are. We could do some Blazer work of all sorts, too!

[Nick]

We are still working on my grandmas new pumphouse. So I don't know. Perhaps later in the afternoon.

[zourtney]

Shucks. But I suppose I can do my painting just about anywhere. But blazer-blazer camp-camp!

[Nick]

Yes. Blazer-camper CAMP-CAMP.

[zourtney]

Last weekend, Cody helped me out with fixing up this old safe. We did a paint test on the back to see how it'd cover. But because of the texturing on it, we discovered that I should have either sanded it less (too late!) or I should sand it down past the rubberized texture. All this to say: I have a lot more sanding to do.

Here are some pictures.

Overall, it really doesn't look that bad. But the stains and watermarks you see don't scrub off. Sure, it's completely usable as is. But I feel like painting it, for some reason. And I have the paint now, so why not?


The inside of the safe...yes, it opens!


Notice the banged up corner. Cody helped be smack it back in to shape. As seen below:

Not perfect, but it at least resembles a square corner. At that's more than good enough.


Here it is with the back and top painted. You can't see it, but the back still has most of the rubber texture on it. But there are some smooth, shiny spots where I sanded down too far. On the top, I sanded down past the coating. But you won't be able to see that from the picture, probably.

[Nick]

I personally like a little texture to things like that. How did you paint it? Spray, roller, brush? And what type of paint was used? Did you get to bare metal first or did you just get to a smooth surface with a little sanding on the old finish? Any primer used? Inquiring minds are curious to know.

[zourtney]

I too liked the texture it had. But my attempts to rough up the surface were a bit overzealous. I ended up with a cool looking covering of the pattern on the back with ugly flat, shiny islands.

I'm using black Rustoleum textured spraypaint. With a thick enough coat, it looks good. But it and the existing texture do not mix well. Or, rather, the existing texture is too unique to have the spraypaint make it look ok where I sanded down too far.
I
It's ok though.

[zourtney]

Below are a few more pictures of the progress. The entire thing has been painted now, including the wheels! The exterior has been painted with Rustoleum "hammered" black spraypaint which has a metallic gray look, when the light hits it right. The interior, bottom, and wheels have been painted in El Cheapo flat black. And I like it

Cody came up with the good idea of adding a foam seal around the door. He had the doubled-sided sticky foam strip laying around, so we used that.


Initially, we had it on the door and the inner edge, for double padding and a nice tight seal. It seemed like the right thing to do, in a previous test. But it wasn't. It was very hard to get the door to latch, and that is less than ideal. So, we ripped off the inner foam. Cody was a good sport and was determined to get all of the sticky residue off. It required copious amounts of rubbing alcohol and lots of sanding because it left a nasty mess. Here he is, working away:


More to come...

[Nick]

Wow, its much better looking now. Good jeorb!