Giving New Life to a Vintage Toolbox

Rust stripper plus spray paint overhaul a box that launched a business.

- By Roy Berendsohn

Everybody Needs a Sturdy Toolbox. And if it has a backstory- you built it, or it was your dad's, or you found it buried under junk at a yard sale and paid $5 for it-that's even better. The box's backstory might be worth more than the tools in it, which may come and go as they are worn out, broken, or loaned and not returned. Funny how that works with toolboxes.

The 1970's Craftsman box you see here was a restoration, which was pretty straightforward, frankly. Today's rust-removal products and spray paints turned it from a corroded hulk into a decent little box, without much trouble. The box's backstory is not so straightforward, and it happened in this way. About 15 years ago, my boss at the time told me that we were about to launch a major front in publishing by going all-in testing tools. No-holds-barred.