Hello All,
I received this toolbox from my parents who claim it dates back to my great grandfather. It has a significant amount of rust on the inside of the box and on the hinges. I would like to restore it but haven’t had much luck with google solutions (I.e. vinegar solutions and scrubbing). Any ideas?
As long as the rust is superficial, you could go to town on the inside with a brass wire brush attachment on a drill. For the outer hardware I’d mask off the painted areas and hand sand it.
http://www.roseantiquetools.com/id116.html
Use above link to open “vintage” anual Sears craftsman tool catalogs to find a better idea of the age of your tool box (in the event you cannot locate a date of manufacture on it)
Vapor hone in Metal shop is also good for removing rust.
wash it out and dry it, put the tools back in it. It is an antique, it’s supposed to look like that. PA TEEN A, is cool. 
I purchased a Sears toolbox that looked like that back in the late 1960’s. Does that mean that I am also vintage?
There’s:
Descriptor will vary by how you feel in the morning.
Vintage is not nearly as old as antique. Stuff from my teen years is being sold as “vintage”. For that matter, I think the '80’s are vintage…
Well then the Toolbox would be an Antique … so does it make Ray?
I know I’m not Artifact now, but also know I’m not a collectible antique: not even worth parting out.
You left “relic” off your list!
On cold damp days I feel ancient…
Is a relic before or after artifact? I’ll update.
For those interested in old toolboxes…
The garage journal has is a fantastic wealth of information on it and a section on old tool boxes of various brands.
In terms of Rust removal, its a sliding scale of cost vs time.
You’re most expensive but easiest is EvapoRust. Literally dunk the parts for 24hrs then wash them off (I usually coat parts in WD-40, then wipe down to prevent flash rusting). Problem is for the whole box, you’d need a fair amount of solution. I bought my 5 gal bucket off Amazon for about $70. Plus side is you can keep using it until its exhausted.
Least expensive but ‘hardest’ would be to wire brush the rust off. As suggested, depends on how much rust there is and how long you feel like working on it.
I think I got this one about 68, and a lot of miles, could use a trip to the car wash and a new bail on the latch.
I’d be interested to see if anyone at the Space could do a demo on “how to” replace the old latches & bails and smooth rivets for a clean restoration.
My son is currently into watching matchbox restores on youtube.
The guy he likes gets quite a few views to the point of making a small bank off them. Possibly this is the start of a small youtube station of you restoring toolboxes. I mean…youtube is a strange place.
finding a replacement for the original latches may prove problematic, I am thinking about something along these lines. But if anyone finds a source I would be interested in knowing about it.
For Nicole and many, myself included… Youtube is a time suck / rabbit hole.
My favourite & it (for me) outpaces YouTube by far is the garage journal:
https://www.garagejournal.com/
I was looking for an alternative latch to iopart51’s post above and found this thread: (a thread of 572 pages on “vintage tool boxes”)
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49743&highlight=latch
Which in turn led to this website:
Which now has me watching the front page of the GJ video on how to build a workbench that I have no room for…
Free association is a dangerous and time consuming thing.
