P500 New cargo/tool box sprayed and installed.

[PNWGuy]

I cleaned the old tool box last night and sprayed it with bed liner. Had to do it at about 9pm since it was finally down to under 90 degrees then.

Let it cure overnight and then attached the box to the aftermarket rack with U-bolts...

Didn't like the seemingly permanent coating resulting from decades of greasy tools being in it and the bolts sticking up and threatening to poke holes in packs and other gear so I used an industrial rubber floor mat I had laying around and cut it to fit inside with the edges coming up to cover the bolt heads...

My next door neighbor fabricates aluminum parts for aircraft and offered to make me any sort of tray or brackets I need to make different storage options.

It should be the perfect base on which to mount my axe and shovels on the lid using these:



Still have plenty of room on the sides for rotopaks, room between the box and ROPs for rifle cases, and room behind it for misc. gear.

Still need to refurbish the latch system; box came off of a semi from Minnesota and the steel parts are heavily corroded. Lots of latch options at my local farm supply store.

 

[Admin]

 

[PNWGuy]

I actually found a picture of the old semi with the toolbox mounted on it...

That was fifteen years ago...

I bought the semi in Minnesota, then drove it down to Little Rock, AR and had it converted to a dump truck. Then I drove back up to Iowa, loaded everything I owned in it, then moved to Arizona and started a dump truck business...

 

[trigger]

Just curious on your prep of the box...it is aluminum right? There is a process to prepping aluminum or the finish will end up peeling off. I learned that lesson the hard way.

 

[PNWGuy]

Just curious on your prep of the box...it is aluminum right? There is a process to prepping aluminum or the finish will end up peeling off. I learned that lesson the hard way.

I used to paint aluminum aircraft in the Navy and we did a zinc chromate coating. On non-military aircraft applications, you simply rough the surface and spray away. Not rocket, er, jet science... .

 

[PNWGuy]

Got in the Kolpin gun rack mounts and installed them tonight after work. I had a couple of old tools laying around that are about the same size so I put them in.

I think it will work great! I can open the tool box nearly all the way. Permanent tools will likely be Fiskar axe and shovel. I bought one of their little hatchets for my survival packs and was really impressed with the quality for not much more than regular ones.