Vintage MAC Tool Box Refurbished

So a few years ago I was presented with an opportunity to purchase a vintage MAC tool box. A local mechanic was purchasing a new bottom box, and trading in his old one. The old one was a MAC 1700B, like the one pictured below. The Snap On dealer really didn't want to take the lower box into his inventory, due to its age and size. These older boxes are 50" or so in length, boxes are customarily much larger, now. I checked out the box and it was in very good condition. It was extremely dirty, from 20+ years of use. In addition many of the drawers were sticky and did not slide open freely. However, I was able to recognize that there were no dents or dings, nor any real defects. The box would clean up just fine, and the drawer slides just needed to be cleaned, de-greased and then properly lubed. So I bought the bottom box for approximately 1/3 of what they normally sell for, $500! 

 The above picture is just how my box looked. You have to imagine a much dirtier, greasy dusty old box, though! The MAC MB1700 that I had just purchased was MAC's top of the line tool box, in the late 80's. Probably made in 1987/1988 or so. Mine originally was a set, with the MB1710 top box, pictured below. This set came with two 110 outlets, a car stereo provision, with a power converter, a detachable automotive antenna, and two 6 1/2" round automotive speakers, mounted in the doors.

This is an older picture from a MAC catalog. Notice the older style two-handle drawer pulls. These handles were not very convenient, as they would literally require two hands, one for each pull, to open the larger drawers, especially if you take into account a heavy load of tools in the drawers! 

Here are a few pictures of the MBN1700/MB1710 set. I have spoken with a couple of professional mechanics who own or have owned this box. The flat top was a well liked feature, as a catch all for paint cans, lubricants, brake kleen etc. etc. The swinging 'cupboard' doors were not very well liked. They required a lot of clearance, to swing open, on either side. These doors did not lend themselves to locking up your tool box at night. What I found is that most simply left them open, all of the time. The doors do swing all the way open, flush to the sides of the tool box. One mechanic said that there were way too many little compartments in the swinging cabinet doors, to lose small items in. These doors/this style was discontinued after only a couple of years of production. In addition, there are locking compartments, inside the top right 'cubby area, and all of the lower drawers can be locked, separately. Both mechanics I talked to virtually never used the 110 outlets. They said that they had no use for outlets, on the outside of the box, and tripping over the cumbersome extension cord. The automotive radio is an interesting idea, that is still used, today. However on these vintage boxes, the provision is for the older style two post car radio. You also had to remove the entire radio 'tray' to access the radio, converter and clock. there was actually a separate, digital clock mounted to the side of the radio. It even ran off of the converter, if you kept your box plugged in. Clearly this was an old design, as car radios, even the two post style, came with clocks in the digital age, mid 80's! My best guess is that this top of the line MAC tool box, would be great as a stand alone 'island' in your shop or garage. Meaning, if you needed power and a radio, and tool storage, this box would do it all. Most shops have their own power and radios/stereos or boom boxes. 

You can see the rear mouinted antenna, in these pics. It was an unusal setup of a removable right angle antenna, with a flush plug in the upper rear of the top box. 

You can see in this picture that the radio is the old sliding dial type for tuning, necessitating the separate digital clock mounted next to it. The guy I bought my lower box from wanted to keep his top box, for the locking paperwork drawer, pictured below. He keeps his state inspection paperwork and window stickers in there, secured, as required by state law. 

Anyway, I took the lower box and began to clean. I spent days cleaning and degreasing my 'new' tool box. I also tore down each drawer slide, cleaning off years of dirt, dust and petrified grease sludge. Once cleaned and lubed up with fresh grease, all the drawers glide as they should. I am not a professional mechanic, just a do-it-yourself type car guy. This box was way more than I needed, but you can never have enough strorage, right?! This was around 2007-8 and MAC was making tool boxes for Shelby American. They were nothing more than the modern version of my MB1700. They came with some Shelby stripes and a couple of slick graphics and retailed for $4500!!!

 This was the light bulb moment for me. I mean, its a tool box, right? Just a metal box with drawers. So why can't I simply paint mine up with a Shelby motif'?? I love Carroll Shelby. He was a pioneering visionary for racing and performance cars. I am also a die-hard Ford/Shelby/Saleen guy. I don't like how Shelby American slaps his name on everything and then doubles and triples the price! So I saw some pictures of the latest Shelby Super Snake, in a Shelby Performance catalog that I received in the mail.

I think Ford/Shelby calls it Grabber Orange, and the color is lighter and not as nice and rich as what I wanted. So I went with a House Of Kolors Karisma, Tangelo or Nova Orange? I'm not sure of the exact color, but it was something that a friend of mine had left over from a hot rod he had built. He owns a body shop, and he painted the box for me. I really liked the Super Snake stripes as they are different from the 'regular' Shelby twin stripes. The two regular stripes are copied by every manufacturer and overused, in my humble opinion. I added a couple of Cobra emblems, from my favorite car of all time the Shelby 427 SC, and here is the final product:  

I never forgot about the top box, though. I yearned after that retro cool box, with the old school car radio, power outlets, flat top and even the weird cabinet doors. I searched the internet, Craigslist and eBay for literally years. I also kept after the original mechanic that I bought the bottom box from. I would offer him cash from time to time, gradually upping my offers. I realized that these top boxes, or any MAC boxes of this vintage were nearly impossible to find. So I resigned myself that convincing the original owner to sell me his MAC MB1710 was the only way I would ever get one. This was a different situation then getting someone to part with their old car! Guys will sell their cars, once they realize that they aren't driving it anymore, or they are never going to get around to restoring it etc. The guy who owns the top box uses it every day, and it perfectly suits his needs. Sure he could replace it with a bigger better modern version, but that would represent a significant investment and a hefty monthly payment, which he has no interest in. Bottom line: he is never going to sell it.

 So I moved on. Winter of 2015/2016 I really wanted a project and it was time for a top box to match my Shelby bottom box. Now I was able to find some MB1700/1710 sets. Sold together they usually command around $2K for a nice example. That's a lot of money, but do-able. However, when you factor in, that I couldn't find any in my area of New England, nor any within 500 miles, you start pricing out shipping costs. To ship a complete MB1700/1710 would be around $1K from the Mid West, $1500 from the West Coast. About the same amount to ship a car! I decided that this was just not worth it, paying $3K for a vintage old box, that I would have to now restore and refurbish both the top and bottom boxes. Or sell just the bottom afterwards, no good options, really. 

I never gave up though, and finally a MAC MB1210 showed up on eBay! When I checked the auction, the top box was local to me!! Located about 40 miles from my house. He had trouble selling it, due to its immense size. There were 36 watchers on eBay, but again, shipping killed any deals. So I negotiated a price with the seller, and he was even willing to deliver it! He has a nice enclosed trailer, with a low floor, so he was able to load it himself, on a dolly. Here are some pics from the auction, and how it looked when it arrived at my door. 

 

This box is very similar to the MB1710 without all the bells and whistles, No radio, no outlets and no cabinet doors. The layout is very similar otherwise. This box has the now industry standard flip open top. The face of the top drawer is fixed, unlike its modern counterparts where the face of the top compartments lift off with the lid. 

Same side cubby with large slide out storage. I decided that I would use the MB1210 and create my ultimate top box! A blend of the features from the MB1710 and some of my own customization. 

I fabricated my own radio plate out of an unused MAC drawer bottom. A few simple bends in a brake, and I was able to duplicate the original radio shelf. I decided to stick with the old school twin shaft style radio. It just fits the vintage vibe and era of this box. I found a few good examples for sale on eBay. I actually decided on a Clarion unit-- the same one that I rocked in my high school car!! I was going to go with some separate speaker boxes, like home bookshelf speakers or even some old school Jensen TX-9's lol! Those would have sounded like crap! 

I recently upgraded my flat screen TV and had to immediately buy a sound bar to go along with it. Big flat screen TV's have no room for quality speakers, so a sound bar is an absolute necessity. New ones are technological marvels. Small soundbars, with wireless subwoofers sound amazing! The model I wanted for my TV, a Klipsch was just too big for my man cave. The soundbar was too large, blocking the TV remote, and I had no good place where the subwoofer would fit. So I chose a more compact Polk unit, for the man cave. But it gave me the idea, to mount the soundbar, to the lid of my toolbox, and stow the wireless subwoofer, nearby. Meanwhile, Klipsch discontinued the large model, so I was able to pick it up on eBay, for a really good, closeout price. 

I mounted the soundbar to the lid. The lid will actually still close with the speaker bar in place! You can see that I removed the handles and scuffed the box, prepping for paint. The hard part was routing the wires. There were small holes, in the corners, that needed enlarging, so that I can run power wires and RCA cables to the sound bar. I also decided that I would have power IN my box, not with a couple of useless outlets on the outside. I drilled and grommeted a hole, in the back, for a large power strip. I plan on using the cubby area as a charging station for my rechargeable drills, impacts etc. I also picked up a converter for the 12 volt old school car stereo. 

 Here you can see the stripes have been applied, and the first coats of color. The House Of Kolors color is no longer available. I was given a price of $240/quart, before being informed that it was discontinued, bummer. A local supplier was able to use a paint matching spectrophotometer to color match my existing Shelby box. The color is actually based off of a 2004-5 Nissan Imperial Orange color. It did need a bit of tweaking, to get it just right. I measured out my existing stripes, several times over, so that the new ones would line up. Challenging, because I couldn't bring my lower box to the body shop to line them up, nor could I install the top box, without a couple more strong men to help me lift it in place!

 4 Coats of DuPont clear-coat have been applied in this next pic. I really wasn't that concerned with a perfect finish, since it is 'just' a tool box, but my body man wouldn't hear of it! He insisted on all the extra clear so that he could wet-sand and buff the final product! Perfectionist.

 I know that you can still see a bit of red in the bottom of drawers? No worries, it is all covered up with drawer liners. We had to conserve paint as the Nissan Imperial Orange was $175/quart! I only wanted to buy one, if possible, and my paint guy said that it was going to be close, but do-able.

 This is the pull out drawer, where I will store my chargers and batteries.

If you find any errors or inaccuracies, please let me know! I am far from an expert in tool boxes.

And the finished product:

Update November 2016
We did end up with a bit of leftover paint, and I also purchased a small bottle of touch up from Automotive Touch Up paints. So the light bulb went off again, and I decided that I would paint up some accessories to match my tool box! I had just purchased a new rolling tool tray, which is handy as hell! Rather than have tools scattered all over the floor, you can keep them neatly organized, right next to your work area. If you are good at planning, you can even bring all the necessary tools with you, before you begin, right?! I usually just make 10 trips back and forth...
This was going to be a DIY project, not a pro job at the body shop. I purchased a nifty little Preval Sprayer kit, from Amazon. I have seen these used for painting guitars and small projects and thought that I would give them a try. I even heard a story of a guy who painted an entire car with this system!! He must have used a ton of the charge canisters! Here is what I am talking about:

I also purchased a right angle trigger for the nozzle. This is an absolute must, otherwise your finger will fatigue, very quickly. I was very happy with the Preval. Just pour your paint into the glass bottle, screw on the charge unit, and you are good to go. Make sure to follow the paints instructions for thinning etc. You can store your leftover paint in the quality glass bottle, afterwards. You can see the colors, and it will keep way longer than in a traditional metal paint can. Couple of things I noticed; when the bottle is full it draws very well. Obviously when it gets down towards the bottom, it won't draw if you are holding it on an angle. Also, the bottle can get in the way, especially if you are painting something that is on the ground. Meaning, you can only go so low, if that makes sense. The spray pattern was exceptional and very forgiving. 6-8 inches away from your target is just right. I found this to be one of the best spray paint or rattle can spraying experiences I have ever had, and I have had a lot! Here are a few pics of tool tray:

 This tool tray, like most shop tools today, is made in China, but it is very good quality. Powder coated red, as is typical. The powder coat actually makes an excellent base for paint. All you need to do is scuff it with a Scotch Brite type pad and then clean and degrease it for paint. I actually clean/degrease, then scuff, then clean/degrease again, prior to painting.

 Here are the products that I used. Don't forget your mask, if you are working indoors! Going from the Preval, to the Express Paint clear was a bummer. This particular clear comes out with a lot of force, creating orange peel. In addition the dry spray condition is the worst I have ever worked with. Next time I will buy some liquid clear and use the Preval, it is that superior.

While I was at it, I decided to paint my engine stand. It does have an engine, a nice original 302 from an 88 Mustang mounted to it! This made the work challenging. I had to wheel this 400 lbs chunk of iron outside. I was not going to paint next to my cars, nor was I able to move it to my basement! I was able to take advantage of two really nice 60 degree days, which are a rarity for November in New England!

I also have a parts washer that is powder-coated red, I would like that to be custom matched as well...