Tool box clean up

The under seat storage used to always have a quart of oil, a tow chain, tire-chains, a snatch block, etc. The old cardboard oil can used to get rotated out every oil change, but one of them leaked. Now, I would like to clean and coat the inside of the box. How best to prep the inside of the box for rust converter, or whatever? (There actually is some ugly metal down there)

So, how do I clean out the inside of the oil soaked rusty box? And what best to use to coat it when I'm done?

 

My first thought would be to try Brake Cleaner.

Jim

 

Yup, I'd thought about that, too. Any ideas about how to decide when close enough is good enough? If I stop the rust now, the critter will outlive me by years. If I'm going to do it right, I may as well do it now.

 

I would try to clean up the oil with Superclean. Then scuff with 80 grit, reclean with zylene then coat with Herculiner or Duracoat/DuraBake. That's what worked for me.

 

Where to get Superclean?

 

FLAPS or Lowes sometimes has it.

 

Most parts stores.

 

Thanks for the tips! Will start there........

 

I purposely spill a little oil in there from time to time. The stuff you and I carry in there will abrade most coatings, unless it's something like Rhino-lining. Of course mine is not a restoration, just a fun trail runner. It's tough to keep moisture out of that space so the oil helps keep the chains, shackles and floor from getting too rusty. I think it would be high maintenence to keep the integrity of almost any coating intact so I use a low tech way to protect the steel. Just my $.02.

 

Somebody here mentioned this stuff called Rust Bullet, sounds good and tough. Don't know anything about it, but here's the info.
http://www.rustbullet.com/

 

I guess there are lots of ways to degrease and protect the inside of the box - brake cleaner, xylol, acetone, whatever, then POR-15 or paint or undercoat of your choice. I keep a lot of emergency junk in my toolbox - last ditch stuff that I might have run out of in my backseat "warbox" (or maybe I unloaded my warbox into one of my other rigs last trip, and I'm too lazy to move it back, so this is the backup emergency stuff that always stays with the Jeep). In any case, my underseat toolbox is usually stuffed full of junk, including loose tools and rags. I tend to do a fair number of deep-water crossings - where fresh or salt water is up around my butt, or even my waist. That, along with the fact that my Jeeps are sometimes left open, exposed to our occasional rain, has led me to punch drain holes into the bottom of the underseat tool box. My biggest problem has been trapping of water in there, and rusting of the box inside and tools. Venting the box has helped to solve the problem.