My first concern was that the lid was STUCK. My second concern was that as beautiful as it was just as it was, the rust was starting to get closer to eating through the metal. I really didn't want that to happen. After a chat with my MIL to express my concerns & get her blessing to change it up a bit, I got to work.
My first step was to get the lid off. It required (quite a bit of) WD40, elbow grease, and luck. After struggling with it for about 10 minutes, the lid finally came off. Inside, there were foam pieces (perfectly preserved from the 1960s) and a bag that used to hold a cleaning chemical for bar taps.
The next step was to try to get the rust off a bit more. I tried Naval Jelly, but it only helped some. Then, I broke out the Ryobi corner sander. That helped a bit more.
After everything was sanded, cleaned, and ready to go, I started with a Rustoleum "Rust" base coat of paint.
Once both coats of the rust color were dry, I covered both pieces with a Valspar "Riveria Dune" coat of paint.
I gave it all a couple of days to dry, and then started sanding to let the rust color show a bit.
It wasn't quite done yet. I wanted to honor my grandfather-in-law, but needed to figure out a way to do that. It required sending an email to all of Jon's aunts & uncles. I got the year that the Anderson's were originally married & ran with it. I also did a Rustoleum clear coat over everything.
Next was to find a way to display the bag I found. We found the perfect frame for it in Hobby Lobby.
I'm overall really happy with this project!
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