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An actual one that is.

A friend noticed that I do some painting, and wants me to help paint his tool box. Just curious, but does painting that work the same way as painting, say, pewter?

Rough it up, prime it, paint it, seal it?

Pretty much!!

Obviously as you scale up so do some of the processes so your flatting back to get a good key for your primer on steel can be a bit more savage than it would be on a white metal model. Also, your options depend on the look you are going for... if it's just to stop the thing rusting, not too much too it and you can be pretty mean to it, if you are after the deep gloss finish that you see on the big name tool boxes like Snap-On, Teng and Craftsman, you'll be wanting to take a lot more care of flatting back, use a high build primer, flat back again and then two or three (at least!!) top coats before sealing to get a really good looking deep gloss. A compressor and spray gun (a real one, not an air brush) will be your friend here.

High build primer is cool stuff, like normal primer but with more pigment and medium in it than normal paint, so it acts like a very fine layer of filler to help hide any imperfections.

Moar detailz needed to be really specifically helpful though dude.

 Nuclear Mekanik wrote:
Pretty much!!

Obviously as you scale up so do some of the processes so your flatting back to get a good key for your primer on steel can be a bit more savage than it would be on a white metal model. Also, your options depend on the look you are going for... if it's just to stop the thing rusting, not too much too it and you can be pretty mean to it, if you are after the deep gloss finish that you see on the big name tool boxes like Snap-On, Teng and Craftsman, you'll be wanting to take a lot more care of flatting back, use a high build primer, flat back again and then two or three (at least!!) top coats before sealing to get a really good looking deep gloss. A compressor and spray gun (a real one, not an air brush) will be your friend here.

High build primer is cool stuff, like normal primer but with more pigment and medium in it than normal paint, so it acts like a very fine layer of filler to help hide any imperfections.

Moar detailz needed to be really specifically helpful though dude.

Wish I had more to give, but what you know is what I know.

"Hey I those little toys of yours are neat, help me paint my tool box"

I don't think he's got an air brush, neither do I. Can you get a decent end result with just regular cans of spray paint?

Yes you can. The trick to using aerosol sprays is to go a little at a time, be patient young padewan!! Lots of light coats will look very professional, one thick daub coat will look fething awful, with pools and runs and blobs everywhere.

Also, the best tip I can give you with any kind of spray (apart from shake the can/mix the paint thoroughly, and keep your nozzle clean) is the never start or stop spraying while the spray is going on the work piece. Hold spray can pointing at air to one side of work piece. Start spraying. Move spray in a smooth horizontal motion across the work piece. Go right off the workpiece on the other side, so you are just spraying air, now stop spraying. Repeat. This way you avoid the blobs and spatter you get when you stop and start.

Try and keep the speed at which you move, the distance from the workpiece and the direction of your spray arc the same, to achieve consistent results.

In the UK we can get some aerosol spray called Plastikote which isn't bad for cosmetic metal work, but I don't know what you can get in the US, I'm sure Home Depot or Harbor Freight or Sears will sort you out with the kind of stuff you need.

A good chunk of your finish quality comes form not only spraying properly in light coats as nuclear mechanic has said, but in your surface prep.

You said to rough it up and then paint, which is on the right lines.

Depending on the box material? say a plastic one you would want to start on a higher grade of paper (say 400+) than a metal box (180+ maybe)

Also primer
If you want a Car quality finish, you probably want to do a couple of decent coats of high build primer, which is available in spray cans from car panel and paint supply shops. Then a wet sanding with 800 grit paper, then 1500 grit paper (using a sanding block if possible and plenty of water)

Once its all lovely and smooth all over (every nook and cranny you can possibly get to) clean it off with some water, dry it, and wipe it down with panel degreaser.

allow to dry again and immediatly spray your base coats first layer, and begin building up whatever paint you chose.

then once the paint is thoroughly dry, lightly wetsand it with 1500 or 2000 grade paper and a block, and clean it up again before applying a high lacquer solid gloss coat, again in thin, but even layers with lots of patience for drying times (getting runs in laquer is annoying as heck!) a dry warm enviroment is good for this, spray shops have heated booths to speed up the long drying time from hours to minutes.
Once the lacquer is adqueatly coating it, allow to dry and harden off for a few days, then wetsand with 2000 grit paper again and polish it up with some cutting compound, then wax it (like you would a car)
Or go for a matte finish and skip all the final sand an polish step

Won't the sanding grind the paint right off?

Wet 2k isn't like dry 180, and you'll be doing it more lightly than rubbing well hard. Get your hands on some different grit papers and some test material before attempting the box to get your eye in, as it were.

Blaggard wrote:
Wet 2k isn't like dry 180, and you'll be doing it more lightly than rubbing well hard. Get your hands on some different grit papers and some test material before attempting the box to get your eye in, as it were.

What he said.

It would take an age to actually sand through some decent lacquer with wet 2k paper, its more about flatting the surface out,keeping it reasonable as you go on each stage helps to stop you getting lumps and exagerated orange peel defects, eventually building upto polishes (for glossy). Doing this work correctly is how the 'show room finish' would be achieved. Even if you dont quite need a mirror finish it will still come out nicer for doing the preparation better. It will stay on the box for longer too.

Everyone is giving good advice here, I want to add a couple of points for ya, I worked in a body shop doing paint prep for a while and this advice comes from experience painting cars.
If the box is new you will need to hit it with some 800 or 1000 grit wet sandpaper, you want a little laundry soap, everyone swears by Tide, in the water you're dipping your sandpaper in and you'll also want a sanding block to wrap it around. You are only sanding off the shine and any minor imperfections, like dust trapped in the paint, so the next coat will stick.
If you're only painting the outside of the box you will also need to mask off and seal up any openings. Sealing is important as overspray gets EVERYWHERE, and the openings will also change the spray pattern somewhat. Once masked and sealed thorough cleaning is next, use acetone, nothing sticks to oil and grease, and most of the surface contamination is invisible, so be super thorough.
Depending on what colour you're painting the box this first round of sanding and masking will leave you ready for basecoat or primer. Lots of videos available for this part that explain things a lot better than I could.

If you're painting a well used box then step 1 is cleaning, and lots of it. If the box is getting completely painted you want to fix any surface imperfections with light filler, such as auto body glazing putty, then sand everything with 320 or 400 grit paper to get it level, use a block to keep everything flat. After that sand with 600 grit until all your 400 grit scratches are gone, give it a clean and you're ready for masking and sealing, then primer. I would use an epoxy prime, you can get it at a regular auto store like NAPA. Epoxy primer is a rust preventive primer and is good on bare metal. Once that bare metal is covered use a surfacer, or high-build, primer, this will give you something to sand to get the surface just right. You'll use 600-800 grit for the first coat of this and then 1000-1200 grit for the second. Soap and water for the 1000-1200 grit to help move things along. A good clean and you're ready for basecoat

It's all in the prepwork amigo.