Sanding a freezer - am I being stupid?

Heh, I've just about finished the collar that will tranform a battered old chest freezer into a keezer, and because the collar turned out quite well, I'm wondering if I shouldn't sand down the freezer and repaint it. It's functional, but it's got bits of tape stuck to it and it's scratched up a bit.

If I get one of those nifty electric sanders, how much effort is it to sand down a freezer? It's a biggie - probably 13 or so cu.ft. Any ideas?

cd2448 said:

Heh, I've just about finished the collar that will tranform a battered old chest freezer into a keezer, and because the collar turned out quite well, I'm wondering if I shouldn't sand down the freezer and repaint it. It's functional, but it's got bits of tape stuck to it and it's scratched up a bit.

If I get one of those nifty electric sanders, how much effort is it to sand down a freezer? It's a biggie - probably 13 or so cu.ft. Any ideas?

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Not much effort at all. You don't have to take it down to bare metal. I am sure without too much effort you could make it look like new.

You're not being stupid. A palm sander would work fine. What's the outer shell made of? I'm assuming you're painting it? If it's a plastic shell (or similar) you won't need to go too deep down. Just level the surface a bit, hit it with a primer for plastic, and than the color of your choice once it's dried. After you have the color you want, hit it with some clearcoat, use some super-super fine sand paper and smooth out any bubbles (wet sand works nice for this with the superfine paper). Once it's smooth as silk, put a buffing pad on the palm sander and buff until you see yourself.

You may want to build it into the keezer before you paint it. Layers of paint can potentially crack or chip if not given time to cure.

Not sure if this helps you, but i hope it does.

Sawdustguy said:

Not much effort at all. You don't have to take it down to bare metal. I am sure without too much effort you could make it look like new.

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exactly. metal is the easiest to work with.

It's old school, so I think it's a painted metal outer surface. I reckon it is worth the effort to sand it and prime+paint+clearcoat it. Now I have to find someone who wants to lend me an electric sander. I have a couple of friends who are insane DIY types they will surely have the required equipment!

Thanks for the quick responses, dudes.

I repainted a side by side fridge once. All that is needed is to roughen the surface and remove any dirt, tape etc. You can purchase appliance paint in spray cans for any home improvement store. The appliance paint is tough and doesnt require a primer or clear coat. Just sand lightly and paint. It will hold the finish for years.

Definitely remove all of the tape and residue first, they tend to clog the sandpaper..

I assume it is a flat surfaced appliance. Mine has that dimpled finish in which case sanding would not work.

Simple method use a citrus based remover to take tape off and buy some Rustoleum Hammered spray paint. It will cover imperfections and save you some grief. Try a can out on something first to see if you like the look. It will save time & money.

RustOleum.com

It has totally flat sides. There's some tape which I'll need to remove, and some tape residue which might be tricky. What is this "citrus based remover" that was mentioned?

cd2448 said:

It has totally flat sides. There's some tape which I'll need to remove, and some tape residue which might be tricky. What is this "citrus based remover" that was mentioned?

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ORANGE-SOL and De-Solv-it: Safe, Citrus-Based, and General Cleaning Products and Solutions

Look in my gallery, I took an old $30 skank craiglist freezer and cleaned it up.

I only sanded rust spots to metal, rest of it I used maybe 180 grit sand paper and roughed up surface.I hit it with a coat of primer, I then used rustoleum appliance epoxy and gave it a couple of coats, I think it came out really well.

any progress, CD?