Grandad's safe - vintage and paint ?

Several things. On finish issues assume that it is lead based paint. All you need to do is not eat or breathe the dust you sand off and not worry to much after that as you will be painting over the thing. Most of the mischief that is caused by lead paint is not on office equipment, it is on old houses in slum areas where little kids are ingesting the stuff. When you refinish the safe it is not necessary to strip it down to bare metal. If the paint that is on the box has stuck for over 60 years it is probably going to stay stuck and serves as a good base for subsequent layers of paint to stick to. Where the old paint has failed that is where you need to get the rust out and prime with a rust inhibiting primer that will also be compatible with the good old paint. A little filler on the dents and scratches and then apply the finish. Any old lead paint still on the safe is sealed and will cause no harm.

Since the safe has sentimental value, some ideas are to have a sign painter do a pinstripe and gold leaf job on the safe with something like dear old granddads locksmiths shop name and granddads name as proprietor under the trade name. I have seen things like this and they do look snazzy.

As to the brand, take some detail pictures like the dial handle and hinges. Also take a couple of shots at the inside of the door and the same showing the guts of the works. Identification on old safes can be tricky but sometimes you can get lucky with an ID.

Roger, thanks. I'll try some photo's of the items tonight. I had some adhesive vinyl graphics cut by a sign company for some lock and key display cases, here is a picture I had of the old letterhead - [URL=

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Strange, your grandfather is in Detroit, names his business Cadillac and then does not choose to display a single car key on his card. Perhaps it was one of those "too much of a good thing" things.

Thanks again Roger, and here are a bunch of photo's, if anyone has additional information and opinions to contribute that would be great.

The shop was established in the basement of the family house - 5132 Cadillac Blvd, named for the early French explorer, then later nicked for the auto company. Lucky grandad didn't live on some worse sounding street. ;-) They did lots of automotive work. All in a day's pay - what about a $ 1.50 service call charge?

Back to the safe - pretty rough shape, and there also was a serial number lightly stamped on the center of the dial - Any guesses to the ID or vintage? Recommended do's & dont's to restore the handle and dial as I move forward?

Door

back These still inside from grandad And some vintage stuff from a couple of boxes saved: Thanks you for you time and effort, Regards to all, Fritz.

Hi Group,

Work is progressing along on this project. I have just noticed that I appear to be missing most of the decorative hinge caps. They seem to thread in both the top and bottom of each hinge pair. I just have the one top cap shown in this picture:

appears to be a standard 1/2" NC thread.

Any source for vintage or reproduction caps, or supply house would be helpful. If I can't match it up, a suitable set of four would be just great.

Thanks, Fritz.

There are not a lot of these floating around looking for new homes. The good news is a machinist with a lathe can whip out some pretty close copies out of stainless and polish them to a high luster without too much problem.