Like most of our other "large" projects, after 4 or 5 hours working on it we realized that this would definitely take us more than a "day or two" (which is about how long I always estimate large projects to take, and I'm always wrong - every.single.time. You'd think I'd learn!).
Since this is the first step, we needed to get rid of all the chippy and flaky paint before we could go any further.
So we snagged a couple cheapo wire brushes from Lowe's and a nice new sanding/grinding/something-or-other bit for the Dremmel tool to get into all those tight spots and corners that the wire brush couldn't reach.
No worries - Ms. Preggo wore a safety mask and goggles to be safe!
And we got to work.
While Barley supervised, as usual (why does he get the easy job?!).
And after 4-5 hours of working hard in the hot sun, our rail defintely looked worse - which meant that we did a pretty dang good job!
Before
After
Now, you can't tell from the photos, but all that hard work we had just did made the surface of the rail all pitted and bumpy - which is never good if you're planning to paint it. So while we got all the loose paint off (along with some bad clumps and drips), it definitely needed a good sanding next to get the surface ready for paint.
Anyone else ever tackle painting old wrought iron? How did you go about it?
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the best thing of having Barley supervise-if you mess something up just say "damn it Barley!!", blaming it on him!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't tackled a rail project yet, but we are in the process of buying our first house that has the same type of railing in front that will probably need the same treatment. I can't wait to see how yours comes out to give me the motivation to tackle ours!
ReplyDeleteIt's going to look so good! Doing all the prep and chipping takes so long, but it looks like you guys have good company. :) I love the photo of Barley- so cute!
ReplyDeleteI've certainly scraped my share of paint off of things, but never from wrought iron. This looks like quite an undertaking. Good luck, we'll all be looking forward to the fresh results.
ReplyDeleteAnd Barley gets to supervise because he has no thumbs.
Whenever I've worked with my welding happy friends on a rusty re-furb their go-to for a nice even removal is sand blasting.
ReplyDeleteThough with a surface like your deck rail, it would probably be pretty darn tricky with all those open spaces. :/
Good luck :)