I need to paint a metal door and some metal weights.

The door is already painted and in very good condition except where
there are some nicks and scratches.
The weights have been used over the past 20 years but are in decent
condition.

My question is, do I have to take the door and weights down to shinny
metal, prime and then paint, or can I maybe take the scratches down to
bare metal, sand the rest of the paint, spray a primer and then a top
coat.
The weights are cast iron and only a few of the very oldest have even
a haze of rust - easily removed with just a light sanding of 600 grit
paper.
The nicks in the door appear to stop at the primer or the color before
the current color. But the paint doesn't have that look of having
1000s of layers on it.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to proceed? I would settle for minimal
effort for the best look. I'd rather not send the items out to be
acid dipped or spend a week stripping them with chemicals.

Thanks
RC

Just get the door smooth and free of rust. Primer (which will level
things out), then paint. Krylon has a very nice line of paints for
metal, etc. Also, their "Fusion" line bonds exceptionally well to old
paint. It is for plastics, but seems to work well on metal. As to the
dumbells, same story. Get off as much as you can. Since they will be
banged about a bit, I'd see if you can find some spray epoxy paint, or
the chip resistant paint like they use on bicycles. DuPont "Imron"
comes to mind. That is likely overkill... Let us know how it comes out.

Ron Cliiborn wrote:
I need to paint a metal door and some metal weights.

The door is already painted and in very good condition except where
there are some nicks and scratches.
The weights have been used over the past 20 years but are in decent
condition.

My question is, do I have to take the door and weights down to shinny
metal, prime and then paint, or can I maybe take the scratches down to
bare metal, sand the rest of the paint, spray a primer and then a top
coat.
The weights are cast iron and only a few of the very oldest have even
a haze of rust - easily removed with just a light sanding of 600 grit
paper.
The nicks in the door appear to stop at the primer or the color before
the current color. But the paint doesn't have that look of having
1000s of layers on it.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to proceed? I would settle for minimal
effort for the best look. I'd rather not send the items out to be
acid dipped or spend a week stripping them with chemicals.

For best results, take the door to an auto paint shop.

On 28 Nov 2006 07:05:16 -0800, "professorpaul"
wrote:

Just get the door smooth and free of rust. Primer (which will level
things out), then paint. Krylon has a very nice line of paints for
metal, etc. Also, their "Fusion" line bonds exceptionally well to old
paint. It is for plastics, but seems to work well on metal. As to the
dumbells, same story. Get off as much as you can. Since they will be
banged about a bit, I'd see if you can find some spray epoxy paint, or
the chip resistant paint like they use on bicycles. DuPont "Imron"
comes to mind. That is likely overkill... Let us know how it comes out.


Thanks. I remember Imron from the "old" days as being top of the line
car pain.
I got the very paint you mentioned, Fusion for the Door and a Rust
resistant primer and cheap paint for the weights.
The weights are complete but I am waiting for them to cure. It might
be over kill but I'm giving the a week are two.
On the weight that looked the worst, I sanded. On the ones that had
the paint intact, I just roughed up the surface and painted.

Re the guy suggesting taking the door to the auto shop, I have to wait
until my Freezer comes back. I got the paint that changes color as
you pass - orange-red-purple. The auto shop painted my Fridge in
chamo and now I can't find it.

Thanks Propaul for the response.

RC