repainting metal fireplace - help please

[jedovaty]

Hey,



Need advice. Am I doing this right? Everything`s based on research I found on google, I have NO experience painting (did my closet a few months ago, but it was the gf who did most of the work).



I`m trying to repaint my 30 year old "designer" fireplace made from metal. I treated it with Naval Jelly to get rid of the rust waited a week for it to dry, I sprayed it with high-temp primer (got it at an auto parts store) and let it cure for a week, then attempted to paint (with a roller and brush, oops) with the rust-oleum bbq paint. That was a mistake - should have used either a foam brush or better yet, just spray paint. It looks terrible, brush strokes, drip lines, etc. Additionally, I decided to try to cut out one of the fake-wood-frames, which, long story short, ended up with a few deep scratches/gouges into the back of the fireplace.



Thinking "autopia", I bought a sanding block and some wet/dry sand paper (the hardware store recommended 220 and 420 grits). Soaked the paper for 30 minutes in luke-warm water, then sanded down most of the fireplace with ONLY the 220 sand paper - the brush strokes are gone, it feels very smooth, but everything looks splotchy - primer showing through some areas and not others.



My next/final step was to spray paint the whole thing.



Am I doing this right? I don`t want it shiny, so after the spary painting, I do not plan on hitting it by hand with autopian polishing stuff - that would be real nasty, it`d have to be by hand since it`s a very small fireplace and I wouldn`t be able to fit the PC in there.



Ideally I`d like to take the whole thing apart and apply the paint while the parts are horizontal, but that`s far beyond my skill so I`m doing this with some vertical surfaces, etc.



Thanks for any input!

[Accumulator]

jedovaty- It sounds like you`re going about it right, or at least the same way I`d do it. As far as the final finish goes, I`d try to pick a (hi-temp) paint that gives the right matte/satin look "as sprayed" rather than trying to do something with it after you`ve done the painting. Wonder how "header paint" might work out :think:



I also think that any, uhm...less-than-swell appearance aspects might be less consequential that you`d think after it`s been used, or even just lived with, for a while.

[jedovaty]

Thanks, dude.



Do I need to "rough up" the metal any to make sure the paint doesn`t leak on the metal once sprayed? I had the problem a little with the primer, in a couple areas, but I think that was due to not having the lightest coat possible. The rust-oleum high-temp bbq paint is a satin black color. It`s "okay". Actually, I really liked having the black border with the gray interior from the primer, however, that`ll quickly get darkened when the heat turns on, so I`m sticking with all black.



I don`t think I even need to use the 400 grit paper, the 200 seems to be working okay. Just real tough getting into the nooks and crannies :( I hope that final spray paint will hide majority of imperfections and go on smooth.. hmm.

[Accumulator]

jedovaty- Yeah, I`d rough up every area that`s getting painted so the paint has a better chance of sticking. I too think that the gray primer would get all sooted up/etc. anyhow, plus I bet it`s not *nearly* as durable as the BBQ paint.



I wouldn`t be surprised if the paint *does* flow out pretty well, I mean...it`s supposed to be kinda idiot-proof and I bet you`re doing this a lot better than the average Rustoleum user ;)

[jedovaty]

It`s not that idiot-proof :( I discovered it is tough to spray paint black, because you can`t really "see" where you are spraying the paint. So as I was spraying what I thought were nice, even coats, I ended up with little bubbling and crackling on the paint. One of the guys from here says I sprayed too much and the paint clumped. See picture. What I SHOULD have done was taken the thing apart and done it outside and sanded between coats. At this point, I`m just going to live with this, unless it can easily be fixed (a light sanding?), or I find someone wanting to work on it for me :D

[Accumulator]

jedovaty- Huh, that doesn`t look like just "too thick" to me, but then I`m no expert. I`d probably try sanding and then respraying (thin coats) just because that wrinkled effect makes me wonder about long-term adhesion.

[jedovaty]

I decided to see what happens.. just got impatient, happy to live with it (the cracklin` looked somewhat quaint to me) put the glass in, and lit it up. Nothing blew up (yay!:D), it worked well. Ran it for 30 minutes that night, woke up the next morning, and the paint was peeling in the back behind the glass. :mad:

[Accumulator]

jedovaty- Oh jeeze, sorry to hear about the peeling. You gonna try again or just live with it?

[jedovaty]

I`m going to have to.. that flaky paint will peel off and down onto the glass and look ghetto. I should`ve held off on placing the choice glass pieces - gaah, this is gonna be a pain. *sigh*



It still looks way better than it did before any of this work..



Funny, looking at that pic - the peeling`s occurring right where the "splat" looking part is on the back panel. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[Jokeman]

Sand it down quick and spray paint it with Wood Stove paint. The hard part about this application is that the flame is so close to the paint that chances are it will burn off. Stove paint is your best bet though.

[jedovaty]

Talked to rustoleum, they said it was normal for the paint to peel, as it is designed to be heat resistant, not flame proof. It takes indirect heat, and is meant to be applied to the outside, not inside of the device. So I need to look for a flame-proof paint if I want the back to look nice. grumble grumble