Painting Rusty Gate

mapera

Hi there,
Hopefully can get some help. The gates of my Mams house need a painting. Very rusty and flaky. Some bits would disintegrate if I give it a good scrubbing.

How should I go about first repairing/prepping and then painting this?
Thanks

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CJhaughey

If it was me, I'd be taking them off and getting them sandblasted.
Then Hot dip galvanised and then you can etch prime them and paint them.
Of course if you want to spend hours and hours sand/grinding and painting then you can do it that way but it will be very time consuming and the rust will come back in short order.
They look like solid bar not tubing?

mapera

Thanks, yes they are solid bars.
They wont be budging either, they're stuck into a low concrete wall

HeidiHeidi

Do you mean literally disintegrate? If they're that rusted through, not sure what you can do bar getting new bits welded in.

If not quite that thin, I wirebrushed (a LOT!) and painted my railings which were in an awful state with (I think) Hammerite a few years ago, and they're still in grand nick now - a couple of rust spots starting to come through which I'll touch up as they appear.

mapera

Yes, I think a lot of it will disintegrate, they are in a bad way. Do you know is there any type of "filler" that can be used when this occurs?

CJhaughey

mapera wrote: »

Thanks, yes they are solid bars.
They wont be budging either, they're stuck into a low concrete wall

Chip the concrete away from the mounts with a kango and lift them out.
If they are solid the rust flaking away is probably not terminal as that type of steel produces big flakes of rust while remaining relatively good underneath it.

cruizer101

They don't look as bad I thought from the way you were describing them. I reckon decent scrub with wire brush and you be grand, you'd be surprised how much rust can come from a small bit of metal, can make it look like it has all rusted away when actually there is decent metal underneath.

In terms of a fillers you may be able to use some sort of car body panel filler to build up and parts that there is big cavity.

mapera

Hmm... not sure about the kango hammer, Mam will be left with no wall and a rusty gate!... looks like sanding is my best option then.

I can sand down using a drill right?... any ideas on the best drill bit for a job like this?

Gen.Zhukov

If your mam would buy ya an electric file and a load of spare belts (40 Grit) !:)

HeidiHeidi

If the railings are in as bad a state as you think, then I think electric machinery may prove to be too much for them :eek:

I got mine back to a reasonable state with a wire brush (not mirror smooth by a long shot, admittedly, but they're old railings (not unlike your Mam's) and with a fresh coat of paint they looked great).

Maybe try that and see how deep the rust actually is before you attack them with power tools?

Maphisto

1.618 wrote: »

If your mam would buy ya an electric file and a load of spare belts (40 Grit) !:)

Yep thats my tip too

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Decker-350-Watt-Powerfile/dp/B000XSP72K/ref=sr_1_1?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1398792841&sr=1-1&keywords=powerfile

Get the one from Amaxon rather than AHC, order a few spare belts and get free delivery to ROI - Job Done

monkeynuz

The gates are not rotted through.

Give them a bloody good clean up as others have said with wire brush and or electric finger file thingy or angle grinder with flap disc, if you are determined to fill in all of the imperpections then you could go for p50 (or something) car body filler or plastic padding chemical metal (I can't believe it's not metal or something!)

Then a couple of coats of primer then a couple of coats of hammerite or similar.

CJhaughey

Problem as I can see it is the rods are not in fact square, they have a channel in the centre and are more like ) ( shaped these would be excruciating to clean back with any kind of power tool.
I have done my fair share of rust removal and anything like that gate would be pure torture with vertical and underneath the bar to do as well.
A pneumatic needle scaler would probably be the least worst option as replacing belts/flap discs and knotted wire wheels becomes very tiresome after a while not to mention expensive.
Don't forget a good dustmask and gloves/eye protection as well.
Good luck OP

mapera

Thanks all for the great advice here guys... good deal there on amazon too, although as CJ says might be tricky with all the little nooks and crannies in it. I do have an angle grinder though so may be a combo of that and the electric file might do it.

Cheers all, will let you know how goes!

mikehn

Tackled these situations before, wire brush to remove loose flaking material, then brush on a rust immobiliser, I use Fertan, its an industrial rust killer, converts the rust into an inert state that can be painted over, end of problem for many years. You can try your local motor factors, they will have commercial rust treatments as well if you cant get Fertan, just be sure and follow the instructions.