Painting old iron outdoor railings

[Avocet]

I might be about to volunteer to help paint about 35m of old, rusty iron hairpin railings. They're painted at present, but the paint is flaking off in most places and there is quite a bit of loose rust as well.

Does anyone have any recommendations for products or techniques?

Removing them and getting them blasted / galvanised is out of the question (concreted-in) so it will be a bunch of volunteers with hand tools. We have access to single phase power. The finished railings need to be a particular colour, so whatever we paint / treat them with will have to be over-coatable with ordinary exterior gloss paint.

 

[Nige F]

Don`t let the volunteers near power give em a wire brush and a scraper each -then red oxide primer

 

[dcdec]

or zinc phosphate primer, followed by appropriate undercoat for your top coat.

Bedec do a good range of exterior paints which out last many of the usual trade names all depends on what finish and how much longevity you want.

Never used one myself but some people rate painters mittens for application.

Must point out though that you'll be completely wasting your time if you try and apply paint in the current temperatures.

 

[ic1927]

This stuff is good as a rust converter and primer.

http://www.aquasteel.co.uk/INFORMATION.htm

 

[opps]

This stuff is good as a rust converter and primer.

http://www.aquasteel.co.uk/INFORMATION.htm[/QUOTE]

Looks like an interesting product, have you used it?

 

[joe-90]

At what price though?

 

[Avocet]

Thanks all - Keep 'em coming! I'm very interested in that Aquasteel stuff too! I might drop them an e-mail because although a lot of the fence is red-rusty, there are also areas where the old paint is sound, so I'm wondering if this stuff will go over the whole lot (once the loose stuff has been removed)? I had a quick experiment on it yesterday. There are 14 panels with (on average) about 10 "hairpins" in each - 4' high. With a wire brush in an angle grinder, it took me about 7 minutes to get the loose rust and paint (but by no means ALL the rust and paint!) off one of them, so it looks like a long job!

 

[ic1927]

This stuff is good as a rust converter and primer.

http://www.aquasteel.co.uk/INFORMATION.htm[/QUOTE]

Looks like an interesting product, have you used it?

A customer who works for the MOD recommended it to us about two years ago, the MOD use it apparently. We've used it on rusted gates, railings and rusted exterior coin beads, it's very good stuff, not cheap, about £12 a litre plus delivery costs, but it goes a long way.

 

[ic1927]

Thanks all - Keep 'em coming! I'm very interested in that Aquasteel stuff too! I might drop them an e-mail because although a lot of the fence is red-rusty, there are also areas where the old paint is sound, so I'm wondering if this stuff will go over the whole lot (once the loose stuff has been removed)? I had a quick experiment on it yesterday. There are 14 panels with (on average) about 10 "hairpins" in each - 4' high. With a wire brush in an angle grinder, it took me about 7 minutes to get the loose rust and paint (but by no means ALL the rust and paint!) off one of them, so it looks like a long job!

As with any rust converters you shouldn't apply it to sound paintwork, just the rusted areas.