Weekend Project

The paint has been peeling from our cheap little cast aluminum table and matching pair of chairs for a few years now so I decided it was time to fix them.

Armed with a steel brush, paint scraper and screwdriver, I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons trying to get rid of all the loose paint.  As often happens with home improvement projects, it was a lot more work than I had anticipated. Some of the paint flaked off in huge chunks, leaving behind a powdery substance. With enough scrubbing, the surfaces were finally ready for washing.

Mark tried to convince me to leave them as is--when wet, the surface looked like zinc.  As they dried, they began to look like aluminum again and still had quite a bit of their old paint firmly adhered despite our using paint stripper and sandpaper.

The weather was perfect for painting and the primer dried quickly. Mark helped me with the spray paint. He's not convinced the price of the paint is worth it--the old paint that seems fine now may continue to peel under the new paint.  We'll have to wait and see what happens...

The "antique brass" spray paint I selected looks a little more gold in color than I expected but I think it will be OK.  After two light coats, the set needs one more coat to be finished.  We ran out of spray paint and this week's weather looks unsettled, so I think this project will get finished on Saturday! I'll let you know how it turns out.