How to restore wrought-iron gates?
 

Just wondering if I can restore painted wrought-iron gates to their former glory.
Any tips please?

my mother has literally scraped the paint off hers with a paint scraper and then sanded them down with sandpaper and has now given them a coat of matt black paint and they look fab it was a lot of family elbow grease mainly my son!! and patience but definitely worth it, hope this helps

Gates
 

If you can take off the gates, a great way to remove the paint is by burning with petrol, be careful sanding old gates( always wear a mask ) as the old paint may be lead based.

old gates
 

To remove old paint you need to use a paint stripper called nitromors, its a serious chemical so gloves and stuff need to be worn.

You basically just brush the stuff on and leave it for about an hour and the paint literally shrivels and loses it adhesion to the iron leaving you a nice smooth surface to paint on.

as for finishes, I swear by hammerite, its really hard wearing and you have a choice of loads of colours including mettalics.

hope this helps

jim

Hi there ( this way sounds easy not much hard work) But after all the old paint shrivels off do I need to wash the gates or do anything more with them before I put the hammerite on?
Cheers

Iron Gates
 

My dad got them dipped in Alaminum. There are certain places that do that for you and they are still in fab condition 5 years later.

Iron Gates
 

We got ours sand blasted and then they dipped them - a fabulous job - so recommended. We also got an old fire place done and they painted it in black - everyone remarks on it - best of luck

gates
 

we had our gates sandbasted to remove the paint on them as werent dipped originally when we got them made (lack of knowledge) and rust was always coming through.

We then had them dipped and are nearly a year hung again and we still never sprayed them, really like the silver look but everyone says the black finish would be much nicer.

If ur in the galway/west area I can give you the names of the two companies we used.

Hi all this is a great response!! but is it expensive getting them sandblasted. Also what do you get them dipped in?

gates
 

It was a couple of years ago, cannot remember at this stage. Sorry

gates
 

hi
my front gates were in a terrible state when we moved in last year and we didnt have the money for new ones so all i did was use a wire brush to brush of loose paint and rust and gave them a coat of hammerite paint, i gave them another coat six weeks later and a year on they still look like new..hope this helps..best of luck...