Drive entrance gates

[breen77]

My dad got me a set of drive gates which I got extended to fit the entrance to my house.

I have spent a few hours using nitromors and a heat gun stripping several layers of paint of them. I am at the point of painting them and hope to apply hammerite direct to rust black paint with hammerite gold for the detail.

Should I apply an undercoat first? If so how long do I need to leave the undercoat before applying to finishing paint?

 

[dcdec]

Do yourself a favour after all the hard work stripping the gates dont use hammerite, its gloopy horrible stuff and the finish is poor and it doesn't do half of what it claims to

Neautralise the nitromors with sugar soap solution, wash of thoroughly and dry with an old towel or something (because its metal), degrease with brush cleaner, prime with metal primer, u/c and gloss. Make sure to use the suitable shade of u/c to gloss ie dark grey for black. It is a lot of work but worth it and you'll be re-painting in no time at all if you use hammerite

 

[joe-90]

Hammerite has a pi$$-poor reputation for such things. Better doing it the standard way (Primer /undercoat/ topcoat.)

 

[TheDec]

One of the best options here would be after prep apply one coat of zinc phospate primer followed by two coats of gloss, Dulux Trade Metalshield would be ideal for this application.

Dec

 

[breen77]

The gates are dry at the moment I applied the nitromors a few weeks ago do I still need to neutralise the gates? If so do I just mix soap and water?

Also can you recommend a primer, undercoat and black and gold gloss products. My gates are approx 6 ft wide each and start from 4ft and rise to 5ft in the centre how many ltrs of products would I need?

Thanks for the quick response.

 

[dcdec]

Good shout from thedec, you can get quick drying ZP, personally i'd go with an u/c and top coat but coverage can be a bit dodgy sometimes so two top coats would give a solid finish, i just worry about adhesion and slow drying re-coat times.

Exterior paints can be very slow drying these days its best to check with the manufacturers, dulux weathershield is ok, sikkens onol primer and XD gloss is better but pricey and has minimum 24hrs between coats.
Best to wash away any residue with sugarsoap as a nasty reaction can occur between it and paint. Yep just mix with water. Show us a pic when you're done!

 

[breen77]

I have just reserved this product in B&Q Dulux Weathershield Paint Exterior Gloss Black 2.5L, is this ok to use?

 

[TheDec]

Yes that's fine.

Dec

 

[breen77]

Should have took pics from start to finish but will post one when gates are completed.

So basically wash gates down with soap, sugar and water then dry off, apply a zinc undercoat and finish with two coats of black gloss and two coats of gold in the detail?

 

[joe-90]

You won't get through anywhere near 2.5 litres - or even .5 of a litre.

 

[breen77]

Had a look at primers and undercoat paint in B&Q but the hammerite paint I got says it includes primer and undercoat and there is no need for them

 

[joe-90]

Well you can ignore that for a start. Why ask if you are going to ignore all the advice you are given?

 

[breen77]

I am going to apply the zinc phosphate then undercoat then 2 coats of gloss.

I want to do it right so the gates look well when finished.

Can you advise what products to buy and would 2.5 ltrs do for each of the three products?

 

[cajar]

Sugar soap is not sugar, soap and water.

 

[nickdsjnk]

zinc phosphate is a great primer for clean bare steel. It provides a great bond to the metal and is a good base for subsequent coatings. It is not so good on rusty pitted steel, in thise case I would be happier using zinc rich or similar. Two part epoxy based primers dry harder, and stick better, but might be OTT for garden gates

I would only use an undercoat on steel if I need an extra barrier coat to prevent rust, or if I want a high build coat which I can sand flat to give to the top coat a better appearance. Dulux gloss is fairly thin so you would benefit from an undercoat in this case, but there are plenty of topcoats which wont need an undercoat. Combicolour makes a very good alternative to hammerite; it goes on nicely, provides good coverage, and is fairly weather resistant, and it wont need an undercoat.

For steel constantly exposed, you get extra life out of your coatings putting a MIO barrier coat between the primer and top coat. It is about the most waterproof coating out there and is used by the highways agency on all new structural steelwork.