Tips to Spray Paint Metal Surfaces

One great thing about spray painting is that unlike painting with a brush, which requires someone who is adept at it, anyone undertaking spray painting can achieve an even coverage on the surface. Here are some very useful tips, which will help you to brighten up and give a new life to your metal furniture, appliances and cabinets. Have a look...

Wear a pair of gloves, as it will prevent chemicals from coming in direct contact with your skin, which can otherwise prove to be harmful. Create the right temperature and atmosphere in the room. Clean the area of all the dust, so that it does not settle on the metal surface when it is still wet.

The room temperature should be just perfect, neither too hot and humid, nor too freezing cold. Lastly, if there are some other items lying around in the room, cover them up with newspapers, to prevent them from getting soiled with spray paint.

Next, take a strong cleaner, a clean cloth and with them, remove the grease, dust and other debris, from the surface of the metal. You can easily find such cleaners at a hardware store, otherwise most household cleaners would do the job for you too.

If the metal surface is completely devoid of all dust and grime, it will ensure a much smoother finish, once you paint it.

Apply a primer, prior to the paint. A primer is very useful in the sense that it allows paint to stick better to the surface, it prevents rust from forming on the surface and most importantly, it ensures that the paint does not peel off the surface. So, choose a quality primer and apply a coat of it on the metal surface to be painted.

For metal surfaces, there are special metal finish spray paints, so select these, instead of any other variety. Once you have the paint with you, before applying it, shake the can thoroughly, so that you get an even finish. Shake for at least two minutes, till you feel that the paint is properly mixed.

Now, hold the can about ten to twelve inches away from the metal surface and start spraying the paint all over it. Spray the paint in a sweeping motion, from one end of the metal surface to another. All the while, see to it that the distance between the can and the metal surface remains the same.

Once you reach the other end, release the spray button and again, come back to where you started from. Again, spray in a sweeping motion, from this end to the other and likewise, and cover the entire metal surface to be painted.

To get an even finish, overlap each pass by about an inch. Also, apply a thin coat initially. If you want a thick coat, wait for the first one to dry and then reapply in the same manner.

Once you are done with painting, how it turns out, depends a lot on the quality of metal finish paint that you choose. These paints are actually not metals, but dyed metallic particles, which look like metals. So, choose the one which has very small metal particles as it will give a smoother, high gloss finish to the metal surface.