Lacquer / clear coat recs for 1930's Coop metal window and door frames?

Hi, I’d like to strip & clear coat the metal window and door frames in our 1930’s coop apt. Does anyone have advice or recommendations for a good lacquer or other product? Thanks in advance!

Ian

jalexa1218

in General Discussion 1 year and 8 months ago

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justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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i meant to say i do not know anything about any clear coats that go on metal in my reply above. i finish a lot of metal and even restored and painted a car in the mid ’80’s with the help of my high school shop teacher/auto restoration person.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Thirelian: vard means the work in stripping these. I did not go down this road with you because you only asked about the finishes. If you look down a few posts you will find one titled “Paint Stripping Pros Recommendations”. I replied at length there about the challenges stripping these things inside a buildings including problems with 1930’s paint.

in so far as what everyone has said about these products (starting with me mentioning the rustoleum clear coat and on to NYC sport suggesting automotive products and then someone saying that they are made go over finished product and then you and i tossing wax around) – i am a professional finisher and know a lot about certain clear coats but not about anything that goes on metal. Your job now is to take all of these products that all of us mention and make a list and read about each of them and then call the manufacturer’s technical support department and put questions about UV protection, pre treating steel before applying (acid wash?), issues or limitations etc and eventually you will find a suitable product. Some of these may be out because of flammability or spraying out of quart spray guns. (the reason I went right to rustoleum is because it is homeownerish and that means easy to apply). You have to know the questions to ask and you will learn them by reading about competing product or reading on line about people who have had issues with product (us contractors go to someone we know who had done a lot of this but the only person i know died this past spring).

I will throw this at you: Mohawk makes a Brass Lacquer but eventually that lacquer fails outside (UV). Baldwin Hardware lacquer coats their locksets and their lacquer does not fail. if i were doing something like this for a paying customer, i would want to find out where baldwin gets there lacquer and i would read about it.

If i did not have a lot on my plate, i could sit at home and read the data sheets on all of these and make sense of them and name one i think would be the best.

FYI: i recently ran a wood finishing class and am now planning a wood (or metal) stripping class. People have been emailing me about this class and we have the numbers to do the class but i have spread myself a little thin and am not sure when i can do it. it might be something that might interest you. if you have questions about stripping product try me here but know i work with either lye or methylene chloride (which consumers can not get anymore). i have also used citrus stripper and sometimes use heat.

jalexa1218 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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vardi01 Thanks for the advice & warning. When you say you wouldn’t want to do it again, do you mean
because of the work involved or because the finish didn’t last? What did you use?

hasibur.rahman07 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Sand them and then spray or brush with an enamel paint like Rustoleum. I wouldn’t bother with stripping. I did that and don’t want to do it again.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Op, fyi, years ago, men would talk about using wax to protect tools and things like table saw beds. Was quite common. So worth exploring.

barbykerrigan | 1 year and 8 months ago

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We would use permalac matte. Automotive clearcoat is intended to be sprayed on top of a pigmented base coat. This application requires DTS (direct to substrate).

barbykerrigan | 1 year and 8 months ago

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We would use permalac matte. Automotive clearcoat is intended to be sprayed on top of a pigmented base coat. This application requires DTS (direct to substrate).

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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So i was thinking about hard wax period but in truth, i never put this on raw metal so i held back. Sports’ automotive ideas are probably better but some products may not be avaiable in consumer applications – they will have to be bought in quarts or gallons and sprayed with a compressor. Spraying indoors with neighbors can be a problem and if it is flammable, forget it.

Wax might adhere better on a smooth surface than some other products. I think. It remains softer which helps. I think.

They have that bluish patina. Mild steel comes this way from the mill. They are easy to drill and weld, so yes, mild. (Carbon steel will be yellowish or brown). I do not know how long you can leave them raw b4 they rust but slower than carbon steel. Btw, if you have to sand them, gun blue will recreate that patina. You just have to clean them with an etch acid b4 bluing.

They may offer fire proofing and so were installed.

jalexa1218 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Just guessing that these are made of mild steel… no idea really. I assume given the era and type of building, prefab metal frames were chosen as a cheaper alternative to wood.

jalexa1218 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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Thanks HomeInspector & nyc_sport for the advice- very helpful. No joke about the work! We’ve stripped a few frames so far.. I hope we can hit a stride. I’d really like to preserve what I assume is patina on what I think is mild steel. I’m concerned that a pickle or sanding will remove the nice dark patina, also aware that the lacquer may not age well, especially on window frames. But this does seem to be something people do; I see the service advertised & have seen apt. listings with similar raw door & window frames. POR15 mentions sealing in the patina which is nice. I found products by Nyalic & Industrial Metal Supply. What about metal wax??

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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the 1930’s paints are pretty hard to deal with and i just did some doors and had to use heat on the last two coats. 1930’s paints are more difficult to deal with than older paints and most newer.

nyc_sport | 1 year and 8 months ago

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This will be a lot of work, especially with layers of paint on that vintage steel, and not sure you will be happy with it in the end. The clearcoat will yellow eventually, especially if exposed to sun, and it sometimes will drive you crazy and detach from the bare metal surface. You need to meticulously prepare the metal, be sure to remove oils or dirt, and having some roughness (i.e., hit with a mildly coarse sandpaper) will aid adhesion. I suggest you use an automotive clearcoat, like POR15 or Eastwood Diamond Clear. Not cheap.

Spin around the Eastwood website, there are some paints in the “under hood” section, like detail gray or stainless, that might approximate the look, with a lot less headache. You can find posts on the internet about replicating bare metal look on old hot rods using multiple layers of paint that seems way to complicated for your purpose.

justinromeu26 | 1 year and 8 months ago

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I have thought about using metal blue or metal black on these and then clear coating. Abbot paint has pickles for metal. They may have clear coats as well. If this were me and i wanted a quick product to get locally, i would use rustoleum clear coat.

Mohawk makes a lacquer for brass but i have never been too happy with it.