My wife and I want to restore old General Electric Metal Kitchen Cabinets (just like the ones you saw on I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver - the original color inside is Pepto-Bismol pink - yuck!) Anyway, we're re-doing our kitchen and want to incorporate the old cabinets into our new setting - the cabinets are over 50 years old and have at least a couple of coats of paint on them already (white glossy oil based, I think). We want to make them a nice white again, but am afraid to proceed - the old coats were poorly added and you can see the brush marks and many of the imperfections - we're thinking we need to spray them, but am not sure - can someone walk us through removal of old paint, restoration, and repainting???

 

An easy way without harming the metal:

1. use a heatgun to remove the paint. Take you time. You can use a heavy bristle brush to brush away the 'curls'- just make sure you keep the heat away from the brush

2. dismantle the cabinet

3. lightly sand the piece so it will hold paint- use the finest grain sandpaper

4. Spray painting is best for metal- I would use one that has a rust preventative in it. Or you can apply paint with a sponge brush as it will not show your brush marks.

Ihope this helps.

 

Spitty, you might want to be careful removing paint that old. I'd say that there is a good possibility that there is lead in it. If I'm not mistaken I believe that it is not recommended that you use a heat gun on such paint. Just to be safe, you might consider buying one of the little test kits that you see at the homestores, they're quite inexpensive.

 

Lead is a problem only if you begin to sand the painted surface. - with a heat gun you don't have that problem. I should have said to sand on only bare metal so paint will adheare properly.

But a test kit is a good idea because if lead does turn up in the paint then it would need to be disposed of properly. I never thought of that. Thank you.

 

You can easily do your job using the PEEL AWAY 7. It will do the removal in one application and the metal will be redy for re finishing in any manner you select. Visit the web site at www.dumondchemicals.com for more info

 

You might want to hold off your painting project:
Your kitchen cabinets could be worth a fortune to an interior designer or collectors. The retro '50s "I Love Lucy" look is the newest rage, and I know those pink cabinets are in big demand and very rare---even with the exterior repainted I'm sure you could find an eager buyer---especially if the hardware etc. is still original. Who knows? You might be able to afford a set of new cabinets!
Good luck!
RJ