Painting old Target metal stand… advice?

I've got an Origin Live Basic TT stand with a plant on it. That's repurposing you're just giving it a face lift but the purpose it what it's designed for. 

If the finish matters consider spraying it after a suitable rub down but a few brush marks probably won't be noticed once you have the turntable in place, you're planning to paint that I suppose.

I'm guessing that it's probably been powder coated from new, which will make painting it a bit tricky as the texture will be like nylon or plastic making it difficult to adhere to. My suggestion would be to find a local fabricator/paint shop as they will often have powder coating facilities. They will shot or bead blast the old paint and then powder coat it to look like new. It's not as expensive as it sounds. Probably around £10-£15?

I would definitely recommend powder coating. If you find a local firm to do this they should also be able to strip it by sand blasting which will ensure it starts with a clean surface. However, I'd be very surprised if you could find a direct colour match for Farrow and Ball colours. That said, I recently had our weather vane powder coated and saw a garden seat there which had been finished in a F&B type pale green/grey. 

I think you'll be fine with giving it a paint job, as long as you clean all surfaces and key them with a suitable abrasive. I find synthetic wire wool (Scotchbrite or similar) very effective for this. If you're looking for a traditional paint colour, I find Little Greene paints very good for this sort of use, and I prefer them to F&B for use on wood and metal.

As others have said, it depends on the existing surface.  If this is a hard coating (i.e one that can be chipped), or it's slightly softer (such as a solvent based paint), then sandblasting is the best preparation.  If it's a dipped plastic coating on the steel then that's a difficult job to remove: Soaking it in 'Diesel' oil for a few weeks may make it possible to remove most of the coating by scraping it off before sand blasting.

In terms of re-coating it, then you have two main choices...

The first is powder coat, very effective, but you'll only have a limited range of colours.

The second if paint spray; for this you'll probably need at least four coats.  A bare metal primer, a second primer that's compatible with your topcoat (also serving as an undercoat) and lastly two coats of your coloured topcoat.

I have a Target TT1, which I no longer use. It rings like a bell when tapped. I thought about painting it with rubber paint, to dry and damp it a bit.

On a humorous note, how about Hammerite, just slap it on, one coat. Red looked good on an old Tandem I used to own, people were always asking how I got that finish!

Hammerite would be a good finish to use, but it only comes in a limited range of colours, which are very different to F&B colours.

ChrisSU posted:

Hammerite would be a good finish to use, but it only comes in a limited range of colours, which are very different to F&B colours.

Certainly  different, but very retro though!

If you want to diy it try the spray paint from plastidip. 

S.

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Thanks for the suggestions, I think I’ll give it a go with the wire wool and paint option first and see how it looks. I can always go down the sandblast and powder coat route if that doesn’t work out.

Thanks, Simon