Saturday, May 10, 2008

Repairing a Metal Firepit

A few years ago, we acquired this lovely firepit:
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Sadly, as you can see, though we left it covered, it has rusted.

Close up of the rust:
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I am not one to let something ruin through neglect, so I sanded down the firepit and used a can of Rustoleum fireplace paint to return it to its former rust-free glory. I found that my dremel with a sanding drum attachment made the best rust remover...

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Careful back and forth motions with the spray paint will prevent drips... and placing newspaper underneath helps your driveway.

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No more rust! I think we are ready for summer.

10 comments:

Allie said...

Wow! It looks great! I did that with a pair of patio chairs a few years ago.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you posted this. Our firepit (which we've neglected to cover) has a LOT of rust. I recently heard about a chemical rust remover (I can't remember the name) that we were going to try. Do you know if the Rustoleum Grill Paint prevents rust from occurring again?

Jennifer said...

Fred~
I think paint in general will keep it from rusting, since rust happens only on bare metal? Kind of like a car, is what I'm thinking.

I'm guessing that if I just repaint it every spring and/or fall, I won't have a problem with rust again. :)

Good luck... it wasn't too hard with an electric sanding tool to remove the rust... I haven't heard of a chemical rust remover before.

Jill -Forever and Ever House said...

Nice!!! Don't you just love that High Heat paint??? It worked wonders on our formerly brass-ish turned black fireplace surround. The only thing that I didn't like was how toxic it smelled. Yes, we sprayed out side but the smell was unbelievable!!

Anyway, your firepit looks just fab!

pedalpower said...

Looks great!!

Julia @ Hooked on Houses said...

My fire pit is rusty, too, and needs to be repainted. I don't suppose you'd like to do it for me? You did such a good job here with yours! ;-)

I enjoyed finding your site today. Thanks! -Julia

Chile said...

The high heat paint is great for repainting the inside of my solar oven, too. :)

Crunch said...

We have a brand new firepit that was left outside uncovered for 1 night and unfortunately, the interior is very rusty. Has anyone painted the interior of their firepit? How was the smell afterwards

Jennifer said...

Crunch~ We painted the inside of our firepit... we haven't used it yet, though. It LOOKS great! My hint for getting the rust off of the inside is a Dremel with sandpaper attachment.

Laura said...

Thank you so much for your post! It was exactly what I was looking for and we happen to have the exact same fire pit. Thanks, again!