Saturday, May 10, 2008

Repairing a Metal Firepit

A few years ago, we acquired this lovely firepit:
Photobucket

Sadly, as you can see, though we left it covered, it has rusted.

Close up of the rust:
Photobucket

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...

Photobucket

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

Photobucket

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

9 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

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!