The Historic District

As I've been taking off the shelving paper that was covering the front of the steel undersink cabinet in the kitchen, there is some surface rust--some where you might expect because it's the splash zone from the sink, but others in unexpected places.


Inside the drawers, though, is sometimes worse depending on the drawer, and given where it is, it's like something was spilled in the drawer and not cleaned out. This one is the worst by far. The lino you can see in the image was put in the bays, and the entire inside had been done over with the shelving paper, which caused quite a bit of the rust flaking bits to come out when I removed it.


Right now we cannot afford to remove the cabinet and send it off to have the coating professionally restored. So I am thinking about sanding, naval jelly treating and spray painting for the time being.

My thinking on this is that when we can afford to send it off, they will likely sandblast it anyhoo. So it should be ok to spray paint for the short term, right?

Your , please.

I'd definitely spray those. Sand the bejeezum out of the rust areas, at least 'scuff sand' the smooth portions. Final sand it all with something pretty fine (progressively finer grits), you don't want to see the sanding lines in the finish. Clean well with denatured alcohol or something like that (wear gloves...). If you can get it outside, use a palm sander.

Use a primer for rusty metal (probably an oil primer for metal, or an XO Rust spray, something like that), and then apply many light top coats. You might like the results sufficiently to not want to send them out later

I agree with Gibson. You can do a job you'll be happy with. Skip the naval jelly and don't skimp on the oil primer.

Consider painting the insides of the drawers and cabinets an interesting color.

Try Ospho for the rust.

Maybe use a wire cup brush and/or fine grit flap wheel attachment in a drill?

Sand the rusted areas well (along with the whole cabinet to give it a "tooth" for the new paint to adhere to). Prime it all with a good quality automotive filler primer. If there are any pits or low spots visible on the exterior after the priming, use glazing putty to fill them. After the glazing putty has cured, sand those areas smooth and wipe the whole thing down. Paint it with a couple of good coats of Rust-Oleum or an automotive spray enamel.

For sanding, start with a coarse grit (60 or so) and work your way up through finer grits, up to 600. If you want to use a clear coat, which isn't necessary, sand the whole finished product with 2000 grit and then spray on the clear coat.

It will look a thousand times better, trust me!

Thanks for all the advice! I'm glad folks are supportive of the spray paint, and yes, I was planning on the lighter spray layers. We're still thinking about possibly hand painting some deco key limes and tiger lilies, but I think at worst we may just carry those colors over to the inside of the cabinetry. I'm more likely, I think, to maybe do a few detail deco lines on the doors and across the front wrap under the sink, inspired by this image below although obviously our center front is a different layout.


I will look into the Ospho, but I already have some jelly for the swing we picked up. I'd really be only using that sparingly in some of the worst parts if I'd pretty much have to sand an area too thin.

We are debating if it will be best to try to remove the under cabinet or just the drawers. Since it's between the two counters, it might be best to take it out even if only to make sure there isn't more rust we don't know about. The base under the sink area is the typical large hole with wire supports for a shelf anchored to narrow side panels, so it might not be too terribly difficult to get it out around the plumbing. Time will tell.

The auto primer-filler idea was a stroke of genius (who was that?) because rust will pit the surface and the paint will smooth it out.

Lily, those 'knob discs' are available from online hardware places - don't ask me what they're called. I like the Deco idea - and where you're going with this. Just give the insides a refreshing color - you'll be glad you did and when others use your kitchen they'll have a pleasant "a-HA" surprise. Tip: paint the sides of the drawers the same color as the fronts.

Manalto wrote:The auto primer-filler idea was a stroke of genius (who was that?) because rust will pit the surface and the paint will smooth it out.

Lily, those 'knob discs' are available from online hardware places - don't ask me what they're called. I like the Deco idea - and where you're going with this. Just give the insides a refreshing color - you'll be glad you did and when others use your kitchen they'll have a pleasant "a-HA" surprise. Tip: paint the sides of the drawers the same color as the fronts.

We have the original bakelite handles, and although the pentagon shape (when looked at from the side) can be a bit tricky to grab with wet hands because of their size, I don't know that we'd change them. They had been painted over at some point, but it was only a thin layer of latex which was easy to take off.

Here's a close up of one the pulls, front and side. The scratch marks were me trying to get the last bits of the latex off the bakelite. I found some suggestions online for polishing bakelite back when I was first looking for my office chair wheel base detail bakelite pieces.

Nice. Well worth keeping. Very fine sandpaper will remove the scratches. Metal polish works great on Bakelite, believe it or not. That's how I got my Victor adding machine looking good:

Victor adding machine 003 by James McInnis, on Flickr