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Painting Metal Shutters

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Francois Morel
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:35 am
Location: Paris, France
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Painting Metal Shutters

Post by Francois Morel »

Hi,
I would like to know if there is a better way to paint on a metal shutter (shop).
It's brand new and I was about to sand it and apply a paint for metal, then paint my logo using one shot paint.
Do I need to lay a kind of primer on it before or is there another way to do the job?

Thank you for your help.
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Lee Littlewood
Posts: 228
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:36 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Painting Metal Shutters

Post by Lee Littlewood »

Umm, is it bare metal now? Steel or aluminum?

On bare metal you do want to get rid of any rust or grease and then prime it with the right primer for the metal - a galvanizing primer for steel, an aluminum primer or prep-coat for aluminum. Then you can coat with whatever kind of paint you like - 1Shot, or lacquer, or waterbased. Your final lettering color should stick to most paints once they are dry.

If the shutters are already coated, then you can probably just do a light sanding (or steel wool) to get a receptive surface and then paint. See above.

I am imagining "shutters" to be frames holding horizontal slats (what we use for covering windows) - a very bumpy surface. i would probably try to coat them with spray paint. And maybe even try to use some masking material and a spray can for your logo design - if you have the background color you can use a brush to touch up some of the leaks in the masking. Any kind of bumpy surface is tedious with a brush, and it can interfere with legibility.

(do shops really use shutters in Paris? For windstorms or riots or theft-control?)
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Francois Morel
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:35 am
Location: Paris, France
Contact:

Re: Painting Metal Shutters

Post by Francois Morel »

Hey Lee
Thanx for your advises.
Well, the shutter is brand new and galvanized if I'm not wrong.
It's flat except between "slats" and yes I did a color test with a brush and obviously it's ugly.
As roller won't go between slats, I choosed spraycans...
So it seems we had the same idea :)
I still want to have some fun, so I will paint the logo with a brush on the sprayed background...
I guess it will be ok.

It's a quite simple thing...
I'll post a pict.

thnx again

ps: not because of riots but because of thieves and to protect windows and "weak" doors I guess.
Paris is not a jungle, do not trust tv :)
♫ A B C
It's easy as, 1 2 3
As simple as, do re mi ♫
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