Repainting a Black Pedal

[pcmancini]

Hi, I did a quick search and did not find anything on this but please feel free to direct me if this has already been discussed.

I have a Black Pedal, fully functional and except for the paint it is in great mechanical shape.  What is the preferred way to repaint it so it looks "as new"?  Specific paint (and stripping) product suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[Rob A]

I'd brush it with a wire brush, prime with a self-etching metal primer, and spray it with a rattlecan of the same brand as the primer. I like and use Duplicolor.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/selfEtchingPrimer/

Aluminum is kind of a bear to spray paint, hence the specific primer recommendation.

[bumpyrhode]

Zinc chromate is the preferred primer for aluminum.

I have a pedal I thought about refreshing too. I seem to
remember that I saw a spray paint that had a similar textured
finish but don't recall where I saw it. If you want a finish that
will last get it powder coated. Should be around $25.00 if you
remove the original black first.

[pcola_rhodes]

Good question, I've been considereing restoring my pedal as well.

[jazzorgan]

Me too.  Have any of you gone ahead and done this repainting?  If so, share your experience and tips?

Not sure which of these primer / paint products are easily acquired here in the UK.

This is my first post by the way.  This forum is great. I just picked up a lovely Stage 73 at a bargain price. It's going to be a long term project for me to restore her to full glory, both playing and aesthetically. 

[Ben Bove]

I'd definitely make sure the old paint is stripped entirely, if you're going through the effort I believe the paint was pretty thick and you'd feel / see the outlines of the old chipmarks

[stevie keyz]

I am trying to do the opposite. Im getting a black pedal that is very worn out, but want it to be silver in color ( I prefer the look, and its appropriate for the year of piano)

What should I do to achieve the original silver look? I have some spray on stripper in the garage I think
Im guessing take it all apart, spray the stripper on the pedal, scrape off the thick paint (hopefully its that easy) and then sand paper up the grits? but how polished?

anything Im missing?

[sean]

The silver color pedals were a slightly different shape than the black pedals.
See https://ep-forum.com/smf/index.php?topic=5575.msg27566#msg27566

I swear that I have a photo of the two pedal styles sitting next to each other, but I can't find it.

Anyway, I would not be excited about the chemical strippers, but there are strippers specially-made for aluminum.  Airplanes get stripped for repainting.
I wonder how badly a sandblaster would damage the surface.  There is also the boiling water trick to remove paint.

If you sand the pedal, make sure that you use sandpaper that has never touched steel or iron.  Bits of iron will get lodged in the aluminum, and it looks dull and ugly.  You will probably get some amount of sandpaper grit lodged in the aluminum as well. 

The cast aluminum pedal will probably shine up really nicely with blue polishing rouge and a cotton buffing wheel.  It won't be a perfect mirror finish, but it will look great underfoot.

Sean

[stevie keyz]

great tips thanks! I guess my biggest worry is that there are areas of the finish where the aluminum has been exposed probably for a while, and when the paint is stripped, the result will look mottled unless its all made uniform through sanding or polishing somehow

[stevie keyz]

now that I actually received the piece, I decided for now just to clean it up and leave it as is. interestingly some of the edges were really flaky and had some white oxidation. After cleaning that all off and brightening up/polishing the metal of the foot part it actually looks really great.

I really like the "natural relic" look on guitars, so why not on my piano parts. It fits with the esthetic of the rest of the piano as well as there is alot of pitting to the chrome hardware and such