Painting rusty bathroom radiator

In our last house I removed the bathroom radiator, cleaned it down to bare metal with a cup brush in an angle grinder, then a coat of metal primer, coat of undercoat, coat of gloss. It was still fine 20 years later. I don't recall buying anything special in the way of paint.

In my previous flat I used radiator enamel that you painted on, turned up the boiler temperature to maximum. opened all the windows and vacated the premises quickly. Worked extremely well but I suspect it is banned now.

any suitable for steel. IME they're all equally iffy except epoxy. The original finish is hopefully a powder coat, far better than paint.

I've seen vinegar used

again any solvent based metal paint would work. But you'll likely see rust spots reappear after a while.

If you want a thorough job, spray with epoxy, pickle & zinc dip or get new.

NT

imho that radiator is close to failing. I'd replace it

Can you buy Red Oxide? I thought it was out due to lead content. Engenamal is used, but I think that has to be stoved on. I found that on an electtric oil filled radiator whatever sort of paint you use is a terrible smell for weeks, and even with metal primer eventually comes off, which begs the question what do they use when they are new? Brian

I don't know what you should use but don't use one coat gloss, I have used all kinds of paints on radiators with no problems but one coat gloss yellowed almost immediately.

Brendan.

You can buy lots of primer paints that call themselves Red Oxide but they will not contain much if any lead. It is still possible to purchase the old style Red Lead from very specialised suppliers such as one that supplies materials for people restoring old boats. Currently a 2.5litre tin costs £120.

G.Harman

I expect one could diy it for much less.

NT

Yes you can buy Red Oxide, its very popular with engineering firms who use it as a metal primer. But there's no lead in it any more.

Wiki: ===== The lead-based pigments (lead tetroxide/calcium plumbate, or "red lead") were widely used as an anti-corrosive primer coating over exterior steelwork. This type of paint might have been applied to garden gates and railings, guttering and downpipes and other external iron and steel work.

Similar red lead-based compounds were also widely used as a jointing compound in engineering, to form steam- or oil-tight flanged joints in pipework.

Red lead in paint was not banned by the 1992 legislation[4] or by more recent EU REACH regulations[5] and the SPAB confirm it is technically available in the UK without special licence.[6] In practice however it has been replaced by safer alternatives (such as red oxide[7]) by most UK/EU paint suppliers; and indeed of those that still supply it, some mistakenly assume it is covered by the 1992 regulations and request approval from a 'competent body' before purchase. ====================================================================== Red lead and red oxide paint are not the same

PS the best primer for rusty steel is chromic acid that turns rust into stable iron chromate, which takes paint really well.

There never was, That was red lead primer.