Yeah, I know. You'd have to be daft to kill a summer weekend painting a radiator while the rest of America is tapping a cold keg and grilling burgers. It's not so crazy though. One hot afternoon in July a gang of bored kids will storm into the house -they are your kids but who would know because they are sun burned and unrecognizable behind a mask of poison ivy. There you'll be, painting your radiator as cool as gelato wailing like Van Halen with the headphones on and a bottle of Belgian beer. Who would have thought?
Radiators need to be painted when they are cool. Having the heat come on while the paint is fresh effects curing and adhesion so it's best to paint them in warm weather.
If the existing paint is peeling then get some 60 grit sand paper and sand the peeling area until they are feathered and smooth. You will most likely sand through to the metal in some places so these spots will need to be primed with oil based primer before you put on your finish paint. Any high quality paint will work on radiators. If the paint that you are painting over is oil based then it is best to stick with oil for your finish coat. Radiators that have a hundred years worth of paint coats piled onto them and that are flaking badly should be stripped. I don't say that lightly because it is a job that would piss off a swami. Get eight or nine strong friends to carry the beast outside and take a small torch to it. Wear a respirator.
Better than that though would be to hire your laid off carpenter buddy to build you a radiator cover. Then you'll be right back where we started- happily painting a radiator cover while everyone else is scorched dungeness red at the beach while picking beer caps and syringes out of their feet. It doesn't
get better than that.
Have fun painting.
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