Old metal garden furniture has usually been repainted more than once, and if you don’t like the primitive country look, you’ll have to repaint it. This is a good project for DIYers who like to save money and enjoy taking something old and making it look new.

If you’ve never restored an antique porch glider, it’s a lot of fun. I’ll tell you some of the things I tried and didn’t like and some of the things that worked for me.

Here is my disclaimer: this is information on how to refinish a patio glider. You are responsible for your own safety. Wear safety equipment.

In order for the vintage glider to look its best, all of the old paint has to come off the metal. First I tried paint stripper, but it would just stick the paint and make a big mess, so I moved on to something else very quickly. To start I use a four inch grinder with coarse sandpaper. You go over the entire glider, but be careful not to put too much pressure on the grinder, especially at the bottom of the seat towards where your feet rest. That’s the first spot that rusts on these old gliders and if you’re not careful you’ll put a hole in it.

Coarse sandpaper removes most of the paint, but in the corners of the design, like the Pie Crust design, some paint remains that needs to be removed. They make a sanding wheel that looks like a flat Brillo pad that fits on the 4″ sander and works well for removing paint from corners.

After all the paint is removed, wipe the dust off the glider with a little mineral spirits.

Now you are ready to paint your paraglider. I like to paint the gliders I’m working on in two tones. I’ll get about 10 cans of gray primer spray paint, about 10 cans of colored spray paint, about 5 cans of white paint, and about 4 cans of clear paint and a couple rolls of masking tape.

First I paint the entire glider with the primer and let it dry for about an hour, then I mask off the white areas on the bench and then spray the color. I remove the masking tape as soon as I finish painting (if the paint was dry when the tape was removed, the paint could chip).

After the colored paint is dry, I mask the colored paint wide enough so that it doesn’t get sprayed with white on top of the colored paint. As soon as I’m done with the white paint, I remove the masking tape and spray the clear coat. I usually put on about three coats of clear coat for that deep look.

Well that’s it! After a couple of hours, you have a nice outdoor piece of furniture.