Removing Paint from Metal Window Frames

Previous owners of my house painted over some window frames (and not others). I am wondering if I can remove the paint they have applied to go back to the original layer (they probably just painted over at same time as walls). How should I go about removing the paint I.e which chemicals to use. They are metal windows

Comments

  • +22

    How to install or uninstall Microsoft Paint

    Seriously, fix up your title.

    • +2

      Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.

    • I came here to post the same but in my heart I knew it had already been done.

    • Updated title to avoid confusion.

  • How would a metal window work?

    Window
    noun
    an opening in the wall or roof of a building or vehicle, fitted with glass in a frame to admit light or air and allow people to see out.

    Metal
    noun
    a solid material which is typically hard, shiny, malleable, fusible, and ductile, with good electrical and thermal conductivity (e.g. iron, gold, silver, and aluminium, and alloys such as steel).

    • +5

      You've never lived in the Western suburbs?

  • I would suggest chemical but it's going to be a PITA. Probably easier to paint them all to match.

    If you remove it mechanically, which would likely be the quickest method, you're also likely to end up with a different finish on the metal (aluminium probably) than the ones you don't.

    Doing it chemically is going to be much slower and tedious but has the best chance of not effecting the metal so they all look the same in the end. Try metho first. Soak a rag and hold it against the paint for 30 seconds then rub and see what if anything comes off. If it's water based paint that should work. Obviously be careful not to get it on surrounding paint work. You'll need a lot of rags and even more time and patience.

    TBH if it's not water based I wouldn't recommend trying to remove it as you'll need to step up to harsher chemicals which introduce their own problems.

    Really, just paint them all to match if it really bothers you. It's likely to be what you end up doing after attempting to remove the fist one anyway.

  • Why remove it?

    You'll probably never get it back to wood grain (paint seeps in)

    What you can do is sand it back, paint it with the same colour as your door frames / archetrays (usually a slightly darker colour than the walls) which will give you the look / feel that a new house has

  • Paint stripper and a scraper and lots of elbow grease.

    probably easier to paint the other windows if the job isn't too bad.

    NB: It's easy to remove the sliding frame rather than try to strip insitu.

  • +1

    Paint stripper is what you need. It will remove everything back to aluminium. Read the instructions and be careful as it's very messy. It's also quite dangerous.

  • As has been said - you need a paint stripper, however, if there is no gap between the window frame and surrounds it is very difficult to mask off the protected area, no matter what you do, paint stripper will seep under tape.
    If you have a slight gap between the metal frame and surrounded painter area you have a fighting chance.

  • I am wondering if I can remove the paint they have applied to go back to the original layer

    Unlikely

  • Heat gun and scraper might work.

  • yep. heat gun and scrape it, if its not RIGHT next to the glass. u can also get a paint scraper, it has a thick replaceable blade in it. takes off old paint very quick.
    but im 99.5% Shure that repainting it would be a hell of alot easier.

  • Thanks all

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