Revitalizing Old Cast Iron Radiators

Rusty, dusty and filled with cobwebs, the cast iron radiators in our 1890’s Brooklyn townhouse were just plain disgusting to look at. Here’s how we cleaned them up and made them fit with our new modern décor. 

During our gut renovation, the guys we hired to do the demo took our radiators out into the backyard where they sat for a few months and got even dirtier and dustier.  As you can see it wasn't pretty.  While we could have taken the time to take the radiators completely apart, we opted to do things a faster and simpler way with almost as good of results. 

First we vacuumed out the between the fins with crevice tool and then used compressed air to get to those hard to reach places.  They we used a few different size and grit wire brushes, most of which could be hooked up to a drill, to get the rust off.  We started with the coarsest brush and went back with a more fine brush towards the end.  We also used a few long handheld brushes to get into the crevices. 

Once fully cleaned and de-rusted, we used Rustoleum's Rusty Metal primer to completely prime every surface of the radiator we could get to.  We used various sized paint brushed to get as far into the crevices as possible. 

After allowing the radiators to dry overnight, we used the spray can version of Rustoleum's Hammered Silver to get into the crevices and a can of the same paint to treat the more visible surfaced.  This is a great textured paint that is very forgiving with uneven surfaces and missed spots.  The hammered paint is also available in many other metallic colors based on your preference.