This Los Angeles wrought iron gate had the typical story — original decorative gate from the house build, decades of sun, chipped and dull paint, surface rust bleeding through at the welds. The owner didn’t want a replacement; they wanted the same gate back to showroom finish, but in a bold royal blue that would read against the yellow stucco and brick post.

Why repaint instead of replace

Decorative wrought iron gates like this — hand-knotted square pickets, top row with cut circle motif, welded frame — are custom pieces that are expensive to replicate. If the frame and welds are solid and the pickets aren’t cracked, a full prep-and-repaint gets you another decade of life for a fraction of a replacement cost.

Prep: the whole job lives here

Paint only sticks to what’s under it. We wire-brushed and sanded the entire gate — frame, both faces of every picket, every knot detail — down to clean metal in the chipped and rusted areas and roughed up the rest for grip. All loose scale came off. Any pitted rust got spot treatment. Then everything was wiped down with a solvent to pull off dust and oils before primer.

Rust-blocking primer

Metal gates in LA sun need a direct-to-metal primer that bonds to iron and seals off future rust. We applied a rust-inhibiting primer to the whole gate as the base coat — not just the rusted spots. Skipping primer, or spot-priming only the obvious rust, is the single most common reason a repainted metal gate fails inside a year.

Finish color with an HVLP gun

The royal blue went on with an HVLP cup gun — the only reliable way to get even coverage across the knotted pickets, inside the circle cutouts, and all the way around every bar without brush marks or runs. Two full coats, let flash off between. HVLP gives a factory-level finish on complex ironwork that brushing simply can’t match.

The result

Finished gate reads like a brand-new fabrication. The blue is deep and uniform across every element — pickets, knots, frame, circles — and the whole piece pops against the yellow stucco. With rust-blocking primer under the color coat, the finish should hold up for years in LA sun.

Project summary

• Scope: full wrought iron gate repaint — strip, prep, prime, two-coat finish
• Prep: wire brush and sand to clean metal, solvent wipe before primer
• Primer: rust-blocking direct-to-metal primer across the entire gate
• Finish: royal blue, HVLP spray application, two coats

Wrought iron gate, railing, or decorative metalwork that’s lost its finish? Get in touch — we strip, prime, and spray-finish on site.