painting bronze anodised Windows

[Gatoblanco]

I have had my 1982 brick house rendered it looks much better. As I expected, the windows now stick out like a sore thumb. 1. because of their brown bronze anodised colour and 2. because they are sun damaged and the finish is worn out although structurally ok.
I want to paint them white. Has anyone done this? It seems to be that using an etching primer is the way to go however I saw some one comment somewhere that painting over them white didn't work so well. I wonder whether that's because the brown colour is strong enough to show through a white undercoat and top coat. however I feel that painting them black or another colour won't look quite as nice. Does anyone have any feedback suggestions? Thank you so much

 

[wobbycarly]

I made some comments here:
http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1303375

 

[Scott No Mates]

So did I: http://somersoft.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1303367&postcount=2

 

[Gatoblanco]

So did I: http://somersoft.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1303367&postcount=2

hi Scott your thread link doesn't work for me?

 

[INVSTOR]

I've been looking at lots of houses lately with similar issues. Those brown frames don't age well! one property I've viewed had really badly painted black gloss frames - looks so tacky! Another property had a more professional looking job and although it was starting to peel off a bit it looked reasonable. It was done in a dark Bluish-grey colour. I saw a property today where they replaced about half the frames in the house with white frames/windows and left the brown on less prominent windows. I think that would be the best option if you didn't want to replace the lot. I think my parents neighbours had all theirs re-powder coated professionally in Black and they came up good.
Brown - White sounds scary to do a touch up job with! It's giving me flashbacks to deciding to paint a mission brown wooden pergola on IP white. It showed up all the nooks and cranies, so I ended up buying a small can of mission brown paint, repainted the post and gave up.

 

[Brian84]

I just painted my windows with colourbond touch up spray can paint. They came up like brand new windows.

Tip is to do a couple of light coats rather than cover the whole area in one coat.
$11/can and it takes about 2 cans per window.

 

[Jane - Hotspace]

Oh have I seen some real botch jobs when people have tried to paint anodised or powder-coated window frames!

If you do decide to paint the windows, prep is the key. Also, as Invstor mentioned, you might be better to go for a darker colour. White will tend to show up any imperfections much more than a darker colour. This is true for any surface you refurbish actually since the imperfections will cast a shadow and shadows are visible on light colours but not so much on darker colours.

There's a crowd called Window Revival who are professionals at restoring old windows. They aren't cheap, but cheaper than replacing the windows and better to get the job done properly. You could even get them to do your most prominent windows (road facing, adjacent to outdoor living areas etc) and then you DIY the rest.

Another option could be to put slats over the top like my client did to cover green joinery ...

 

[Scott No Mates]

hi Scott your thread link doesn't work for me?

It was a suggestion that you render the walls & paint them instead.

 

[nww]

Do some research wether you need to etch prime before spraying.
You need etch primer on bare aluminium but Im not sure about anodised.

 

[fernfurn]

My SIL painted his inside with the whole primer, paint effort, took forever. Then he started spray painting them and it was so much easier, quicker and looked better. I have these in bronze and will definitely leave the outside but will paint the big timber reveals white inside and put up white venetians and then see how it looks. I am hoping the brown will tone right down and disappear visually

 

[nww]

My SIL painted his inside with the whole primer, paint effort, took forever. Then he started spray painting them and it was so much easier, quicker and looked better. I have these in bronze and will definitely leave the outside but will paint the big timber reveals white inside and put up white venetians and then see how it looks. I am hoping the brown will tone right down and disappear visually

what primer did you use , there is primer and etch primer especially for aluminium.