Hello all.

I've been restoring some old alu door handles. As ever, it's one step sideways then another couple backwards, but here's my method so far:


  1. Back to bare metal, steel-wooled everything smooth.
  2. Primed, two light coats.
  3. (Can you guess what I didn't do?)*
  4. Gloss coat.


*I didn't rub down the primer before applying the gloss and now I'm left with a subtle stippled effect.

Okay, a dumb school-boy error (ha, who knew that a once over with a scrap bit of denim would have sufficed to knock the roughness off the primer?)

My question - do I need to go back to bare metal, or can I let the current finish dry for a day or two and then steel wool it back to some sort of flatness, clean it with a rag/meths and then go again with the gloss?

Wal.