With Christmas coming up I had to make accommodations for all the family that is going to be staying over. We were one bedroom short, so the garage loft is going to serve as a temporary bunkhouse.
My daughter had spare double mattress set so we borrowed that. But it didn't have a frame. So I picked up an old (really old) bedframe at the flea market. It was pretty crusty with rust and 3 or 4 partial layers of flaking paint.
I used an air powered needle scaler to chip away all the loose stuff and got it to this stage.
Then I stripped the remaining paint and rust with an angle grinder fitted with various heavy wire brush wheels. Since there's a good chance the old paint had lead in it, I wore full protective gear and did it outside in the driveway. Looked like a hazmat operation, and the dog barked at me the whole time.
Before painting I treated it with phosphoric acid metal prep to convert any remaining rust and give a good surface for paint adhesion. Painting was done in the warm, clean loft using Sherwin Williams oil-based enamel leftover from my trim painting, and left to dry for several days.
With the paint dry I tested out the fit of the assembled bed in the loft. This thing take up too much room so it's going to go away after the holidays. But just to be sure, I fitted it out with some nice and itchy army-grade wool blankets -- just to make sure that the guests are not
too cozy and reluctant to leave.
