How To Repair Hot Tub Metal Cabinet
Man 1: A metal cabinet repair, as you can see here, we have a metal cabinet that has been sanded already, and all you’re going to need is a, like an 80 grit sandpaper run over the entire cabinet. Using an orbital is your best bet, and a little bit of hand sanding. You can do it by hand, it’s just going to take an extreme amount of time. Notice the top lip? We have it taped going around the lip itself. The chrome trim has been removed. The acrylic surface is taped off to protect it, and down at the bottom, your floor has been taped off. Doors have been removed.
So we have a sanded cabinet that’s been sanded. You can wipe it down with some methanol, and we’re going to apply a primer right off the get-go. The primer is going to mask a bit where the aluminum is showing through compared to the previous powder-coated areas. So we just want to kind of blend that a little bit so it’s not such a bright, dark finish, and have a primer doing what its purpose is. We’re using just a general primer, you can pick up at any hardware store. Metal primer, gray, is what we’re using here. You can say about an estimate of four to five cans to do an entire cabinet. As you can see, the second coat now has evened out, the difference to the color difference of the cabinet, we’ll say. So, second coat being applied. Now we’re working on the third coat. And you can see, what we are using here is a tintable box liner.
Man 2: With a pigment.
Man 1: With a pigment and supplied by Blue Falls. So the one quart, you’re putting in three bottles? Four bottles?
Man 2: Four bottles.
Man 1: Four bottles of tint per quart.
Man 2: Because we don’t have any more room for part A, which is our catalyst, I’m going to have to pour half of it into a tray here. Mix it in here.
Man 1: Mix for a good two minutes?
Man 2: A minute, two minutes, yeah. Just want to make sure that you get some of the catalyst mixed in with all of the product. This is a soft roller that I picked up at a hardware store. It cost like three bucks with the pan.
Man 1: If you’re doing a color such as the one we are doing right now, which is called the Copper Vain, you could simply use a Red Oxide Primer, which would in fact help you on site for doing the color match. We’re just finishing up our first coat here. Down on the bottom edges here, you can use a paint brush to get it in, it might be a bit easier for you. If you prefer, you can just roll the entire thing. The first coat is set up and pretty much after just finishing this one side to come back, it’s tacked up enough that we can start our second coat. You can see the difference. Now you’re going to do, this is our second coat. You’re going to do a three, or if not, four. You want to get the color to be a consistency thoroughly, and as you carry on, you’re going to want to get some texturing built in as well. Coming down, we’re applying the third coat. Once that cures up, it should be beautiful. Now you want to let this sit for 24 hours for a temporary cure. You can put the doors, mount the doors back on, and 72 hours for a full cure. And customer will be set with a repainted metal cabinet.
See the current optional no maintenance Arctic Spa hot tub cabinets here, and the standard cedar cabinets here.