Thread: Re-Painting Melamine help please

If you are going to finish in any sort of thinner based lacquer. DO NOT use penetrol - it will sizzle and wrinkle.

I have done this melamine refinishing many times - a 180 grit sand, a primer coat of penetrol mixed with a small amount of colored enamel, then 3 or 4 very thin coats of oil based undercoat , then a finish sand to 240 - finished with either acrylic or oil based enamel. The panels come up as smooth as a babies bum.

Thanks for the information Dirty Doogie I Will be painting the cupboards in white. You say I should mix white enamel paint with penetrol for my base coat. I'm just wondering what the ratio of white enamel to Penetrol would be roughly? Thanks again for the info Dirty Doogie

Hi Sean,
I used the White Knight stuff, got it from Bunnings. The laminate paint that is similar the the ceramic tile paint.
I bought their laminate cleaner in the squeeze bottle, which seems to be the same grease type remover as oven cleaner. I litre primer and 1 litre top coat.
A very light sand with fine paper, I didn't obsess over it.
The primer must be the key to the system, I still can't believe how they do it with a water base paint, suffice to say it works.
I used two coats of top coat, tinted slightly off white, one coat primer which is a light cream. They can tint to most colours.
I used a couple of 4mm rollers, never used any as fine as that before, but the finish was great, almost like a spray coat.
Took all the doors off, hinges and fittings. I am very happy with result 8 months on, time will tell.
It used to be a crap pine veneer look, seventies style.
(I don't normally rave on like this, but it is Sunday arvo and I just got back from the club).
Cheers
Bill

Hi again Sean, I've been busy on my reno's here - sorry I didnt get back to you earlier -

I mix a colored enamel with the penetrol - just a tiny amount to give it some color. I do this so that I know when to stop sanding the following undercoat becuase dried Penetrol doesnt sand . When applying oil base undercoat be careful with the dilution of the first coat - excess turps can also sizzle fresh Penetrol.

If you are using oil based enamel be aware that it yellows fast these days.

Thanks again for the info Dirty Doogie

As I will be using a spray gun to do the painting I will need to thin the under coat and so on with turps to get it thin enough to go through the gun.

You say turps can make fresh Penetrol sizzle. When you say "fresh" do you mean even after leaving the penetrol coat to dry, for say 1 week, it would still likely "sizzle" when turps came into contact with it?

Didn't know that about using oil based enamel and how it yellows fast these days.

I hope to paint the cupboards white as I previously posted but if the paint yellows in a short time I might have to "re-think" the colour scheme or maybe you or someone else might of heard of some kind of "anti yellowing agent" ?

Hope that your own renos are going well. In between work, kids, eating and sleeping I get stuff all time to get really stuck into all the house renos around this place!

Oh well I guess work is just another "necessary evil" in life.