Spray Paint an Old Rusty Light for This Brand New Look!! Budget Beauty

So I decided to pull it down and see what I could do with it. If you plan to do this, please shut the power off, first. Even if there is a switch, it only takes a second for someone to flip the lights on without thinking about it. Ok, got it Sparky?

Troubleshooting the wiring for an exterior light

As suspected, the light didn’t work when I first wired it up. Water likely got inside the electronics. The setting switches were also seized up, confirming my suspicions.

Lights are pretty basic until you add stuff like motion sensors and photocells. After pulling out all the electronics, I was left with 3 wires (power, neutral and ground). I repeated the electrical cord test, and this time it worked!!

Disassembly and Cleaning

To start off, I removed all the glass panes. If I could use my finger to pry them open, I did that first before resorting to a screwdriver. Use caution here and try to avoid pushing against the glass with the screwdriver.

Restoration and Paint

I sprayed several fine coats of Gloss black paint (I stock up on this stuff; black makes anything look good). I waited between 15 and 40 minutes between coats, depending on how sunny it was and how thick it was looking.

Finally, I re-mounted my restored lamp. I stuck in my favorite funky LED bulb and flipped the switch (the power, which the kids reminded me was off, 7000 times in the 5 minutes this took me to hang.)

WOW!! What a difference a can of black paint and a screwdriver can make!

Hope you loved this old rusty lamp restoration. I spray paint lots of stuff to make it beautiful. Check out some of my other DIY projects here