While doing some yard work over the weekend, I found a few rusty pumpkin lanterns that have been sitting around in the garage for a few too many years. Originally, they were painted matte black inside and out. But seeing how the inside rusted gave me an idea of how to give them a new life.

Since I was doing other work outside and in the garage, I probably only spent a total of 30-40 minutes working on this over the course of the day.

Materials Used:
Steel Wool - had
Rustoleum Matte Black Enamel - had
Rustoleum Engine Enamel Orange - $5.47 home depot
Old newspaper
Painters tape

Step 1: Clean Up and Black Coat

First step was to clean them up.

I rubbed them all down with a medium grit steel wool to get rid of the surface rust, and wiped them off with a dry rag.

Then I gave them a quick base coat of black, inside and out. Let that dry for a bit and came back for a light second coat.

Step 2: Insides!

I waited a few hours for the paint to set up and then covered the face holes with some low tack painter's tape.
After trying to figure out the best way to cover the exterior, I settled on wrapping the whole thing in newspaper, and punching out the top. I ran a bit more tape around this top edge to hold it in place. I knew this wouldn't give me the cleanest top edge, but the idea was to not get bogged down in this project.

Once masked, I lined them up and sprayed them all at the same time. Engine enamel is not as red as the photo. Make sure to spray from all angles in light coats to get cover the whole inside without and running or pooling.