Plastic deck chairs don’t come in a wide array of colors, so in the event that you want yours to match in with your outside layout scheme, you might have to paint them. You need to use the ideal type of paint, since the wrong type will flake off in short order. If that’s happened to your chair, obtaining all the loose paint is vital prior to repainting it. Avoid doing it with coarse sandpaper, however, if you don’t want to permanently scratch the plastic. Spray the chair with paint formulated for plastic to avoid flaking. The procedure resembles spraying regular paint.
Wash the chair with a solution of 1 cup trisodium phosphate per 1 gallon of water to clean dirt and grease. Allow it to dry, then move it to your well-ventilated region protected from wind and direct sunlight. Cover the ground with old paper and place the chair on the paper.
Scrape off flaking paint using a plastic paint scraper. Avoid using a metal scraper; it will scratch the plastic. Rub the chair down with fine steel wool to flatten the borders of the areas where paint came off. In addition you can sand the edges by hand with 150- or 220-grit sandpaper.
Don a respirator. Wipe the chair down with a rag dampened with mineral spirits. Examine the rag. When it’s dirty or filled with paint residue, wipe the chair again using a new rag. Repeat until the rag is clean after wiping.
Spray the chair using a thin coat of paint formulated for plastic. Turn over the chair and spray on the underside, then right the chair and spray on the top. Maintain the spray nozzle about 6 inches from the surface, and spray in even sweeps, avoiding arcing at the end of each brush. Use repeated sweeps to paint the back and chair, overlapping the spray pattern by 50 percent. Even though the coat is thin, avoid voids and stripes.
Let the paint dry for 15 to 20 minutes, then lightly sand the entire chair with 220-grit seams and then spray it again. After the paint dries, sand and spray one more time.
Let the paint cure for at least 24 hours before you use the chair. It requires a week for the paint to achieve maximum adhesion.