Just like restoring weight plates, cleaning and restoring dumbbells is pretty easy with the right tools. This pair of 30 pounds dumbbells took about 45 minutes. Assuming you already have a cordless drill, the rest of the materials and supplies cost about $35. Once you have all this stuff, you can restore several pairs of dumbbells and weight plates.

The tools & materials I used:

Cordless drill

Wire brush wheels

Rustoleum hammered antique pewter spray paint

Silver leafing pen

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The first and most important step is removing the rust. There are several ways to do this, but I have found the quickest way is to use wire brush wheels and a cordless drill. The goal is to get all of the rust off. In some cases, the rust will get under the paint and cause the paint to flake. You’ll want to remove as much of the loose, flakey paint as possible.

I use a wide brush head for the larger areas and a narrow brush head to clean the knurling and the spaces in the numbers.

I use a nylon brush head to get rid of most of the dust, then I go in with a cleaning wipe to make sure they’re extra clean before painting.

You can paint the dumbbells whatever color you’d like. Traditionally, I use Rustoleum antique pewter. The color and texture are great. I paint as much of the dumbbells as I can before letting them dry. Then, after waiting 8-12 hours, I flip them over and paint the rest.

I use and silver leafing pen to paint the numbers. It is a slightly different shade of silver than the spray paint, so it gives the numbers a nice little accent.