Whilst cleaning the fretboard I did a quick check to see if the black paint on the pot was oil or latex based. To easy way to test if paint is oil or latex based is to dab it with methylated spirit (that's denatured alcohol in American) soaked cotton wool and see what happens. If it's latex some should come off, if it's oil based nothing should happen. It was more likely to be some sort of oil based but there was always a chance it'd been painted over with something safer at some point in it's life. When I tried the test all that came off was a bit of grime, the paint wasn't affected at all. It was oil based and paint and given the age bound to be full of lead.
The pot was going to need repainting after I'd steamed it anyway, plus I needed to repair a broken off part anyway. I decided to strip it back to wood and paint it from scratch. Where some of the paint had lifted something white underneath was visible, I wasn't sure if it was primer or some sort of filler but it wasn't used on the sides.
After pulling out the metal button that was nailed into the back (what's it for? I don't know..) I slathered on a thick layer of Diall Paint & Varnish Remover. An hour later I added some more and mixed it about with a paintbrush to loosen any lifted paint and help spread about the newly applied Remover.
After giving all surfaces two coats of Remover and minimum of an hour I turned on the taps and with a utility knife scraped off the majority of the now grey and black gunk then under the tap rubbed what was left with wire wool. There were bits of original glue on the base that stretched and eventually came off, the excess from my regluing the body scraped off too -probably as the Remover released the paint it was adhered to underneath. Whatever the white stuff was it came off with the rest. After a thorough rinsing I let the wood dry. I put to stop the base from warping I placed it flat side down on a worktop with a box of water on top to press it flat as it dried. I gave the sides another go with the Remover and wire wool before drying it again and setting it aside to dry. I also gave the whole lot a rub down with naphtha to get it as clean as possible.
Once dry the wood was very pale in colour. I quite like the natural look of the wood and briefly considered just giving it a few coats of shellac instead of repainting it. The shiny finish would really bring out the grain. However there was some white glue visible at the join which I'd somehow need to conceal and when I reattach the base and repair broken part there'll be more and probably a bit of filler here and there so I decided to stick with my original plan and repaint it.
After pulling out the metal button that was nailed into the back (what's it for? I don't know..) I slathered on a thick layer of Diall Paint & Varnish Remover. An hour later I added some more and mixed it about with a paintbrush to loosen any lifted paint and help spread about the newly applied Remover.
After giving all surfaces two coats of Remover and minimum of an hour I turned on the taps and with a utility knife scraped off the majority of the now grey and black gunk then under the tap rubbed what was left with wire wool. There were bits of original glue on the base that stretched and eventually came off, the excess from my regluing the body scraped off too -probably as the Remover released the paint it was adhered to underneath. Whatever the white stuff was it came off with the rest. After a thorough rinsing I let the wood dry. I put to stop the base from warping I placed it flat side down on a worktop with a box of water on top to press it flat as it dried. I gave the sides another go with the Remover and wire wool before drying it again and setting it aside to dry. I also gave the whole lot a rub down with naphtha to get it as clean as possible.
Once dry the wood was very pale in colour. I quite like the natural look of the wood and briefly considered just giving it a few coats of shellac instead of repainting it. The shiny finish would really bring out the grain. However there was some white glue visible at the join which I'd somehow need to conceal and when I reattach the base and repair broken part there'll be more and probably a bit of filler here and there so I decided to stick with my original plan and repaint it.
No comments:
Post a Comment