Advice Needed on Restoration

[AlArchie]

This is more a question on UN finishing, rather than finishing.

Yesterday I went down to the harbor and salvaged the name board from a boat my brother in law used to own. He and his dad rescued the "BOOMERANG" from a salvage over in Keewenaw bay back in 1967 or around then. It was an old gill netter that had been used for several years as a scuba platform. Anyway, they rebuilt it into a very good recreational trolling boat. 30 footer with an 8 foot beam, large fully equiped cabin etc. After he married my wife's sister he sold it and it fell gradually into disrepair. It now sits in the woods as a rotting hull, with the engine, electronics and all the good stuff removed.

The name board was about the only thing left in sound condition, but has been covered with many layers of different colored paint. Originally it was clear mahogony with nice bright yellow paint in the routed letters. I've used severasl applications of commercial paint remover and have almost all the paint removed.

The problem is there are several areas where even the paint remover just seems to smear the paint back onto the mahogony surface.

I'd like to present my brother-in-law with this "rescued" section of his old boat for Christmas.

Anybody got any ideas on cleaning that board up? I know I'll have to sand the surface eventually, but would like to get the wood as clean as possible before I start that.

Thanks in advance.

Al

[Mitchell]

Have you tried one of those "souped up" blow dryers that soem restorers use to take off old paint? The heat melts the paint to be easily scraped away.

Otherwise, scraping is the only way I know that you can remove the paint without it "smearing' back onto the wood.

Good luck.

[squbrigg]

Al, is the paint that is being difficult in the letters or on the surface of the board? You may try scraping the surface instead of sanding, and scraping the routered letters clean. I see that Flex-cut has a new scraper outfit with multi-profiles, that may work. A good flat scraper may work best on the surface.

Being finished for a boat, the materials used were probably pretty tough ..... Marine Paints, Spar Varnish, etc. They will resist your efforts, but with patience, you'll win through. Hope you post a pic of the nameboard when you finish restoration.

BTW..... that's a real nice thing you're doing there Al. I'm sure he'll appreciate it a great deal.

Bob

[AlArchie]

Thanks, guys! I have both scrapers and one of those heat guns so can try both. And yep, those are marine finishes so I sort of figured they'd be tough. Most of the paint came out of the letters and I can scrape that out fairly easily, but the "sticky" stuff is on the flats between the letters. I was thinking of trying some lacquer thinner on that, too, wadda ya think??

Bob, a year or so back I mentioned that I had planned on doing a scale model of the "BOOMERANG" but didn't have all the necessary measurements to do so. Well, there was enough of the hull left down there that I got what I needed. So maybe in a year or so I'll have a scale model of the old relic! I may pick your brains on this a little later.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Can't think of the name but there is a supposedly "safe" paint remover out that will cut throught about any paint.....so they say . Sorry I can't remember the name .... I would think a good paint store could direct you to the right product?

[AlArchie]

Well, it's almost done........still need to paint in the letters, but in a couple days it should be finished. I used a combo of the heat gun and various scrapers. It's not a perfect clean-up as I had hoped. That mahogony is wrought with large deep pores and deep grain runs that hung onto dots and narrow runs of the white paint and there were several areas of deterioration from 40+ years of weather beating.

Anyway thanks for the tips, and I will post a pic or two when it's done.

Al