Stripping paint from Moon Patrol -- Help

[Rocky]

I got a Moon Patrol Cabinet for free (Thanks Jim!) and was very excited to work on it. No water damage, solid cabinet ( basically has everything but the boards and monitor!)

Both sides were painted black, but I could see the Moon Patrol lettering (in 3D) through the black paint.

I sucessfully removed all the black paint from one side. It just melted away with goof off.

The problem is that before it was painted black, someone put a medium blue over top of the Moon Patrol art and I can't seem to get it off. I think it must be enamel!

What can I do? I can see bits and pieces of the original piant job and I really want to restore it?

[Raider]

Methylene chloride based stripper.

You can find it in the paint department at Wal-Mart under many
different names. Most of the products are in a jelly form, but they will all strip paint like crazy.

Be careful. Not only will it cut through paint like a hot knife
through butter, it is also .... liquid cancer. It is a carcinogen.
Bad stuff to breathe, and it will absorb into skin easily.
I am not aware of any gloves that will protect you.
Use it outside, and be responsible.

It will prolly also kill the vinyl art as well. But there's prolly nothing else that will strip enamel. Don't know if you wanted to keep that, but unlikely you'll be able to.

[Rocky]

The art I'm trying to save is painted not vinyl.  Will this super stripper stuff eat through all the paint in a flash?  Can I dilute it and go slow? Is my painted Moon Patrol side art lost forever?  

Tune in next week to ..... sorry

Seriously though, it sounds like this is a lost cause. Anyone know of a way to selectively remove stubborn patchy enamel paint from over top of other enamel layered, stenciled art?


Thanks,

Rocky

[Raider]

Oh yeah forgot the art on those was stenciled. Doh!

Yeah man, that stuff I mentioned will prolly cut right down to the bare wood in no time.

Dilluting.... It's acid based... No mixie with water mmmkay. That could be bad!

I think your best bet is something weaker that'll strip enamel slowly but surely... And I think your gonna be looking in the very least at touching up that sideart after it's said and finished though.

I dunno what else will even eat at enamel though.

[Lance]

There still may be hope, I came across this page http://my.erinet.com/~jamesm/Restorations/defender/defrest.htm

After reading some of his other pages it says that he used to work in the paint industry and knows alot about paints and stripping them etc.  You may want to contact him to see if he can recommend anything.

lance

[Rocky]

Well, I have good news   and bad news

I tried the jelly stripper that eats away enamel paint. I pretty much destroyed the side art. You can still make out what it was originally, but it melted the original colors together and looks really bad  

For some reason, I decide to try the second side. I removed the black and saw that there were some spots where the medium blue came off a little. So, I began scrubbing with the nylon brush. To my amazement, it scrubbed  off the blue spray paint slightly. So, I kept scrubbing until it was gone in that spot. I was amazed to see the original art intact underneath.  After a couple hours of scrubbing paint, the spray paint is gone and the side art is beautiful    There are some dings in the wood, but overall it's amazing!!!

Oh well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad.

Anyone trying to save their original paint job, use Goof Off and a lot of elbow grease!

YMMV,

Rocky