Removing Old Paint

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 108, 18 July 1941, Page 46

Removing Old Paint

Dear Aunt Daisy, Could you or some of your Daisy | Chain tell me the best way to remove old paint from doors? Four years ago. I painted the woodwork with buffcoloured paint, then grained and varnished it. The woodwork which was the newest is just as good as the day it was done; but the other part, which was much older, has gone "sizzly." I do not know if that is the right -word for it, but I suppose you will have seen a paint tin which has had a small amount of paint left in, and formed a skin which has gone wrinkly. Well, that is what some of the woodwork looks like, and I want to remove the old paint and do it over again. -Mrs. J. (South Otago). Well, Mrs. J., although I don’t know the cause of your trouble, I do know how to remove it. You must buy some paint remover from your hardware or paint shop. This is just applied to the whole surface according to directions; and afterwards you get it ail off with a blunt knife or something. like

that. You will find that the old paint peels’ off with the paint remover-much as the skin comes off with a very tightly-stuck adhesive plaster. Then you must go over the surface with turpentine to get it clean, and finally with a tag dipped in vinegar, which removes any acid left by the paint remover. The door will then be ready for its nice new coat of paint, or enamel. I hope you will write and let us know how you get on. ;