hi guys have a 360 national pump circa 1955 that is porcelain coated and has been painted buy the looks a couple of times. Previous owner looks to have used paint stripper but I am thinking that media blasting would be a better solution. Should the porcelain be stripped also or just taken down to the porcelain and go from there? Or would I be better off using stripper to finish it. Also I read somewhere in the forums that there was a fellow I think Joe? that has refurbished computers? Mine is good works and all but would like to have a refurbished one .Is he still doing that? This is my first pump restoration and any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thanks Dave
Strip the paint with paint stripper. If its real stuborn use a heat gun. And then leave as is.
Strip or sandblast the paint off, THEN take a look at it, is the original porcelain surface in good condition (every one I ever owned was badly chipped and rusted) leave it like it is, otherwise, sand it smooth and paint it. No need to remove the procelain.
Jack Sim
IF your wanting to save the Porcelain, DO NOT SAND BLAST the paint off.
IF after stripping the paint, you find the Porcelain is to rough to save, then you can Sandblast to etch the Porcelain so it will hold primer & paint.
My two pennies. I don't see porcelain pumps as often as painted once so I think it would be cool to have a restored one. Depending on condition, dents, etc. I'd take a door off and remove the paint as best you can with out damaging the porcelain. Then I'd polish the porcelain similar to polishing glass windows. Kind of a rustoration. If you don't like it continue the striping process and repaint. My thoughts anyways. Also on the Veeder Root if everything works and the paint on the wheels look good you can give the tin a new paint job and not have to go through the expense of a restored one. Don't get me wrong. Joe's work is the standard for first class craftsmanship. Just trying to give you some other thoughts. Good luck with it.
Look for someone in your area doing soda or co2 blasting, they should be able to remove the paint and not damage the porcelain.
Thanks guys it gives me an idea of what I may be up against. There are some chips and a few small dents but nothing too serious.I thought maybe of grinding out the areas where the dents are and filling them with body filler (there really arent a lot of them.)There is probably more rust on the insides of the panels than on the outside as far as I can tell because it looks like the thing was painted 3 times. The rust on the inside is just in small areas. I do like the idea of soda blasting though its supposed to be a lot easier on the metal . I will keep you posted. Thanks
I redid my porcelian pump. A company that refinishs bathtubs resprayed porcelian and baked in oven dents and dings were fixed first. They had stock color that matched pump color.
Looks real good .Wonder what type of epoxy they used.I reglazed a couple of antique sinks back in the 80s and it was epoxy.Seemed to work pretty good.Just wondered if they changed the type of material?Interesting option.
Nice pump-color is same as mine after I took off 3 coats of other paint. Did you sand blast off original porcelain? Question. Above ID tag is a small some thing mine has the hole but is missing whatever goes there. Could you tell me what it is
Pump looks good. If you dont mind sharing about how much did it end up costing- just the re-coat process.
My Pump had tan paint on it I used gel paint remover. Button above id tag is light pull swith. I tried adding before photos but cant figure out how to shrink them.
Thanks Jim
I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!
