Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Removing old paint from porcelain letters

I recently acquired some porcelain letters from an old service station. The letters are in excellent condition other than they are coated in old paint. The top layer seems to be white latex so it's easily removed, but the bottom layer is much harder to remove. I can only remove it by chipping it away. If anyone has any suggestions about removing it without harming the porcelain I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

I use aircraft stripper get it from my parts house. Use a wood shim or plastic putty knife comes right off.

easy off oven cleaner

I second aircraft stripper. Wear heavy duty gloves. The porcelain will probably be stained and dirty under the paint, some scrubbing will help brighten it up.

Go to HOME DEPOT and get the Orange citrus stripper. Amazing results without the smell. Brush it on thick, cover with cellophane and give it 12 hours plus. I have tried them all and this is the one I default to now. Jim

Have you tried lacquer thinner?
I had a light that was painted over porcelain, the thinner removed
it with no traces.

Thank you for the advice. If you use easy off what method do you use to remove the paint.

spray it on, let it work for a few minutes, either scrape it off, steel wool, or spray it off with water, depending on how the paint is lifting off

easy off and orange citrus both work good. but nothing works as good as good ol paint stripper sold at any home improvement store. spray or gel, they both work good.

if doing it in a small area that is not well ventilated, i would use the orange citrus... it does the job without the fumes that regular stripper and easy off both have.

Here is what I learned stripping many things with layers of paint. The stripper should remain on the piece for as long as it takes to work through the layers. Do not let the stripper 'dry' out, meaning you will want to reapply the stripper if some areas go dry. It should crinkle up like aligator hide and split between section of paint. It may be necessary at some point to use some mechanical method for really stubborn spots. By that I mean using a scrub pad and a bit of the stripper.