Polarine painted sign filling a hole - Mon Jun 30 2014 02:23 PM
On the weekends I normally don't have my iphone with me but I check it from time to time. I had received two calls and a voice message from my friend Tim. I thought the worst so I called him immediately and did not listen to the voice mail. He collects beer stuff and when he finds gas things he calls me. When I spoke to him he was all excited, breathing heavy saying his neighbor was fixing up an old house they were going to move into and he had been helping him from time to time. He stopped by to check on the progress and the owner was ripping up the old linoleum floor and under it was this sign that was used to cover a hole in the floor. Face up, he just used a pry bar and ripped it off and throwing it in the corner with other pieces. My friend saw it as asked if he could have it and his friend said sure. A small amount of money was given.
Tim brought it over to my place and I couldn't believe it. The original owner of the house had two Standard Oil stations here in Michigan so we assumed he just used the sign to fill the hole. This is a single sided sign and it still has the original cardboard backing on it. Under the linoleum for 80 some years.
I was scared to death to try and remove the the flooring that was left so we talked about possible ways we could remove it without causing more damage. We ultimately used a hair dryer to heat the flooring and scrapped off the top layer. I did not want to use goof-off because it was too aggressive. Tim had tried Lift Off and said it didn't hurt the ink. So we did another test on the corner and it worked. Sorta of, just a thin layer would come off. But it would come off!
As we started a another friend Kevin stopped by who is also into gas and he couldn't believe what we were doing and was blown away on how it survived and was found.
Long story I know, but 3 and half hours later we got it off, high fives all around and now it was no longer under the flooring being walked over and not seeing the light of day. We still have a lot of gentle work to do on it but she is now safe and presenting the wonderful artwork after a very hard life. In my collection I have the double sided version which has some fading from the sun. The colors on this are much brighter and will end up hanging next to it.
I am just amazed and so happy that we could save it. Thanks to Tim the pack rat for saving it and Kevin for spending a Sunday afternoon picking off old linoleum from this wonderful sign.
Les
Tim brought it over to my place and I couldn't believe it. The original owner of the house had two Standard Oil stations here in Michigan so we assumed he just used the sign to fill the hole. This is a single sided sign and it still has the original cardboard backing on it. Under the linoleum for 80 some years.
I was scared to death to try and remove the the flooring that was left so we talked about possible ways we could remove it without causing more damage. We ultimately used a hair dryer to heat the flooring and scrapped off the top layer. I did not want to use goof-off because it was too aggressive. Tim had tried Lift Off and said it didn't hurt the ink. So we did another test on the corner and it worked. Sorta of, just a thin layer would come off. But it would come off!
As we started a another friend Kevin stopped by who is also into gas and he couldn't believe what we were doing and was blown away on how it survived and was found.
Long story I know, but 3 and half hours later we got it off, high fives all around and now it was no longer under the flooring being walked over and not seeing the light of day. We still have a lot of gentle work to do on it but she is now safe and presenting the wonderful artwork after a very hard life. In my collection I have the double sided version which has some fading from the sun. The colors on this are much brighter and will end up hanging next to it.
I am just amazed and so happy that we could save it. Thanks to Tim the pack rat for saving it and Kevin for spending a Sunday afternoon picking off old linoleum from this wonderful sign.
Les
