How to remove paint from a decal

[davejb]

Very wise Mark, try the different methods by all means but on something thats not going to cost you a lot of money and heartache, and at the same time you gain some experience in guageing what to do and what not to do, good luck with it

[Mark K]

Dave I do beleive I will mask the helmet off into six separate areas and record which area I used which method on and will get back at you all tomorrow with the end results I am intrested in seeing what will become of it all.

Regards Mark k

[davejb]

Thats a good idea Mark, but remember that different ages of paint can take longer to remove plus the type of paint used may have different results, as an example i was trying to remove paint fron a Norge helmet many years ago for, a re-enactor friend the paint was nigh impossible to get off without a lot of work and the decal was the same, i could have used nitro glycerine and i dont think it would of shifted the paint ,i think it was 5 separate applications of an acid paint stripper before i started to get some results, it was one of the hardest helmets ive ever worked on

[Mark K]

I understand Dave this may turn into a working project that may take some time to see to the end as I am positive different chemicals will react to the paint in different ways and some may take multiple applications to reach the desired end result which would be to expose the original finish of the helmet without ruining the factory applied paint.

Regards Mark k

[davies435]

Dave, Calm down mate - this is supposed to be a friendly chat.
I didn't omit your first paragraph for convenience...just relevance. From a content point of view I was concentrating on HOW to remove paint - that was the original question asked and I was trying to stick to the subject at hand. The original post was just that....and at the end of the day it's up to the owner to do what he wants with it.........if he WANTS to remove the paint.........it's his choice.
You DID after all state very clearly that you'd NEVER used brasso for this..........then went on to explain what will/would happen, I was just wondering how you'd have any experience of it???
It wasn't intended as a calculated personal attack, I was just trying to keep to the point and offer a method I HAVE used many times for people to do whatever with - The Zippo-fluid for instance.......never heard of that one before, I'VE learned something from the discussion.
Any offence taken is non-intentional Dave.

Mike

[davejb]

No offence taken Mike, and i wasnt aware i was coming over that way, in fact i did end my message with a regards, i thought it was just easier to say that ive never used it as a generalisation statement, you know as well as i do that when we start out restoring we try everything and eventually learn to avoid the cock ups, my dad used brasso on everything including weapons, etc but when i was younger i did use it once, i never got on with it, therefore never used it again and that was 43yrs ago, the zippo fluid or general lighter fluid ive used on a number of occassions but i mainly use a water soluable paint stripper called nitro mores, its powerful but can be controlled by watering down but you really have to be careful with it but its not the sort of thing i would advise for the inexperienced, as for the omitted paragraph i thought that was a rather important factor because the paint was put on there for a reason and only on the white diagonal, Why?, you must admit there is a possiblity that removing the paint from the decal could leave the helmet in a worse state, therefore i think its best to leave it alone, it just seems strange to me that the rest of the decal wasnt painted over and the fact that the concensus of opinions are that its authentic, perhaps the paint is period as well, who knows
cheers Dave

[dandys]

FOTO please :-)))