restoring lacquered brasswork

[Sunnydays]

Can anyone help me re restoring various external brass items on our boat that have been laquered by the previous owner and are now very dark and almost black in areas. Wanted to start with the portholes but really dont want to go to all the hassle of removing them. Suggestion welcome.....

[mark99]

 

[pete.i]

39 minutes ago, mark99 said:

 

Yeah right, try doing that without removing things. To be honest if you want to renovate then you have to remove otherwise you will be only doing half a job. Or you could just leave your brass looking like a pile of s***e like some do on here. Ex old school army me so I like shiny brass anything else is just s***e IMO.

[OldGoat]

43 minutes ago, mark99 said:

 

Hmm - Actone  - in the UK not easy with out legislation

What colour is "Carmel" - mentioned twice?? Sometimes US pronunciation is understandable - but how do they get Carmel ('carml') for CARAMEL.....

[WotEver]

5 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

Hmm - Actone  - in the UK not easy with out legislation

It’s not so difficult to find...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BRAND-Quality-Acetone-litre-1000ml/dp/B003WZB55O

Pure clear meths however, without the purple dye - now that’s difficult to get hold of. 

[dmr]

17 minutes ago, WotEver said:

It’s not so difficult to find...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BRAND-Quality-Acetone-litre-1000ml/dp/B003WZB55O

Pure clear meths however, without the purple dye - now that’s difficult to get hold of. 

Assuming we mean Acetone, it used to be tricky to get but is now freely available on eBay in big quantities, from many sellers, and quite cheap. Some of it is recycled. I assume it must have a new and popular "domestic" use, its what nail varnish remover is made of so I wonder if its related to all these silly nail bars that are everywhere.

Its a great solvent but does react with a few plastics and should not be used in confined places, and its also a good brush cleaner for the wonderful Bondaprimer.

...............Dave

[mark99]

27 minutes ago, WotEver said:

It’s not so difficult to find...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BRAND-Quality-Acetone-litre-1000ml/dp/B003WZB55O

Pure clear meths however, without the purple dye - now that’s difficult to get hold of. 

Meths has the added advantage you can take a swig.

Edited April 15, 2018 by mark99

[Sea Dog]

Mrsmelly will be along shortly to explain what you should do with brightwork.  His recommendations may clash somewhat with Pete.i at post #3 (with whom I broadly agree). Forgive him Pete - he suffered some trauma as a young sailor at the hands of the Royal Navy. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Sea Dog
Added "broadly" - can't have the Navy seeming to agree too much with the Army, can we.

[rusty69]

I will be agreeing with mrsmelly (probably).Life is waaay too short to be buggering around polishing brass.Spose its different if you're getting paid for it init

[Sea Dog]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

I will be agreeing with mrsmelly (probably).Life is waaay too short to be buggering around polishing brass.Spose its different if you're getting paid for it init

For Mrsmelly, I think it was less the being paid to do it and more the being told to do it! I'm sure he'll have something to say either way.

Anyway, polishing brass has its own rewards and life doesn't have to stop whilst... you get someone else to do it.

[tomsk]

Either do the job properly or live with what you have. It will look at least as unappealing if you go as it half-assed as if you leave it with none of the effort.

[BEngo]

If you cannot get acetone then gunwash thinners from your local vehicle refinish stockist is good at removing old lacquer.

Nitric acid is great for tarnish! So is Amway metal cleaner.

Rylards do Incralac to replace the lacquer once you have polished it all back up.

N

[rusty69]

55 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

For Mrsmelly, I think it was less the being paid to do it and more the being told to do it! I'm sure he'll have something to say either way.

Surely you would expect to get told to do stuff if you join one of the armed forces! although perhaps it was a shock to mrsmelly init.

[artleknock]

1 hour ago, BEngo said:

 

Nitric acid is great for tarnish!

 

Just try getting Nitric Acid, I used to buy it in VERY small quantities at a chemist, for etching metal. Even the fumes etched metal.

Then the bomber makers started using it

[WotEver]

21 minutes ago, artleknock said:

Just try getting Nitric Acid, I used to buy it in VERY small quantities at a chemist, for etching metal. Even the fumes etched metal.

Register a limited company

[Iain_S]

3 hours ago, OldGoat said:

Hmm - Actone  - in the UK not easy with out legislation

What colour is "Carmel" - mentioned twice?? Sometimes US pronunciation is understandable - but how do they get Carmel ('carml') for CARAMEL.....

By dropping a "redundant" syllable. Bit like aluminium / aluminum.

[WotEver]

8 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

By dropping a "redundant" syllable. Bit like aluminium / aluminum.

Not quite the same. They drop the extra aluminium syllable in their spelling too - aluminum. 

[Iain_S]

I'm sure the spelling will follow! 

[Sunnydays]

Ok folks...all very helpful. My gut feeling is remove portholes and do a proper job or leave them as they are....

[dor]

7 hours ago, artleknock said:

Just try getting Nitric Acid, I used to buy it in VERY small quantities at a chemist, for etching metal. Even the fumes etched metal.

Then the bomber makers started using it

Battery acid from an old battery works very well too.  Just be quick washing it off and getting the polish on or it will dezincify the brass (so will nitric).

[mark99]

You could experiment on one window with acetone and meths. It's not hard to relaquer with Rylard.

 

 

[Sea Dog]

8 hours ago, Sunnydays said:

Ok folks...all very helpful. My gut feeling is remove portholes and do a proper job or leave them as they are....

I think you're right in saying the potholes need to come out for a proper job on the de-lacquering, but I feel sure you could still improve the appearance no end without doing that if it's a bridge too far.  My aluminium ones responded well to being masked off and the thin lacquer coat removed with fine wire wool (actually I've just remembered that it was scotchbrite). If your lacquer is thick or difficult to remove, the beauty of solid brass is that even wet and dry paper isn't going to inadvertently ruin them.  Mine are now not lacquered but the polish I used (Belgom Alu) also contains a wax which keeps them bright for quite some time. It also does brass.

Here's a link to Amazon so you can read reviews....  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belgom-Aluminium-Polish-Motorcycles-Polishing/dp/B00FNP0ZIY    but you can get it for less elsewhere.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Sea Dog
Missing words

[mark99]

I went t'other way last year with portholes.

One side were laquered and fine the other side were not laquered for some reason.

I used wire wool (fine) and brasso to shine up the non laquered side then panel wipe'd and laquered them - without removing portholes. Little bit of masking.

Mr Bull came up and licked them - Mrs 99 is telling him to leave our porthole alone.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by mark99

[Sunnydays]

Thanks everyone .....I've just tried some wet & dry dipped in nail varnish remover. Seems to work. Will mask up portholes on the weekend and make a start. Would rather not lacquer them again but i might change my mind in due course....