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Refurbishing metal stand off letters
Hi
My local fire station is moving and they want to take their current sign with them. I had a look and they have been up for 50 years, they are metal and looks like somebody painted them, they are in good condition though so obviously a good metal, maybe brass.
They are bonded in to the wall and as the building is going to be demolished they are happy for me to chisel them out.
They want them refurbished and if brass to get them lacquered for protection.
Assuming I can get them off the wall OK is there somewhere that can clean and polish them back to life?
Cost is not the issue, they just want to take as many fixtures/fittings as possible to the new Fire House.
cheers
Warren
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7 Replies
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If they are brass, strip with Nitromors & then lots of Brasso & a rotary buffer attachment for your drill? Or you could try an electroplating company – they must have some nifty techniques for brass.
If they are metal, take them to your local shot/sand blaster & get them cleaned & powder coated.
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Warren
be careful with these, I know a powder coater who sand blasted a historic ford sign for FMC and it fell apart because it was silver soldered copper. Ended up re-soldering it for them & then spraying it. If they are Brass get them stripped & then find a Local Metal polishers to polish them up and they should be able to advise on the laquering.Kev
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Warren
soda blasting is a far milder way to get them cleaned, I can recomend a company to do this for you,
as for getting them off the wall, if cost is not an issue, maybe it would be nice to cut out the piece of wall, leaving the sign as it was and then remount this on the new station?Peter
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Hi Peter, yes soda blasting is better and wouldn’t go sand blasting route. The new station is built and they want the letters refurbished to be "as new"
If you don’t mind sending me the details I would appreciate it.
cheers
warren
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Warren I think Peter has a point, to take the brick from the old station is like taking a bit of history, clean up the letters by all means but they would have 50 years of history on the wall in the old brick.
Lynn
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Not quite sure how you would go about doing that Lynn, you would probably have to site it on the ground like a sort of monument sign.
Would imagine cutting it out, transporting it and fitting it all in one piece without it falling apart would be quite tricky to and I’m also guessing it would weigh a ton as well. -
quote Martin:Not quite sure how you would go about doing that Lynn, you would probably have to site it on the ground like a sort of monument sign.
Would imagine cutting it out, transporting it and fitting it all in one piece without it falling apart would be quite tricky to and I’m also guessing it would weigh a ton as well.Martin
not that difficult.
easy enough to cut the brick/stone around the sign using a diamond blade in a stihl saw, if the building is being demolished, then just remove the surround, band up the section with metal or polypropylene as done on industrial packaging, and move to the new site, the banding could be left in place, so nothing falls apart.
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