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I have a new client with an 10-15 year old sandblasted 2x12 wood sign. Sign is painted green with white copy. Both colours are latex paint. Paint is peeling and faded. Wood is developing some cracking. We have undertaken to freshen it up. I would like to here what others would do to restore this to its original look. Sign is on a brick buildng just above the entrance and faces East. Reasonably well protected from the sun by trees and other buildings.
-------------------- Chuck Churchill, It's A Good Sign Inc. 3245 Harvester Rd, U-12 Burlington, Ont. Phone: 905-681-8775 Fax: 905-681-8945 Posts: 633 | From: Burlington, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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heres my take the sign is 15 years old if you restore it...it will be a 15 year old sign restored signs are not like valuable antique cars build a new one if you really want to salvage....give it a light blast to strip off all old paint....then fill cracks and splits with marine grade fillers and re paint with acrylics I assume you will not do the restoration on site?
[ July 21, 2011, 12:09 AM: Message edited by: Michael Boone ]
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I would lightly grind off any loose paint with hard bristle attachment for drill. I said LIGHTLY. apply 2 sprayed coats of latex flat ext paint and then letter it....done!
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
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We had a customer a few years back with the same type of sign. His brother had made it years ago....and he wasn't ready to part with it yet. It was really falling apart! But we had it re-blasted...used a lot of magic sculpt or smooth (can't remember) and a lot of sanding. Then a few fresh coats of paint. It turned out really good, you can tell it is an old sign....but the customer was happy. His jaw dropped at the cost....but then after explaining how many hours we had into it.... and that he could have had a new sign for the same cost, he happily paid his bill.
-------------------- Patricia A. Raap Raap Signs 2615 Arthur Coopersville, MI 49404 616-677-0158 pat@raapsigns.com Posts: 575 | From: Coopersville, MI 49404 | Registered: Nov 2003
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If the sign has mildew etc. I take it out and clean with bleachwater(one part bleach, three parts water). Let set for 10 minutes and rinse with as garden hose. Let dry a couple of days. Next sand the raised areas down with a random orbital sander with about a 100 or 120 grit disc. No need to remove all the paint unless it is really coming off easily. I then fill all the cracks with either WestSystems epoxy or I use wood filler if they aren't very deep. All backgrounds are cleaned with a stiff bristle brush. I sand down the fillers, dust/tack the whole thing off, blow off with an air hose and spray the whole sign with solid-color latex stain. Lightly hand-sand the raised surfaces with 220grit paper and tack rag it off. If I want the background covered with acrylic paint instead of stain, I spray the whole thing again with acrylic latex paint. Last, I paint the raised surfaces by hand. Two coats.
A more maintenance free sign would be one made of HDU. Even down here in the hot humidity of Florida, you dont get the cracking,. splitting and peeling on HDU; at least I don't. All I've seen the paint do on HDU signs is chalk....and latex paint is eventually going to do that on anything you put it on.
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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Are you going to "freshen up" or refurbish? You might want to have two options. The quick way is to get off all the loose paint completely,sand lightly, fill cracks and repaint. This could be done with the sign in place. The other way as Wayne described would require taking the sign down and quite a bit more labor. I am finding in this economy people are going with "Cheap" oftentimes. And really many people are just as happy with a quick repaint.As long as the sign is structurally sound this may be their choice. We recently refurbished a 15 year old sign. Unfortunately we didn't realize there was rot on the back side and when we took it down the sign broke in half! Ended up costing way more than we quoted. Fortunately the customer agreed to pay extra for the "unforseen circumstance". Always add that clause to your estimates.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1266 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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