Hergiswi

Hey guys. When I was in high school, I had the ingenious idea of painting my hardware gold with spraypaint (despite what everyone told me). Of course, I did it and it looks gaudy as hell. You'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time, but last year or so, I decided to try to re-paint it and see if it looked any better. Not only does it look the same, but now it appears that I've caked on so much paint that I can't actually get the bridge screws and tuning pegs back into their respective holes.

So, after finally admitting that I've screwed up, I need your help. What's the best, safest way to remove this paint? Will the hardware still look somewhat decent when it's gone, if not a little scratched/faded?

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FatalGear41

Well; if you've caked on that much paint, your only hope is probably to soak the parts in a bucket of paint stripper, and then scrub them with a soft wire brush. It should remove the paint, but it will probably remove whatever plating is underneath the paint, too. There is only one way to find out.

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Hergiswi

Yeah, I'd like to not strip the original metal off if possible. Granted it's probably a $100 bass I'm working with here so it's not life or death, but it has sentimental value (which I ****ed up). I tried boiling the hardware in water with baking soda, but it hardly made a difference in how strongly the paint held on.

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CJ Noble

paint thinner is really your only option

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Hergiswi

So as of right now, I haven't been able to afford any paint thinner (college is awesome). However, after boiling the metal for quite a few hours with a shit-ton of baking soda, there are enough chips of paint that have come loose that it's possible to pick away at it. With enough time, the paint IS removable now.

If anybody is interested (for educational purposes or otherwise), I'll let you know what happens when I get hold of the paint thinner. It would be more worth it than trying to use my fingernail to chip paint off of odd-shaped pieces of metal.

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Ariock

Chipping at it will probably leave little scratch marks all over. Sounds like you need stripper not thinner. Brush the stripper on in small amounts rather than submerging your parts. When it starts bubbling hose it off. Shouldn't hurt the original metal finish.

Another thing you can try is take them to a jewelry store (not in a mall) that has a good ultra-sonic cleaner and maybe you can get them to try and get most of it off for $15-$20 using that and their steam cleaner.