Remove paint from Nickle plate.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have an old Coleman Lantern I picked up cheap at an antique store. It is just like the one in the photo. The one I have someone over time painted the font (Gas tank) with green paint over the nickle plate.
What is the best way to remove the paint but not harm the nickle plate?

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[Rich Engelhardt]

Stick it into a closed pail. An empty paint can will work fine - just make sure there's no liner in the can. All waterborne finishes come in lined cans. Solvent based materials seldom if ever do.
Put it on some blocks - scraps of bare wood will work fine.
Pour into the can just enough lacquer thinner so that it comes up just short of the bottom of the font by around 1/4" - give or take. Just be sure the lacquer thinner doesn't touch the font.

Cover it and seal it all up and let the vapors do all the work.
In a few days to a week, the paint will all wrinkle and pretty much fall off.

Wipe off the wrinkled paint or scrape it off with a piece of wood - don't use metal or plastic for obvious reasons (metal may scratch it and plastic will melt).
If there's any stubborn places, stick it back into the can for a few more days.
Repeat as necessary.

Lacquer thinner should be strong enough for anything short of a two part epoxy.

Don't use anything that has any ammonia in it.. Quite a few paint removers have some traces of ammonia.
Ammonia will trun the nickle yellow & may attack the copper under the nickle.
I forget the different types of plating, but, one of the most common ways is to lay down copper under the nickle. I'd just assume there to be copper and play it safe.
Ammonia may also attack any solder joints if there are any.

While I've never used the above method on a single piece such as your lantern, I've cleaned/restored Lord only knows how many paint brushes that way.

The better brushes - the ones worth the effort to clean/resore - all have nickle plated ferrels.
I've also cleaned up a number of nickle plated firearms. Modern ones, not older vintage Colts or anything like that.
I traded a few emails with the Hoppe customer support over using their #9 on nickle and storing their #9 in an old Army surplus 50 cal machine gun oiler.
Their the ones that warned me about the possible damage to the copper under the nickle and the solder joints due to the ammonia content.

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks for the great info.

If I remember right the font is Brass with Nickle plate.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Dave,
Ammonia also goes after brass. It's used in a lot of brass polishes. That being the case, it (ammonia) might weaken the bond between the nickle and the brass.
I'm not sure about it though - but - I wouldn't risk it.

I do know for sure that petroleum solvents won't affect the nickle at all.
I've hung brushes with nickle ferrels in lacquer thinner fumes for months w/out any problems.

Good luck! Post a picture after you get it cleaned up.

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks again

Here is a photo of what I am starting with.
Some who have done a restore on this model say the nickle will shine up on some, others will stay dull. Not sure the reason.

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