[MrFixr55]

Hi Pholks,

I fixed a Model 20 for a friend (Phriend?  Am I carrying the Ph thing too far?)  and received in payment a complete Model 20 Deluxe, with a good grille and the pie plate speaker with the spider that looks like a 45 record adaptor, so it sounds nice.  Chassis needs resto, but I already have a good one on a bad cabinet.  Problem is that someone painted the whole cabinet a rather yucky dirty blonde.  Right over everything on the front, including the grille cloth the columns and the burl finish on the arch section, and on the sides and bottom moulding.  I don't know if this is latex, some type of "antiquing" kit or, Heaven help us, spray paint

3 questions to start:

1.  What is the best way to strip this?  chemical?  sanding?  a combination?  I can try the sides first as the side panel is cracked at the apex.  
     (My original cabinet is much worse.)
2.  Is the fancy burl finish on the arch of the front panel natural or some kind of photofinish?
3.  What are the best products for the face and sides?  The "columns", the burl finish on the arch of the front panel?

Dunno when I am going to get around to this, but I have wanted a nice looking 20 Deluxe for a while.

[radiorich]

Hello mr fixr,
I don'y think my deluxe is photofinish .
Sincerely Richard

[morzh]

No, it did not use photo-finish.
It is veneer with the shading on the front of changing darkness.

[Radioroslyn]

I usually don't do any sanding till all the stripping is done. The veneer on the cabinet is thin and it is easy to sand thru it chemical is the way to go. After the stripping light sanding using a block on flat surfaces and just hand on the others is good to level the grain as the process tends to raise it. I don't use lower than 320G for this, 400G is good too but a little more work.

Citrustrip is a good start. It's easy to work with and you won't need a fireman's scott pack to get near your work. Some use steel wool I like scotch brite pads. Auto paint stores or ebay sell them the red and the grey ones are what you would get (a bit on the rougher side). And odorless mineral spirits (oms). You want the stuff in the metal can not in the plastic jug. The jug stuff is low voc and is worthless. This is used to cleanup the cabinet and get all the stripper off.

[morzh]

Yeah, always wondered why they call them spirits "odorless".
It sure enough smell like a gas station.

[Radioroslyn]

It's on a scale of how bad is it compared to... Naphtha, chlorine bleach, mek, and lacquer thinner it's odorless.

[RodB]

I recently bought a can of oms and it now says Lo-odor mineral spirits.

When I use citrus stripper I leave it on for at least an hour, keeping it wet. You'll find it gives much better results than the recommended 20 minutes.