Cleaning paint and gunk off of old glas

[Zootal]

I have a dozen panes of 10x12 glass that I need to clean or replace. The old panes have paint and putty and even silicone slopped on them, plus they haven't been cleaned in literally decades. They clean up good except it's a lot of work to scrape the paint and gunk off, even with a nice sharp scraper. For $2.50 I can get new panes, so it would not be difficult at all to convince me to replace them instead of spending hours and hours cleaning them.

Having said that - does anyone have any tips on an easy way to clean paint and putty off of glass? Besides have wife and kids do it? :-) I'm guessing nothing works better than good old elbow grease, but I thought I'd ask...

[Doug Miller]

To remove paint, have you tried ... paint remover?

[Nate Nagel]

run 'em through the dishwasher a couple times, to start? then yes, paint remover. 0000 steel wool might help too.

nate

[norminn]

A razor blade scraper with a fresh blade will remove old paint very quickly...lots easier than replacing a pane.

Putty slopped on them? Or do you mean old, hardened glazing compound holding the panes in? If that is the case, it is probably easier, quicker and safer to bust out the old pane, scrape out old glazing compound and put in new. I did that on some old windows because the glazing was just too hard to remove and I didn't want to push my hand through the glass. I covered some panes with contact paper to hold the shattered glass together and gave them a hit with a 2x4 from inside. One even popped out intact! Put a tarp below to catch the glass and it goes pretty quick.

[Oren]

HD store? GOO OFF, something like that and look for CAULK OFF (?). See the paint section. RTFM

Just how OLD is this glass? Worth saving historically?

Elbow grease is cheap, unless you hurt.

[Zootal]

Oren wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thinking about cleaning them makes me hurt :-)

I thought of the goo off etc., but for $2.50 a pane, it's just not worth it. The glass is most likely the original 1948 glass. Not really old enough to have any historic value, and I don't know how many panes have been replaced over the years. I do know that it has been many years since they have seen any kind of TLC due to badly rotted wood and very old caulk.

[Oren]

I'm allergic to work, seems I 'break out' - maybe hives?

Glass from '48 look real closely. See any bubbles in the glass they are the older panes.

If you take them all out and exchange them, consider selling the older glass to an artesian/glass worker person.

[ransley]

I would get a box of razor blades and a holder-scraper and scrape off the glass clean, 1 razor blade might do 1 pane then its dull. Barkeepers friend and Zud have I believe Oxalic acid which will remove [hopefully] the pollution that has etched the glass, Maybe 0000 steel wool and Zud will do it, it worked on my 54 Buick. But, Glass is deemed a liqued and over the years sags and gets wavy, and depending on how bad the etching and clearness it could never look right and look distorted when you see outside, as I saw in 100+yr old glass, one I had about 14 cracked panes of glass in my garage, I had fun with a bb gun removing all of it. But removing it is double the job to remove putty and reglaze.

[Zootal]

Are you suggesting that the panes from 1948 might have some value?

[Oren]

Yes, sorta, in a round about way.

Can you post a picture of this area? Pull the doors off?

Save the elder glass is what I say.

[DD_BobK]

My house is from 1930 and I like to keep it original....wavy glass.

I've salvaged it from all sorts of places. When I did my "first go 'round" on window restorations, I didnt have a reliable supply soooo...I used glass from upstairs sashes to replace downstairs panes. I used new glass upstairs.

Since then I developed a source for wavy glass and now have enough to repair LOTS of windows it need be...including the 18 full pane gothic arch front window. My house now comes with its own "spares". :)

so...YES, old glass has value to a few nutty home restoration types & artsy folks too.

If anyone is looking for slightly green wavy glass I have that too....I bought before I found the lot of clear wavy.

cheers Bob

cheers Bob

[aemeijers]

1948 is awful new for it to be the old-style window glass that artisans and TOH historical restorers want, unless somebody had a barn full of old stuff they used up or something. Not sure what year the cutover to modern glass production methods was, but pretty sure it was several decades before that. It is likely to be thicker than the modern stuff hardware store carries, however.

-- aem sends...

[norminn]

Etched glass can't be removed unless one finds a way to polish it. I've tried all kins of stuff - CLR, vinegar, mineral spirits, Limeaway, acetone - etched is permanent because a little bit of glass is eaten away.

[Zootal]

aemeijers wrote in news:r9idnbynJogPkc7WnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I haven't noticed any difference between the old and the new stuff I bought at HD. It's very possible that none of these are the original windows. They are old enough that the wood frames have all rotted to the point where they can't be repaired, but that can happen in 10-20 years easily as the house sat unattended for many years. Unfortunately, I don't know the history of the house.

[Zootal]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:rMWdnZJTZep2is7WnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

You would have to get some jewlelrs rouge in various sizes - the stuff you use for mirror grinding and polishing. That would work very well, but it is a *LOT* of work. I ground some telescope lenses when I was younger, and it is extremely time consuming. It would leave the glass a bit thinner when you finished, depending on whether you want to get the deeper pits out. Unless the glass has some significant historic value...new glass panes are real cheap :)

[Bob F]

Being careful not to heat stress the glass, heat will soften both paint and glazing compound.

[Joe]

By far the easiest way. KleenStrip methylene chloride type works great. Find a suitable container and soak all the panes together overnight. Let them drain or scrape off the excess stripper and decant the clear portion back in the can for the next project. The panes will scrape clean easily, even fairly thick putty deposits.

Joe

[Roger Shoaf]

Mix hot water and lye in a stout plastic container and give the panes a soak. The gunk should slide right off. Be sure to use gloves and goggles and be careful about splashing.

[Bob F]

Have you had problems cutting old glass to size? Any special tricks to it?