A friend has rescued a street name sign from a skip. It's the street where she was born so it's quite sentimental and she now wants to display it in her house No comments please - I tried and got shot down so just go along with it! The letters are red and black on a white background and are faded. Any ideas what cleaner/solvent I could use to brighten up the colours?
Pete
If they're actually *faded* then you're not going to make them any stronger by cleaning, you'll just make the background whiter/cleaner which will probably enhance things somewhat.
I think I'd just start with simple soap and water or a proprietary product for washing household surfaces.
Very carefully after cleaning, T-cut?
Owain
Agreed. But I think the usual way of tarting them up is repainting.
Depends whether we're talking cast iron, flat painted, printed plastic, reflective...
Theo
Given the sentimental interest it's probably 1, less likely 2
What is the sign made of, and is it one of those where the letters are raised in the material or just on the surface of a piece or metal or plastic. Brian
Red Light Close ?
Start with water. That's the best solvent.
Letters are painted (stencilled I think) on 2.5mm thick white plastic. I've just tried some ordinary household cream cleaner (Tesco's!) and lightly rubbed with fine wire wool. it's improved a lot so think I'll leave it at that and quit while I'm winning. Thanks for suggestions.
Pete
you can get car detailing products that restore paint colour & shine on paint & GRP. The ones that do both in one shot aren't as good but they're still pretty good. I wouldn't use wire wool myself.
NT
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