Paint not drying on previously waxed doors

[pilchardlover]

We stupidly mistook some interior wood panel doors as untreated but now realise that they had been waxed many years ago. The oil-based gloss we painted on them is taking ages to dry and I wondered if anyone had any tips or advice.

The options I'd thought of are:

1. Be patient, wait for the paint to dry and try applying a second coat.
2. Replace the doors with new ones.
3. Try and strip off the still tacky paint, then try and strip off the wax (if so, how?)

I don't really want to go for option 2; option 3 would I guess be messy and time-consuming; I suppose I'm hoping that people will recommend going for option 1!

Brett

[Stuart Noble]

Try rubbing it down with coarse wire wool and white spirit, which should be a solvent for the paint and the wax. This gets the gunk off which then gets absorbed into the wire wool. A relatively clean operation. Once that dries, the oil paint should take ok.

[Andy Dingley]

White spirit and wire wool to remove the affected paint.

Coat of shellac to seal it (shellac is one of the few things that will cover wax).

Paint over the shellac as normal.

Do a trial piece first.