Need Help Reviving a C&P Pilot
I picked up a C&P Pilot NS recently and am about to embark on a small revival of this little guy.
It has some surface rust / oxidation to take care of. I have read some posts suggesting vinegar/lemon juice while others suggest evapo-rust.
Also, as you can see in the pictures, it is painted a sort of industrial green color. I am used to the nice worn and weathered patina of my C&P 8x12 so I originally assumed this was an after-market paint job. But after a quick google search I saw several other presses in this same shade of (institutional) green. So were any of the presses actually manufactured with this paint job?
So I would love to hear the thoughts on what I should do regarding finishing the press. I would prefer to make it authentic if possible though I am torn between just painting it some bright fun color.
And any suggestions for the best methods for stripping/repainting?
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To remove the rust I’ve had good luck with Evaporust. Just follow the directions and don’t leave it on the press too long as it can cause etching.
To remove the paint I’d try CitriStrip or something similar. This will remove the green paint as well as any paint underneath, so unless you’re intending to disassemble and repaint this press you might want to just leave it as is.
The green paint job is usually an indicator of a press that was used in a school. To my knowledge Chandler and Price never painted their Pilots green, and certainly wouldn’t have painted over the platen bolts regardless of the color.
Hope this helps,
Brad.
What do you mean by etching? How would evaporust do that? There is an earlier thread where somebody soaked paper towels with evaporust and left it on the bed of a cutter, perhaps for too long, and it left the pattern of the paper towels on the metal. Is that what you mean?
@wildmark i read that thread too.
can you buy evapo-rust locally or only online? is there something similar i could pick up at a home improvement or auto parts store?
anxious to get started.
To me your best approach would be some medium fine steel wool and elbow grease to remove the rust from the platen, bed, and ink disc. They should all clean up pretty well. Leave the green paint, which looks to be in good condition and is protecting the press, and ink it up and print. It’s a working machine, not a piece of sculpture! ;-)
Bob
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i guess i was just concerned about protecting areas where the paint was flaking off. but i suppose it isn’t like it will be sitting out in the rain or anything. ;)