GE 803 Restoration

[ohohyodafarted]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Nice work! I am quite surprised that the original decals were still ok under the ugly white paint.

jr

I think if the set hadn't been painted white, the original finish might have been rather nice. The decals were under a thick coat of old varnish/lacquer, and by carefully removing the old paint first, and then carefully dissolving the old finish a little at a time, I worked myself down to just a thin layer of varnish over the decal area and completely removed the finish in the surrounding areas. That left the original decals with just a thin layer of old varnish over the decals and down to bare wood elsewhere. After staining the surrounding areas to match the background color under the decals, and then 3 coats of new lacquer, the decals blended in to the surrounding area fairly well. It's not perfect, but at least the decals were saved.