Grinding The Paint Off

I started on the next two panels today.  Here is what I am up against.  Kinda peeling huh?  So I use a good metal scraper at first to get all the loose stuff off.  Then I have to hit it with the grinder.

 

And when I say grinder I mean grinder not a sander.  A sander is just to light duty to get all the old paint off.  I think there is still paint on these panels from the original paint job which was done in 1925.  The entire resort was remodeled in 1992 but I can tell that these panels were not stripped down all the way then.  Which is probably why its peeling so bad now.  So what I am doing is taking all the paint off down to the original surface and starting over from scratch.  I spent all day grinding paint off and got both panels ready to prime.  The grinder is a really powerful tool so I have to be careful about what I am doing.

 

 

 

The top part of this next panel is done and ready to prime.  What you see is about how much area I can work on at a time until I have to move the swing stage down a little more.  Notice how the design is almost a white and the background color is redish.  The design is actually a different material than what the background material is.  The design is a plaster and the background is a concrete.  Because the design is a plaster I have to be real careful with the grinder I could easily grind the plaster right off so I need a light touch, enough pressure to get the paint but leave the plaster.  The concrete is a harder substrate but I still have made some gouges in it with the grinder so even with that I need to be careful.  I got both panels looking like the top of this one below and ready to prime but it started to rain and I had to knock off for the day.  Back at it Monday.

 

 

Two Relief Sculpture Panels Completed

 I was able to finish up on the first two panels today.  They came out great and the Vinoy management is very happy with how things are progressing along.  I obviously can't get back from to take a good picture but I will get some with a good slr and a telephoto lens soon.

Moving Along Nicely

I made some good headway yesterday with relief sculpture panels.  Painting them is going to take some time however.  Because the image is a relief design I first thought that I would be able to use a small foam roller and roll out the white.  That would have been great but not to be.  There is not enough relief involved plus parts have fallen off thru the years.  The panels are 90 years old and I can tell it is not the first time some one has worked on them.  There are gouges and nicks from previous clean ups that have been done.  So the only way to get it to look good is to brush on the white with artist brushes and of course it takes two coats to get the coverage needed.  I would estimate I got about 60% of the design painted in on both panels.  The lower part of the design does not have as much detail as the upper portion.  After the panels are done I will paint the 'frame' around them.  I need to get this done today because they are going to move the swing stage over to the next set of  panels tomorrow.

Working High on the Relief Sculptured Panels.

I got the panels cleaned up today after all my grinding on Friday.  Then I primed with Loxon clear and applied the background color.

Me on the swing stage.

 

A couple of shots of the panels half coated with the background color.  I ended up applying two coats of background color on each panel.

 

 

 

If you look at the top floor the two panels on the left are the ones I got the background on today.