When you see any furniture, the most beautiful thing that catches your eye are the beautiful trims. Almost every furniture has ornately and elaborately carved trims. Most often these trims look like photo frames, but the difference is that in furniture the trims catches the eye with their designs, while in a photo frame, the frame is dwarfed by the picture. So, your constant desire is always to keep the trims spick and span. Other than furniture, wood trims in the dashboards of cars sets them a class apart. The first wood trims were used in the 80s by Mercedes-Benz. Since then wood trims have become a standard addition in luxury cars. But, either as furniture or as a style item in your car, have you ever wondered what would happen if the beautiful varnished trim gets spoiled, by paint, for example. Sometimes, you may not even notice the paint until it gets dried up. Then you are faced with the prospect of replacing the trim. This is what many people do, as they don’t know how to get rid of this paint. If you have a painted trim then someday you may also feel the need to spruce it up with a change of color. For this you need to remove the original paint, and to do this without harming the trim, is possible, but under some guidelines. Read below to know more on how you can go about it.
Tips On Removing Old Paint From Trim
- First, clean the trim with soap and water. This will remove all excess dirt and grease if there are any. Now, take a microfiber cloth, and add five to eight drops of rubbing alcohol to it. Rub the paint on the trim that you wish to remove. Rub thoroughly for some time until the paint starts coming out. Then clean the trim with a clean microfiber cloth.
- You can use a razor blade to remove the paint from the trim. Place the razor against the paint at an angle of 45 degrees and slide the blade along the paint area using pressure. If the paint is old then you will have to take off the layer from the wood. You can also gently scrape with the razor blade on the trim to remove the paint.
- You can also remove the paint by scrapping or gently rubbing it with a wire brush. This is especially good when the paint is old and dried.
- Commercial paint removers are also quite effective. Apply the remover as per instructions and then use a wire brush on the paint. It is better to use paint removers only when you want to remove the paint from the entire trim. If you want to remove paint from a small area, then it will be quite an expense to use paint removers.
- Scrubbing the trim with nylon wool can also remove the paint, especially any residual paint. After using the nylon wool, rub the trim with paper towels.
- You can also scrape the paint lightly with sandpaper. Be gentle with the sandpaper or you will make scratches on the trim. After scraping lightly with the sandpaper, you can use alcohol dipped microfiber cloth or nylon wool.
- If the paint is too heavy on the trim then you have to use heat to remove the paint. You can apply the heat through an electric paint remover. This device heats the paint and then scrapes it off.