Removing gold paint

How would I go on about removing gold spray paint from a ornate brass light fixture? Most paint removers aren't suitable for metal and rubbing with a cloth and nail polish remover is a lot of work and doesn't strip the deep areas. Any ideas what to do with this?

 

Acetone and a paint brush upwind in a wide open space usually works.Watch out for the fumes!! Rubbing alcohol and a paint brush might work.
Others may have better/safer ideas.
Cheers
Stephen

 

Hi,
Have paint removers changed? I remove tons of paint from metal furniture.
greg

 

A pint of household ammonia, half a cup of liquid soap and half a gallon of boiling water. Dump the gilt brass in that and it will come out clean in a few minutes. Stay upwind of the ammonia fumes. This will not remove genuine gilding, only gold paint. It leaves the brass very easy to polish.

 

I haven't compared many products, but the paint remover I found at a hardware store recently said it wasn't suitable for metal surfaces.

 

I've read before that's how they used to polish gilt brass items back in the day, but it's not recommended due to the ammonia starting to damage the metal after several dips. I suppose if it's done just once for paint removal, as you suggested, there might not be damage to the metal.

 

It is advisable to thoroughly rinse the object.
Dunking in a carbonate solution such as sodium bicarbonate would cause any remaining ammonia to form an inert carbonate, but this is probably overdoing it.
It is a pretty standard way of cleaning brass clock movements. I have used it on gilded clock cases that have been touched up or gone over with gold paint.

 

I'm not knowledgeable on the subject matter, but recall reading from what I believe was the Victoria and Albert Museum's website that ammonia is not recommended. I don't remember if it was them, or another article that explained how repeatedly ammonia-dipped pieces, despite the first spectacular cleaning results, could become "dull and etched" and how eventully the gilding would be destroyed.

Here's an article on cleaning ormolu (gilt brass / bronze) and it mentions some of the ammonia damage:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/caring-for-your-gold-and-ormolu/

 

Again you have sought out and found the most nonsensical sources and repeated them for others to see as if they were fact. Ammonia has zero effect on gold.

 

What about brass?

 

Hi,
I always cleaned gilt frames and lamps with alcohol. Most dirt and stuff is from smoking and coal furnaces. I use the alcohol on mirrors also. Never seemed to bother them.
greg

 

I tried rubbing alcohol and it didn't affect the gold paint.