How to remove paint but preserve original finish?

5891 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by diy mike, Jul 15, 2009

Indyguy

Discussion Starter · Jul 14, 2009

I have nice solid wood kitchen cabinets that are about 30 yrs old. I really like the door style so no since in changing them out. However they are currently painted white, and they appear to have have been primed before painted. I not only dislike white cabinets...I hate painted cabinets period.
I discovered on the back of one of the cabinet doors had not been painted. The finish is a dark green stain. I would like to remove the paint but maintain the finish.
My concern is removing the original finish with the paint.
I am up for striping the cabinets but not sure What kind of paint stripper to use that will not strip the stain off the original finish. Thanks

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PaliBob

· #2 · Jul 14, 2009 (Edited)

Indyguy said:
......The finish is a dark green stain. I would like to remove the paint but maintain the finish......

When your cabinets were being built, They did not start out being made from wood that had a dark green stain.

After the cabinets, with NO finish, were assembled, then the dark green stain was applied.

Any type of chemical or mechanical stripper is NOT going to be able to differentiate between layers.

Strip the paint and see if you can duplicate the original finish.

To make the messy stripping process easier, some folks take all the doors Off, and take them down to a commercial stripper.
.

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diy mike

· #3 · Jul 14, 2009

Hate to say it, but any method of stripping is going to remove or damage the finish you're trying to uncover.

I agree with PaliBob - your best bet is to try and match the original finish.

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Indyguy

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 15, 2009

What about using a heat gun?
Would that preserve the original finish?

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diy mike

· #5 · Jul 15, 2009

Not even a heat gun is going to do it for you.

Even if you managed to get the paint off without damaging the finish underneath (which would be painstaking and near impossible) you will have some areas where a little stubborn paint clings to the surface. Normally you'd just sand these spots away, but you can't do that without damaging the original finish.

I agree that if you were going to attempt this a heat gun would be the way to go... but the results will not be a clean surface with all the paint stripped and the original finish in pristine condition. Having said that, if you want to give it a shot use a heat gun on one of the doors and see where that gets you. No harm in doing this if you're set on getting rid of the paint.

Sorry for being such a downer, but I don't think this one's possible :icon_confused:

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