The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a nice Columbia 9 panel horn, which is beautiful on the inside. The outside still retains its nickel plating, but seems to be covered with a coating that has turned somewhat greenish and dirty... maybe lacquer? I would like to polish the outside to match the inside, but have not been able to remove all of the surface coating. So far, I have tried Aircraft Metal Stripper, acetone and ammonia, with not too much progress. The ammonia seemed to work fairly well, but the fumes are horrible. Is there anything else that might work easier?

Curt, I have used a product called MAAS it works pretty well for me. You have to be careful though not to be too aggressive with some tough spots because it can take the nickel off and go right down to the brass.

Wes

Thanks for the info Wes... I was finally able to make some headway. After reading several blogs about removing lacquer from musical instruments, I decided to try two ideas. One, hot water. I used a steam cleaner and that did not work. Two, Easy Off oven cleaner. That did work better than anything so far. I have been able to clean off the accumulated crud and I think it can be polished now, so that's next...

I use easy off on gold plated parts with great results.

Wes

The oven cleaner took off most of the gunk, but there was still a greenish film that wouldn't budge and kept the polish from reaching the nickel. After trying carburetor cleaner and xylene, I was about to give up. But then I stumbled on some cleaner that I bought for my boat called Krazy Clean and tried it. The greenish film started to disappear, so that in conjunction with some Meguiars Mirror Glaze Pro Speed polishing compound (used for boat gel coats) has finally made some progress. So, with some more elbow grease, I should be finished tomorrow. Three days of messing with it, but the final result is going to be great since the bright nickel plating has been preserved under 100+ years of crud...