Renovating bronze plaques

[Chuck Peterson]

I have been asked to quote on renovating/refinishing several cast bronze plaques. They are on walls and cannot be removed. Some are nearly 100 years old, others maybe 25 years. They range in size from about 8x10" up to 3x4 feet. I have sold quite a few of these over the years, using Gemini to cast or machine them for me. They use a baked enamel on the background. That won't be possible here.

The process is basically, clean well, paint, sand raised areas to expose new bronze. Clear coat (maybe).
I would like to bid on this. I think I can do a good job but have never done this and don't have a plaque to practice on. My first concern is this: Is a good quality canned spray paint going to adhere well to the backgrounds?

I actually like them aged looking but they are difficult to read. One idea is the leave the patinaed backgrounds and just sand the raised areas. My only concern with that is I am inevitably going to sand parts of the background and would not be able to fix that, so painting the background is probably the way to go.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I did find a YouTube video that says use laquer on the backgrounds. I'm not sure why laquer is used.

Thanks.

 

[tbullo]

No experience doing it, but I know Matthews sells a resurfacing kit.

 

[JTBoh]

If enamel is on the plaque, I'd stick with enamel. Handpaint it in, or find someone who can.

 

[Billct2]

I have done this (but not bronze, brass and aluminum) and I think a lot has to do with the client and their expectations. If the plaques are historic and the client wants authenticity it may be better left to a professional metal refinisher. I worked on a job where there was a company restoring bronze doors, it was a major project. We later hired them to patina some etched bronze panels we made.

 

[Chuck Peterson]

Thanks. I have contacted Matthews for info on their refinishing kit.