Restoring an old sign...

[Circleville Signs]

OK - got a call today from a lady who is on her city council. Someone came across the sign that was used in the 40's as their town welcome sign. They would like to restore it.

Now, i'm always down for a challenge, and I will quote the job as follows:

Shop rate * how ever many hours it takes + materials. The "however many hours it takes" is going to remain a variable. Basically, they are writing me an open ended check. They indicate they are fine with that.

This is a wooden sign, approximately 4'x10'. They want to maintain some of the patina, but just restore it and re-seal it.

My question is this - are there any specific challenges that I should prepare myself for? I've never done this type of work with a sign before. I have restored old furniture and frames in the past, but I know this is going to be a different set of challenges. Just thought I'd pick all of your brains a bit....

 

[Billct2]

If this is a seriously historic sign (which it sounds like it is) then it should be gently cleaned and displayed inside somewhere.

 

[Gino]

If it's wood or plywood, you must find out how much rot and decay have taken place and if you can mend it.... or will it do more harm then good.

If it is indeed 70 years old, it might be safer and more cost effective to just make a replica of the old one and like Bill said.... clean, give it a minor face-lift and store the old one inside on display somewhere.

 

[TammieH]

Have you see the sign? Is it carved? Routed? Like Gino asked is it plywood? MDO? If it is plywood/MDO, unless it has really nice hand painted logo/graphics, its not worth restoring.

We do a lot of sign restoration here, mainly old carved redwood and sandblasted signs, as long as the sign is mostly there it can be restored easily enough. If there is wood rot, maybe 10% of the sign its easily restored. MinWax makes a wood hardener that works well enough. You can replace some of the worst spots with new wood. I would guesstimate 30-40 hours for a nicer wood carved/routed/sandblasted.

But you really need to take a hard look at the sign first...just as when someone buys an old wooden boat.