Stripping paint off fire damaged HDU carved sign

[Billct2]

Well here's a new one for me. A double sided carved HDU sign we did for a church was damaged in a brush fire. The finish got cooked pretty well but
the sign itself seems fine, from what I can see. It is double sided with an applied panel on top and a cross on that. It was finished with acrylic polyurethane and gold leaf.
I'm wondering what's the best way to get the thing stripped down. I called a couple furniture strippers but they won't touch it. I was thinking we could try a paint stripper ourselves but it seems like a lot of work, and mess. I thought about some type of "soft" blasting like soda or walnut shells, but again not sure how the HDU would hold up.
Anyone ever dealt with this successfully?

 

[player]

New sign?

 

[J Hill Designs]

APU is pretty sturdy paint...maybe try its own reducer? If it doesn't work, its not like you will ruin the sign further...

 

[Jacob Singer]

Now that's irony.

 

[signguy 55]

I would only do a new sign. As I like to tell customers who expect the impossible - "You want me to perform a miracle? Who do I look like, Jesus Christ?"
No way I would try to salvage that.

 

[ChaseO]

If the other side is the same way, I wouldn't be surprised but what it wouldn't be cheaper to start over, especially if it is an insurance job. If you try to sand or soda blast the paint off, it will likely never be smooth and flat again. The wrong chemical absorbing into HDU could potentially screw up future paint bonding like it should. If it were me and I was going to try anything, I'd sand the top surface of the sign down, and I would scuff up the grooved letters and re-primer everything.

 

[Billct2]

Unfortunately there's no insurance. Seems a shame to have to scrap it since it is only the finish that got damaged.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Unfortunately there's no insurance. Seems a shame to have to scrap it since it is only the finish that got damaged.

Charge for 'exploratory refurbish no guarantees' - you can possibly soften the paint with reducer, but best bet would be like mentioned just sand it all down and hope for the best

 

[CanuckSigns]

I don't think it's going to be possible to fix that without it looking like it's been repaired. I would think with all the labour involved to POSSIBLY fix it, they would be better off getting a new sign, that's what insurance is for right!

 

[rjssigns]

I'd tell them no guarantees that I could salvage it then hit it with a pressure washer. If that makes it look a lot better I'd get after it with one if these: http://ndsander.com/900-series/

From the photos it doesn't look too bad. Just scorched.

 

[Marlene]

I don't think it looks liek just the paint is damaged. if the heat was enough to do that, HDU is just urethane and the texture of it must be damaged so it would never be smooth again. maybe a belt sander? I wouldn't put any chemicals on it

 

[nashvillesigns]

resolution of the sign

So, how did the resolution of this job go??

Christopher

 

[Billct2]

After a bit of negotiation the insurance decided to cover replacing the sign.
We're just done carving the new faces and starting to paint.
And after getting the old signs on the shop it was more evident that they weren't salvagable