Paint removal on a tunic

[44Stephen-X]

Does anyone have any opinions or recommendations on the removal of paint from a tunic? A collector offered me a 3rd pattern Heer tropical tunic with paint spots on the back and I am curious about removing the spots.
Thanks, Stephen

[CWP]

The simple answer is that there is likely no way to remove the spots without running a serious risk of making it look even worse. Probably best to just leave it alone.

[Paul R.]

Hi 44stephen, I agree with Chris. If that is old oil based paint it is almosst impossible to remove. If it is a old type of a paint wash it my come out a bit lighter in tone. If you really don't know I would truthfully leave it alone. In the world of conservation I do not know of anybody attempt this process. Paul

[ChrisCook]

Paint Removal

Perfect timing....I have successfully removed tar (very effectively) from a large number of US Mountain tunics I acquired. It left small brown stain spots, but was a huge improvement over what they looked like to begin with. I am going to try and remove a small area of paint on another tunic (US, and nothing with a huge amount of value) within the next couple of days using the same product, I'll let you know how it goes, if well I'll pass on how I did it. Chris...