Post #293348 by verbatone on Tue, Mar 20, 2007 2:42 PM

Hi, First time poster, long time reader/searcher. I saw this beauty (and what a beauty it was with its pink paint job) about two weeks ago as I walked into a thrift store. From across the store I knew it was a Witco, but a PINK witco? Couldn't be, but one never knows. As I got closer though, I knew it was not original paint, and to top it off, someone had painted the cloth without removing the frame nor the outrigger so there was pretty pink paint all over the sides of the cedar pieces. Well I knew if I didn't buy it, who knows what would happen to it, so I got it and decided to restore it. On with the pictures.

The original pink beauty

Confirmation of a second (horrible) paint job.

reclothed and painted back board

and at last the finished product.

My only regret and suggestion for someone who's trying to do the same thing would be to paint the backing board before putting the cloth on. I was painting the fabric with a brush and roller, but it was difficult to get the paint onto the backing board which Witco painted white. Given this, there are a few small spots where you can see white throught the osnaburg fabric. I believe Witco probably used a paint sprayer to paint the fabric, so they could get a deeper coverage due to the paint mist being able to hit the backing board.

Hopefully no one else finds the need to get paint off the cedar, but if you do, zip-strip does a good job and isn't too caustic. I just used a toothbrush and wet cloth to scrub the paint off after the zip-strip did its job.

Now I have a question, should the cedar be oiled? I see other pieces which are darker and are shinier than mine, I presume this is due to the oiling. Enjoy and thanks, -verbatone