Restoration of a No 15 Mk 1 transit chest.

[Brian Dick]

Methylated spirits is called denatured alcohol over here to clarify any confusion.

[Garandy]

Thanks all, I've got some denatured alcohol here so I'll give it a try and see what happens.

[Peter Laidler]

DanL is almost there but the movement of 'warlike stores' were a different matter for political reasons. Will say all when I've got some time to write it up

[Garandy]

As an update, a rag soaked in denatured alcohol made the lid of my transit chest cleaner, but did not remove any paint. What to try next as a solvent?

[tr63]

Denatured alcohol will not work on oil based paint. But can work on older latex water based paint .

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Acetone or lacquer thinners, both usually found in "automotive specialist" stores will take paint of just about any description off most materials. Paint that has been applied over an old coat without proper preparation, like sanding back and priming, is relatively fragile in its adherence to the previous coating. As Peter said, careful wipes of small areas is the way to go to take off the offending material. If you can see the difference in surface profile that indicates the lettering, the "top-coat" is probably very thin, so be careful in those places. Do this in a well-ventilated space or outdoors, away from naked flames and DO NOT SMOKE whilst playing with this stuff. Solvent resistant gloves are a good thing, too. Acetone and lacquer thinners will rip all the natural oils from your skin; nasty!

Get your inner "fine art restorer" vibe going. If it's good enough for a four hundred year old masterpiece, it's good enough for one of those chests, or any other desirable bit of surplus packaging.

[Peter Laidler]

Yes, MEDLOC =- Mediterranean Locations and was the train across Europe used to reinforce all of the places on-route. My mother went down to Italy on that train as a UK civilian interpreter (English/Italian) for the British Occupation Army in Italy, based in Venice and Mestre. There was a lot of geo-politics regarding the occupation of Trieste and even more so, Austria. The Soviets insisted that this locomotive was used as a troop transport and liable to inspection and was ot permitted to reinforce anywhere south of the US/UK/France part of occupied Germany. So no warlike stores except personnel except (I believe, side-arms) for defence use.

No tanks, vehicles artillery because this might be used to reinforce occupied Austria and disputed Trieste. So quite what your No4T and chest was doing on the train was a bit of a mystery and will always remain so. My mum ended up in Austria (Graz) and often told us about the nightmare journey down and back on the Medloc train - bringing me back on the return journey after meeting and marrying my dad who was also an Italian speaker and part of the Occupation Army in Italy. When we were growing up, we were most suprised that she could speak all these languages including French and German to boot

[Garandy]

Peter, that sounds quite interesting.

I've come up with a bit of Acetone and will give that a shot some time this week and report back.

[RobD]

In case anyone wants, I still have a 3 lengths of 1941-dated whipcord if anyone wants to re-string the chocks on their transit case.
Only important if you are a stickler for period detail in your transit case restoration. No charge, but recipient pays postage.
Rob

[rgg_7]

Rob...I'll take you up on your offer. Ron (Canada) I'll PM you my address.

In case anyone wants, I still have a 3 lengths of 1941-dated whipcord if anyone wants to re-string the chocks on their transit case.
Only important if you are a stickler for period detail in your transit case restoration. No charge, but recipient pays postage.
Rob