ammo can

[micmacman]

few weeks ago found a WW2 flaming bomb 50 cal can in a indoor flea market , fella had $30 on it but it had silver paint lathered all over it , i told him honestly i wasnt sure if the silver could even be removed without taking the original with it , he blurts out $20 , so i grabbed it

its been a trial and error effort so far , some in another forum said i should just take it all off and spray it new , i thought that was insane without trying , and yes it had occurred to me that may end up the case if it turned into a debacle

first tried my heat gun method that does awsome removing Poly from stocks , and it did work but it was too easy the take the high points too far before the flats , ,i did everything in moderation first to see what was happening , then someone suggested citrus acid but they said it would take it all off ,old and new

thought not if i only leave on for 5 minutes , so i did a test patch , it was working , but was a bit fast so made me nervous , wiped it on a larger test area and let sit for 2 minutes and wiped it off , it softened the silver somewhat and then i took a old sock and denatured and walah , it started pulling the silver , not fast ,but slow and controllable ,with a fair amount of elbow , not going to lie , not a fun resto

so 15-20 minutes here and there after a few weeks all the silver is gone , there were aready areas that had primer showing , and the high edges were already worn as you may expect but the original paint was saved , it had been re stenciled and a coat of green over the original paint , i was able to remove the overlap stencil saving the original , and i still have some patches of the second green here and there but its shaping up nicely

befores and afters

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Looks good now. We repurposed lots of cans by painting over the original stenciling and remarking the new contents. After, to remove all except the green, we used acetone and a rag. The stenciling and second coat came right off like water. The original green would stay put.

[micmacman]

i had thought about acetone , i had a jug of denatured , and i figured the denatured was less aggressive , was getting results so i stayed with it , i just put a little time here and there

[Flying10uk]

Unfortunately there appears to be some sort of "silly rule" that UK surplus ammo cans that are sold off nowadays on the surplus market have to have the markings covered in yellow paint. So far I haven't discovered a good way of removing the yellow paint without removing the markings that are below.

[browningautorifle]

i figured the denatured was less aggressive

Absolutely, yes.

So far I haven't discovered a good way of removing the yellow paint without removing the markings that are below.

You could try a brake cleaner spray that has acetone as it's best ingredient, it lifts paint but isn't as heavy as pure acetone on a rag...

[micmacman]

so no collector cans then in the UK , thats rogh , i use them for gun bench supply's , i do not use for ammo anymore , use the new ones for that

[Flying10uk]

so no collector cans then in the UK

They didn't use to do it but for some reason they have decided to spray over the markings nowadays.

[micmacman]

They didn't use to do it but for some reason they have decided to spray over the markings nowadays.

this can had the silver paint over new yellow stencil ,over new green paint , over the original stencil that was applied to the original paint that was on red oxide primer , i was able to save the original stencil and paint with elbow grease , denatured alcohol on a old sock to apply the denatured alcohol , i did use citrus stripper first leaving on only for a couple minutes to soften the silver , it helped ,but i do not believe i would have used the citrus stripper if not for the silver paint , take your time and hope you get lucky removing theyellow on yellow , i would wonder how hard it would be to determine where the new ends and the old starts

[browningautorifle]

i would wonder how hard it would be to determine where the new ends and the old starts

With ours, the original paint is a different color from the spray on later paint. Easy to see. The later color paint in our case is usually the guy that pilfered the can for personal use, they are supposed to be returned and then surplus by Crown Assets. Ours will be sold with a tag declaring the can to be explosive free.

[Flying10uk]

This is one example.

If memory serves me correctly the dealer who was selling these packs of 4 ammo cans said that they were for armoured fighting vehicles.