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How To Remove Water Stains From Kit Boxes

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This is probably a bit of a non starter, but I was wondering if anyone else had considered the possibility of removing water stains from kit boxes, or at the least improving the look of really bad stains.

Ordinarily I don't agree with cleaning and polishing boxes to make them newer, firstly because this destroys genuinely old patina and secondly because a perfect box doesn't look old, in my personal opinion.

However, of late I have added a couple of really badly water and possibly oil stained (which will be of course a different process) kits into my collection.

I thought of bleach in a light solution, as the paper is white anyway, but bleach does destroy paper if you are not careful.

Anyone with any ideas or experience?

Keep well,

Paul.

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I just tried a few products on my old Super Champ box for you and if anything it made it worse. One of them was mild bleach based and it removed print with only the slightest touch. The others were all household cleaners. Don't panic about the box (I'm not), it was in a real bad way to start with and I only did small tests on oil and water stains. The card, being porous, has soaked up the oils and dirt over time and it's more so in the card than the printed surface.

Sorry to be of no help at all, didn't hurt to try though.

**EDIT: Something my wife just suggested for the oil stains. A clean piece of copy paper over it and iron it with a medium hot clothes iron. This should draw the stain out to the paper and make it less noticable. Try on something non-rare first.

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Nicer try :-) Next time I need to, say dye a bumper black, we can use you as a crash test dummy :-)

So the print came right off, did it! Ooops, I was thinking more of on the white areas than the printed areas, but c'est la vie! Hope the Super Champ box isn't too badly damaged! A friend of mine swears by window cleaner then wood polish (no kidding) to clean and finish his boxes. He is a really prolific collector too!

P.

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Soft pencil eraser cleans the surface grime I just discovered. Rub too much and it removes print. Lets try some wood polish.

**EDIT: The wood polish yellowed the white sections slightly. Didn't move the water or oil stains.

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Do you have a before picture, so we can see how much you destroy, ahem, repair your box?

P.

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Just hit a section with some full strength Sno-White clothes bleach. It didn't remove any print and the water stain is a little less pronounced. Don't know what was in that surface cleaning mild bleach, nasty stuff.

I need to do the whole box with it now, the one clean patch stands out badly. Shame about the 3 winds each way of 2" wide cellotape the seller put around the box to send it to me. I won't be able to clean the stains from under there. Pulling it off will tear the printed surface.

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There is something about in particular Americans (not enthusiasts and collectors mind you) that tape up every box 'securely'.

Makes yout heart bleed when you see some of the damage done!

Paul.

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I know I know pick me , Submerge the whole box in oil or water then it will all be the same ...

I know go to the top of the class but dont take my books as I wont be there long .... :lol:

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Might sound strange, but couldn't you contact a book restorer. Guess they will have all the knowledge, expertise and chemicals to clean cardboard/paper.

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Thanks Mark for your efforts on this, sorry to see you leave the club :-(

Keep well!

Paul.

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I just watched a program on Norwegian TV explaining the restoration work done on Munch's "Madonna" and "Scream" after they were stolen a couple of years back.

The biggest trouble the restorers had was a water stain on the "Scream" which it got after being placed in an old bus at an old farm for a few months. (!)

Mind you, Munch most often painted on cardboard, and so was "Scream", so the restoration was kind of like the restoration of Tamiya Boxes (yeah... right...)

The "Scream" was in 1994 valued at approx. 70 million USD (and the financial crisis has NOT hit the Munch values...)

Anyway, my point is: Using the best experts available in the world, testing for months and months, trying to remove the brownish water stains, ended in them giving up! the Experts did not find a way to remove the stains, without reducing the quality of the painting.

HERE is a picture clearly showing the water damage on "Scream" (the painting on the left...) See lower left corner. Very similar to old water damaged Tamiya Boxes! ;-)

To read more about the conservation/restoration of the paintings, click here

-Lars

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Anyway, my point is: Using the best experts available in the world, testing for months and months, trying to remove the brownish water stains, ended in them giving up! the Experts did not find a way to remove the stains, without reducing the quality of the painting.

I think that's actually quite cool. Rather than trying to pretend it never happened, that painting now has a mark (and not in a place that detracts from the subject) as a kind of "souvenier" from when it was stolen. It's part of the painting's history, and if anything I think makes it more interesting.

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Actually that's true and it concurs with my belief that old slightly damaged kit boxes show better than perfect mint boxes.

Paul.

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