After seeing the beautiful retro furniture available on RetroOffice.com, I convinced my husband that we should update our office desk with an old Steelcase model (he’s a big Superman fan, and the office is Superman themed, so we’re going for a mix of retro-comic style.)
We lucked out, and found an old Steelcase desk for FREE off Craigslist. Picked the monster up, got it home, and have been staring at it ever since.
It came from an old art studio, so right now it’s covered in a layer of white spray-paint and decoupaged artwork, which I’m going to use a combination of paint remover and sandpaper to gradually strip / sand down to the underlying steel.
Eventually we want the entire desk to have a polished “chrome” finish to it, but we’re not sure of the best way to get it there. Once we get it down to the underlying steel, should we basecoat, “chrome” paint and clear topcoat? (If so — any brand suggestions?) Or will a chrome paintjob look streaky and uneven.
Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?
(As a longshot aside — anyone know how to find out the year of manufacture? I can’t find the original sticker that should be on it, and I know there should be a “stamp” somewhere, but I don’t know where.)
[ Edit: I fixed the URL above. Thanks! ]
I know this is an old post, but thought I would add my comments. I recently stripped an old Art Metal tanker desk. As mentioned above, stripper doesn’t have much effect on the paint. Through online searching, I came across using e-z off heavy duty oven cleaner. Messy and stinky, but it will remove the paint. Wear hand and eye protection, because this stuff is made with lye and it burns like crazy when it makes skin contact. Do a section at a time. Once you figure out the timing between application and scraping, it goes pretty smoothly. I had a hard time figuring out how to remove the top on this desk. Google has a search for patents which show the assembly cvonstruction methods. Try patent no. 2461823 for the Art Metal tanker. Hope this helps spmeone on their project.
There is a reason Steelcase filing cabinets In particular are so difficult to get the paint off of. One gentleman I was having a random conversation with said that when powder coat the steel they use a paint that has another ferrous metal as an ingredient and it is magnetized. So, according to this lovely gent “it bonds better than my two ex wives at a family picnic. Those two are thick as theives and ain’t a damn thing I can do” lol.
I told him I was steaming my file cabinet and he was amazed.
I only got two drawers done before hanging up the towel. But on the rust issue- rust will proliferate where ever there is ANY RUST. Even the smallest tiniest bit. You sand it, you must wash it, and dry it with absolutely untainted paper towels. Then Poly it. What ever brand your using ask your local hardware store if they carry an enamel hardening agent for high gloss. You can add that to your clear or you can use it by its self. Best of luck