Hi
I've just aquired a Kandya Jason chair which I intend to restore. It's been repainted badly (lots of brush marks), but the person who did it obviously took their time to get into every nook and cranny all over with a thick coat of gloss!
I'm thinking that in order to make the refurb easier I need to separate the legs from the seat by removing the 3 screws in the seat. Looking at the way the seat is constructed out of a single piece of bent ply, connected by a jigsaw type join underneath, I'm wondering if the thing is likely to pop apart if I dismantle it?!
Does anyone out there have any knowledge or exeprience?
Thanks
Kandya
Hi, I have restored those chairs before. There should be absolutely no reason that they wouldn't come off easily once the screws are gone. The more difficult task is the work needed to strip the shell down. I used paint stripper on ones that had three or four layers of paint - It took a long time using the sandpaper and wirewool (and a light sand with a fine paper sometimes)...you just have to be patient and do it in stages. Because the chairs are curved I used an artists palette knife to scrape at the paint and sometimes a long blade - Dont use a straight, stiffened tool which is likely to scratch into the plywood. To finish the chairs afterwards I just applied several layers of grain sealer whilst sanding lightly between coats. You could also use french polish which is shellac based if you work quickly and apply it with a rag...perhaps diluting it would help although I found it best not to.
.
Good advice.
Modern EU sanctioned paint stripper (Nitromors etc) is crap so try get some trade only stuff with the good old nasty toxic stuff left in. Hard part will be to get any paint that's seeped into the grain out - curved ply can be a right bastard in this respect. I would finish with couple a coats of sanding sealer followed by wax and 0000 wire wool
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