How to Remove Gold Paint Pen from a Glossy Photo
 

Question for the board...

I have an 8*10 glossy photograph that was signed in Gold paint marker. The photo is quite rare, so when one came up for sale, I jumped on it. Problem is, it was personalized... And not to me! Taking a risk, I decided to try to remove th personalization with acetone. It worked wonderfully, taking t all off without any damage to the photo. However, the original personalization left a bit "shadow effect" in places. In other words, some of the original personalization can be seen when tipping the photograph into the light - not as an imprint from depressing the marker, but as a bit of residue left over.

Has anyone had luck removing this before? If so, how? Looking straight on to the photo, you would never see the residue - but if its able to be removed, I'd like too.

Are you sure it's residue, and not that the glossy surface of the photo is etched from the paint pen?

Lance-

Most def residue. Very light, but def residue.

- Jon

I haven't tried it yet, but the method & product mentioned here is said to be able to remove paint from the surface of photos without damaging them, and I imagine would therefore work for paint "residue" as well:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showpos...3&postcount=17

Thx! I'll pick some up and let you know how it works.

Did you use lab grade anhydrous acetone or acetone from home depot?

even 1-3% water in the acetone means there is water and it could damage the photo and leave unnecessary blotches. Anhydrous is "lab" grade at ".5%" it's technically zero but it's so small they have to label it as having "some"

Def used the Home Depot generic brand. In terms of damage, there really was none, luckily. What I do see, however, hen tilting the photograph in the light, is remnants of the "T" in "To" and the letters "ad" which formed part of the name it was personalized to. In terms of other splotches or damage, there was none.

Try a dry erase marker. I saw a kid at the ballpark covering an autograph with a dry erase marker (blacking it out) and eraing it with his shirt. Removed sharpier perfectly.

He thought Nate Schierholtz was a different player. Or the other was around.

Instead of trying to remove the ink from the photo, try removing the photo from the ink. It's a Zen thing.

Stopped up an purchased the product, the cloths and gloves today from Adorama. Unfortunately the product worked about the same as acetone. So, didn't harm the photo at all, but didn't remove the residue. I brought the photo with me to Adorama, and they agreed it was some sort of residue (i.e., marker staining, so to speak). I'll update the board if I figure out something that works.

I've heard that you can use a dry erase marker to remove sharpie on photos. Something in the composition of the dry erase ink will break down the sharpie. Just cover it completely and wipe away. I've never tried this myself (no reason to) and I definitely wouldn't recommend it if the surface is at all cracked or broken in any way, but it may also work on paint pens. Might be worth a test.

that is definitely how you get permanent marker off of a dry erase board...just mark over the permanent stuff with dry erase and then wipe off.

get a very soft white eraser from an art store, go slow and in circles

Anyone know if you can remove black sharpie from a gold mini helmet? Had a Heisman winner start writing his Heisman year to the right of his name and stopped mid-stroke of the first number and wrote it under his name instead. Thanks!

Nevermind! I just did some research, Paul Hornung writes his uniform # (5) to the right of his name! I thought he started to write 56 Heisman. My bad!

Pec-12
 

I also have several 8x10 glossy photographs that are personally signed in Gold and Black Sharpie. I opened up the links you provided and read all the information. I decided To purchase Pec-12. Total cost was $18.95. The product was easy to use and the results can only be described as FANTASTIC. All the pictures maintained the High Gloss and do not show any visible signs of ink removal. I would suggest using an eye dropper when applying the product. I was able to control the flow of the liquid without fear of damaging the original signature. Thanks for the information.