Singer paint question
 

Are any of the 'old black Singers' painted, as opposed to Japanned? Other machines that came out in the same era as the Japanned ones were painted, so now I'm wondering about the black ones. Anybody know?

I don't know either. I just got a FW with no lacquer on it - I know this because it came powdered and I wiped it off. Anybody know if you can fix missing lacquer? The machine is otherwise in good shape cosmetically.

Some of them have a matt finish, is that what you mean by powdered. Sometimes called krinkle finish. Just though would toss that in for info.

No it was the lacquer - must have been in some heat - the finish powered and dusted off.

Miriam, the only way to replace the clear coat is with clear coat (paint).

You can use a car wax to protect what is left of the decals, try a non abrasive resin glaze for cars....or you can use Liquid Gold.... I use car wax, it's meant to protect a car's finish from "flying objects", and weather....I think it's tougher than the Liquid Gold.

Liquid Gold has a kerosene-like petroleum base and that would cause laquer not to stick. It would be excellent to get the smokey, oily, brown, coating off though. Mine looked as though it had a 3 pack a day habbit. I finally used Dow Scrubbing bubbles, not pressing on the decals. It worked well and didn't damage anything, but I put it on the cloth, not the machine. I then used "Back to Black" (WalMart) car polish and now it sparkles like a new one. Don't ever spray anything on a machine, only on the cloth to prevent wetting something you can't get dry in the cracks. I hesitate to clear coat them because they really need to be taken apart to do a good job after they were deglazed. Maybe someday. I really enjoy Charlee's posts. She really knows her stuff.

What is Back to Black - is it a cleaner and a polish or just resin?

Back to Black

I haven't tried this one yet...but after reading, maybe I should! :)

I was looking at Back to Black when I was at Walmart last time. Didn't buy it. Likely should have and will next shopping trip. If it doesn't work on my sewing machines it will work on my truck. The truck is black. Now that I am thinking about my truck, when I bought it I had it coated with some kind of protective paint coating. I will have to do a little research on it. No reason it would not work on sewing machines after their paint has been cleaned.