rusty chassis - what to do?

[PRNDL]

I have an old Precision (Western Electric) mono amp that has a fair amount of surface rust on the chassis. Nobody will see it when it's inside its metal box.

I could steel wool and scrape it off, but the black painted lettering would come off as well. The lettering is on a dirty part of the chassis that's not very close to the rust.

The circuitry is fantastic - high end caps, military style wiring. Replacing or removing the chassis for cleaning/refinishing is not really worth the effort.

I'm thinking of using steel wool on the bad parts and coating it with clear. It won't be beautiful and shiny, but it would be nice and protected.

Also, someone spray painted the outer chassis (a square metal box) in ugly red.

Do you recommend stripping the paint and repainting?
How does one strip it (chemicals or sanding)?

What would you recommend?

Thanks!!

[Tom Bavis]

Try lacquer thinner to strip the paint - it's worked for me. OUTDOORS!

As for the rust... not a whole lot you can do. You can strip the chassis down to bare metal and use electrolytic rust removal... probably will remove any paint and plating though... (google for more). A less drastic approach is to use a rust conversion primer (phosphoric acid based - auto parts store) to stabilize the rust and then paint with aluminum or other silver paint. The latex based primer won't protect it without additional paint.