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I have been lurking around here and at another forum for several months now. I was searching for a new piano for several months, but that purchase has been put on hold because I bought a Honda S2000 about a month ago.

Anyway, I picked up a 1925 Wurlitzer baby grand (under 5') for $100. Despite extremely rusty strings and some rodent havoc, my tech was able to get it tuned and all of the keys working. The tone is not very good, but at least I have a piano to play for now. The finish is mahogany, and someone attempted to refinish it. However, they did not get all of the old finish off before they put a new finish on. Therefore, there are black spots in the finish. The lyre has been partially stripped, but has no finish on it at this point.

Although we have red mahogany furniture in the room where the piano resides, I am afraid that I will not be able to get all of the finish off if I try to strip it. In any event, I am afraid that removing the finish would require more work than I am willing to put into this piano. I would like it to look a little better in my house, though. I wonder whether I could just skip the stripper, clean it really good and paint it black and put some kind of protective poly finish over the black paint. If so, what kind of paint should I use? Water based, oil based, flat, satin, gloss? Can it be brushed on or will I have to use a sprayer? What kind of protective finish? Is polyurethane okay or is an old varnish or shellac or something else better? I know that new pianos have what is called "polyester" finish. Is that substantially different from the polyurethane I could buy at a paint store?

Thanks for any suggestions.

How much work are you willing to invest? Painting anything (piano, cars, houses, rooms) depends on the prep work. If the color or finish is even marginally acceptable, you might get away with some Bruce One Step Floor refinisher. Try it on a small area first (inside of a leg). If it does not work, you are looking at a lot of work, if you do not want it to look like a hand painted car.

The problem is that someone has tried to strip the finish and only partially removed it. Then, they put on a new finish over the partially removed finish. So, it has dark spots where there is still clearly the old finish underneath. Will this refinishing solution get rid of these spots?

Spend $100 on a piano cover. Leave it on all the time. Just lift it off the fallboard to play. Let everyone *think* it is a shiny new one!

BTW, my piano has a new finish and I still keep it covered almost constantly.

Heath,

I recall mentioning how I would bring an old upright up to date by having it refinished the way I described; the surface prepared and sealed to accept a new coat of paint, black, and then covered with a polyester high gloss sealer. What I had in mind is to let someone who knows how to do this do it. There is no way in this world that I would ever take on the refinishing of a piano, a piece of regular furniture yes, a piano, no. Why? Because I’m a poor half blind guy who can’t see well enough to make a finish look as good as a sighted guy can make it turn out. For the job required to bring that upright back into something spectacular, I’d hire the right people with the skills to do the job right.

And you shouldn’t either. A $100 piano is in this case a $100 piano that will not get any better no matter what you do to it to try and make it look better. Wurlitzer certainly had the name and the distribution, they didn’t have the quality, except in their theatre organs, but they are an entirely different breed from a piano.

Best thing to do is plan on replacing it with something better, perhaps a genuine $200 piano. Better than wasting your time and money on a piece of junk.

Sorry, but I don’t mince words when it comes to Wurlitzer. Is that old upright that much better than a short Wurlitzer baby grand? It would be if I rebuilt it the way I’d like. It would sound so big it would bury the Wurlitzer, you see it is so tall that it would be like having a 5’10” grand piano on end in your living room.

I've refinished a lot of pianos in my life. There's no way to make one that looks like s**t into something that doesn't look like s**t without a lot of work. All the quick solutions give you is something that looks like a different kind of s**t than what you started with. Oh, and piano finishing is an incredibly messy business, not something you would want to do in the same space you are trying to live in. But if you must do something, I would say just get some flat black enamel and paint it. Don't put any kind of coating over the black - just an absolutely dead flat black that doesn't have the slightest sheen or reflect any light. That will probably make the current mess on the surface of the piano less conspicuous than any other quick solution.

Look at it this way. You had the choice between getting a hot piano or a hot car and you chose the hot car. Nothing wrong with that, but obviously you can't have both. So enjoy the car and don't put too much effort into the piano because this one isn't worth it. Save your money and get a real piano when you can.

Niles Duncan
Piano rebuilder, Pasadena, CA
www.pianosource.com

I'm currently refinishing a mahogany end table with tung oil (it was water damaged and has to match its undamaged twin). Easy to use, smells, stays sticky FOREVER, needs a whole bunch of coats to look good.

I think I would try to put some kind of stain and finish on the piano's lyre and leave the rest alone.

There are places in H^ell for people who paint brick, put vinyl siding on a house, and refinish antique furniture!

Heck Niles, I thought sure this one was a candidate for a French Polish.........

Or a fireplace. Sorry, did I say that?

Heck - I think he should just paint it green! Jodi

Seriously, just enjoy the piano, don't waste too much time or money on the finish, (throw a nice antique shawl over it) and start putting a little away for something nicer once you get your car paid off!

Listen to Jodi (not my evil twin).

Thanks everyone for your comments.

David,

I realize that what I have is probably worth what I paid for it, if not less (although it is difficult for a piano that can at least be tuned not to be worth $100). Maybe someday I can dream of the genuine $200 piano.

Niles,

Someone else told me to use a gloss paint because it would hide imperfections in the finish better than flat. You think flat? Also, won't the paint be more succeptible to chipping off if there is no protective finish over it?

MacDuff,

I agree that there are places in heck for these people, and I always seem to end up trying to fix what they did. My house is an 1880's brick victorian, which had about five different colors of paint over the brick. I removed all of the paint and tuckpointed, a project which took me over 2 years. One could say that I am the perfect candidate for this piano, but I blew all of my energy on the house.

Thanks everyone,

Heath

"My house is an 1880's brick victorian"

Pictures, we want to see pictures! Sounds like my dream house. (and my husband's nightmare...) I'm sure your piano will look fantastic in it! Jodi

I agree with Niles. I know that in refinishing furniture or in painting houses, flat hides imperfections better than a high gloss. I believe I might choose a satin rather than a flat to give it just a little shine, though.

If it was me I'd tape it off, make sure there was no way anything could get to the action, and get my spray cans out.

Besides, how can you mess up a $100 piano?

I agree!

This might be an excellent opportunity to try something avant-garde. Maybe a spatter finish, marbelizing or a stipple kinda thing like they do on BHGTV. Just make sure that the paint you want to use will actually stick (might have to wipe it with something to get the wax off) and go for broke!

I have always been a fan of Zolotone (anyone else remember it? Kind of like the speckle finish on turkey roasters?). A Zzolotone piano might be just the thing!

Go for it!

Our first piano had a Zolotone finish! One of those mondo old uprights painted grey with all these multicolored raised up speckles. My parents paid $100 for it - it lasted 23 years and three moves, the last one through a third floor balcony window with a crane. At some point, my mom painted it white. It finally croaked, and got replaced by a Yamaha. What a great old piano it was. JOdi

Oh, have some fun!

Get some friends, some piant, and a keg of beer.

While the paint on the piano is still wet, open up some feather-down pillows and have a pillow fight.

Aw heck, Kenny.

You stole that idea from Liberace.

You wouldn't say that if you had seen Liberace's piano close up. It was on display in the Smithsonian Piano 300 exhibition, and its presence was so awe-inspiring that I feared violation of constitutional prohibition of government mingling with religion.

I've been out of pocket since Wednesday afternoon, and boy what "unique" suggestions I missed. Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm pretty sure I'll have to pass on the feathers, but I'll keep you posted about what I decide to do and how it turns out.

Heath