+ Restoration Tricks and Tips

 How do I match the original paints?

 What paints do I use ?

"For small touch-ups of black outlines and such, go down to your local model hobby shop and but some different tins of black enamel paint (you know, the type that comes in a tiny tin for painting model airplanes etc). Don't forget to buy plenty of small-headed brushes and a couple of bottles of thinners. If you're touching up the black from a screened graphic, it will almost certainly be a matte black finish, but if its the paint on the edges of a deck etc, it might be a semi gloss make sure you get all types of black. My advice is to get a piece of thick card and paint a square of each different color up against the edge of card. Then when they're dry you can offer the different finishes up to the board and pick whichever is the closest. If none are right, you might have to mix up 2 different ones to get the right finish (this also works with matching colours... just keep mixing paint till you get the right match). When you have the finish, paint it on, but try to 'let' the paint in to the area rather than painting over the edges."

"I don't think you've got to buy a bunch of different varieties of black. Remember, these boards were mass produced using relatively stock colors. I use regular acrylic paints and the matches are almost always perfect. I used some model paint acrylic and it sucked. The model paint is usually a higher quality with more pigment than other paints, but they come in so many subtle varieties you can get easily confused. If you want to go the model paint route, then buying multiple finishes is a good idea cuz there's a bunch and who knows which is right. My bet is that the acrylic from a paint/art store will be good enough though. When touching up, don't use too much paint. Be meticulous and careful and build it up until those areas that the sticker ruined are level with the rest of the paint. In the end you might still have some areas where you can tell the paint isn't quite right but from a distance it'll look fine. If you're not a NOS freak, you could just as easily use a permanent black marker and colour in the wood."

"I would defintely go for acrylic colors."

 How do I find the original graphic to retrace onto the deck ?