Removing 21st century red spray paint from 225 year old adobe walls and 35 year old historic recreations is not something you find in the DIY videos on YouTube. Gary Dorighi and Steve Radigan spent considerable time exhausting local resources trying to find a solution. Professional painters wouldn’t touch it. “Helpful Hardware Guys” had no suggestions. Washing, scrubbing, light sanding, wire brushing and power washing had little effect. The rough uneven surface of the wall made removing the paint evenly without damaging the underlying layers difficult if not impossible.
Ultimately a “You might try this” suggestion was gotten at a local Kelly Moore store. A three spray bottle sample kit of three different mixtures of caustic and solvent solutions geared to mild, medium, and difficult problems was tried. The strongest solution had the best effect, but mostly dissolved just the surface of the paint and both dried quickly in the sun. After a little experimentation, application of the spray followed immediately by scrubbing with fine steel wool and just as quick, a water wash was found to work the best. As one can see from the pinkish hue where we started near the bottom of the wall as we learned, we got betteras we moved up the wall, only working small sections at a time.
After 6 hours of hand work the result is good but not perfect. Even so, the remnant of the graffiti won’t be apparent to the casual observer or passerby.
The graffiti on the much older, more delicate Mission Museum/Gift Shop exterior remains hidden under paper until a better solution can be found.
