My next two kids are going to be named Jasco and Brasso. Jasco because he (she?) is great at cleaning up old paint, and Brasso for the nice polish afterwards. Those two have been my constant companions for the past few days. I feel like we're related.
Kathy and I finally got around to cleaning up and reinstalling the door latches upstairs. Just in time, too, because the summer weather has been nice and with the windows open the doors have a tendency to slam shut. Or slam open. With no latches to hold them in place, we're reduced to using makeshift doorstops to keep everything from swinging in the breeze. And when a door does slam shut, you have to poke a little finger into one of the exposed holes and try to coax it open again. Not terribly convenient.
All the door hardware was coated in layer after layer of paint. And under that, rust. So it all went out into the garage for a thorough field strip, clean, and reassembly. I thought a simple wipe-down with paint thinner might do the job, but of course that doesn't work. It took several applications of Jasco, along with vigorous application of a stiff wire brush, to get all the paint off.
Surprise! Some of the mechanism inside is brass. It was so dirty I couldn't tell. Most of these door locks are made from iron (not steel), but with brass for the moving parts. I cleaned them inside and out and applied some white grease, and now they work much batter. They even look nice and shiny inside, although nobody will ever know.
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