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Restoring museum doors

We recently bought a house that had been a museum. It has HEAVY front doors made from solid brass/bronze/ copper in kind of a Deco motif. I believe they were made/installed in the 60's. They have not been well cared for and are mottled and stained. Someone has tried to clean them and left a mess. I tried Brasso [on eBay or Amazon] with no results. I think they were most likely coated when new. I plan on using lacquer remover to try and remove the coating. Then I was planning to use something to polish them, and then re-coating them. Any suggestion for 1) removing the coating, 2)Buffing out the metal without leaving scratches, and 3) what should I use to re-coat them. The doors are potentially very beautiful and I want to do a good job.

John M Thompson
homeowner - Seattle, Washington, USA
2004

Remove lacquer with thick paint stripper. If surfaces are really badly corroded use buffs, but surfaces should be restorable by hand polishing with good quality metal restorers. Use a pH. neutral museum quality polish to finish. If you want to re-lacquer use a wax free polish to finish and wipe over with denatured alcohol to remove and grease before coating.

Steve Clark
plating/polishing - Belfast, Maine, U.S.A.
2004