Not only did I forget the pics but also wanted to mention that I noticed upon further inspection tonight that it was originally a red white and blue wrap on this shell! The white spot on the shell looks like some bondo of some sort I think. Whatever the damage was didn't go through the shell all the way because you cant tell from the inside. October 1970 stamp inside shell.

curtis, post a pic of the shells Interior, that looks like chip board, is it actually cork? this is the first time I've seen this.

That looks more like solid stain than paint ec_curtis, It penatrates the grain,...you may end up sanding !!

Where it didn`t penatrate may be due to wrap glue residue !!

I will post a pic of the interior tonight. The interior is maple with maple rings. The outside looks like mahogany right? Would that make sense with a 1970 stamp? I have no idea if its really cork or chip board. I don't really have any experience with either one.

Curtis, I've never ever seen that on a shell before on your pics, here is a pic of a 70's 16" shell clear Interior and it's mahogany on the exterior and maple on the interior

I think it is just something the previous owner did when they did the bad re wrap. What purpose it would have is unknown to me.

best way to remove the remainder is by using a plastic scrub brush with liquid paint stripper... the bristles on the brush need to be of a stiffer nature (sort of like astroturf)

you can usually find them in some paint sections of hardware stores... let the paint get soft and then use a generous amount of paint stripper to scrub out the rest

ideally you want to dilute the remaining amounts of leftover paint to the point where you're almost just rubbing pure paint stripper on the wood, the remainder of which can be either scrubbed off with steel wool or absorbed with sawdust (if you have any kicking around)

this will leave a damage-free, clean wood surface