Painters are hard at work on Hollywood sign makeover

Work is underway on the Hollywood sign, which is getting its most extensive refurbishing in nearly 35 years.

Crews are repainting the iconic white letters overlooking Los Angeles, focused now on the letters O and L, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Workers will strip the letters of their paint and pressure-wash the exposed corrugated metal before priming and repainting them white, according to the Hollywood Sign Trust. The back of the sign will also be scraped, sanded and painted.

PHOTO GALLERY: Hollywood sign through the years

The project — expected to involve 275 gallons of paint and 110 gallons of primer — should take eight to 10 weeks to complete, trust officials said. Expenses will be covered by the trust and Sherwin-Williams, which declined to state how much the project would cost.

The sign was most recently painted in 2005, a project that ended when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “rappelled down the hillside and applied the final strokes of coating himself,” according to the trust’s website.

-- Kate Mather and Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times