Last night I removed the chip. As you advised I scraped off the lacquer off the pins.
I did a couple of test runs on some old toys from my kids. It seemed pretty easy.
The boards that I got off of the toys were not covered in lacquer and were really easy to work with.
On the ECU however the lacquer had gotten under the chip and was holding it tight to the board. I had to use a bit more heat and a bit more pressure to remove it.
Now I've cleaned the chip and am waiting for my TL866II to arrive. Once that gets here I'll post the results of my reading attempt.