Greetings and Salutations!
OK
There’s dirty then there’s dirty.
Gretchen’ll kill me for the title but OMG…
I uncrated the new DP Donor rifle today and took some pics as soon as I got off of work… This one here is going to challenge even MY de-Cosmoing skills I think. To the point I might go over to one of the Auto Repair shops in the neighborhood, and see if they’ll let me use or rent? their mechanized solvent tank to de-lube this thing.
How bad is it?
Well
Now, from that angle it doesn’t look too bad
It’s when I get in close that it really shows how much crap is caked on it:
Ooey-Gooey Goodness again
And with the action open?
I can’t even see what they year/maker/model info says on the wrist strap. And it only gets worse as we go along. Here’s the inside of the chamber/mag well:
And then the sight ladder:
As you can see, you can’t see ANY of the numbers and just… wow man… that’s nasty. Now the good news is the sight has ALL of it’s pieces as well:
And the slide button -does- move, albeit all gummed up from the Cosmo. At least here it’s front and present, ready to be cleaned up unlike some of the other rifles I’ve refinished.
The front sight and nosecap?
You tell me:
Sweet Jeebus
That’s a LOT of Cosmo!!!
It looks like someone ‘plonked’ it nose first into a bucket of Cosmoline and called it ‘good’. I haven’t even been able to see if the serial numbers match ANYWHERE as the Cosmo buildup is beyond anything I’ve come across before.
Which is a ‘good news/bad news’ sort of thing.
As of now, the basic observations I have shows that the donor rifle is only missing the stacking swivel at the front of the nose cap. Which in reality should be expected as the Indians got rid of that when they started making the rifles for themselves, as they didn’t do the whole ‘stack arms’ thing like the Brit DotMil did.
Hence why the 2A1 doesn’t even have a mount nor hole punched thru to mount a stacking swivel on it:
They just left it off completely.
However, this rifle -does- have the mount, and the hole, so I’ll be able to tell more when I’m able to get the wrist cleaned off and can tell who made it and when.
The other aspect is for all the grime?
The wood looks like it’s in really really good condition:
Outside of all the paint, it looks good.
A couple of dings and scrapes here and there, but nothing crazy. No obvious cracks, and like I said, like NO missing pieces or fiddly bits. Once I get it de-Cosmo’d I’ll be able to tell better for sure. I do know that wood is going to take a Hell of a lot of solvent and sanding to get that paint off.
So yep
ANother project requiring a LOT of work.
We shall see.
Speaking of which… tomorrow Sapper and I are going to go ‘print’ the 2A1 to make sure it shoots worth a shit. If it does, well then I’ll let y’all know as it’ll be Raffle Time.
Wish me luck.
More Later
Big Country
(and yeah, that was a real ad… slow golf clap)
Wow, that is a lot of gunk. used to be they steam clean rifles like that to get rid of the gunk.
on the plus side, the parts “should” be okay after you clean that mess off it.
if you check out engine rebuilding shops and see if one of them have a “hot tank”
the thing is, you going to have to watch it so you do not mess up the wood.
but if they do, I sure they would let you dip it .
BTW, bringing cold beer helps with little trips like this. or it used too.
say show up about a half hour before closing and ask. used to work for me back in the day
granted that was back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.
we had good luck with hot hot water n dawn. steam genny too. had to clean a couple hundred m1 and m1 carbines for a movie. came in barrels of cosmo. the last batch of 500 fn m4’s i de-processed came coated in cosmo too. used an ultrasonic cleaner with hot water/dawn. dumped the water after every ten rifles. yeah, took me three months.
Diesel and mineral spirits are both solvents for cosmoline. I coated the undercarriage of my truck with it and used them to clean my driveway. Did a lot better than anything I ever tried on an old rifle.
Have you tried Hunny Bunnie’s hair dryer and a rag? Heat will help the cosmo to liquify and be wiped off.
Just like my old DIs described ( in lurid detail) 4th BN female recruits. Like gently peeling apart a warm grilled cheese sandwich…
That cosmo will seep out of the stock for days – Oven cleaner will clean it off the surface (rinse very well), but if you can, wrap it lightly/loosely in rags and leave the wood on the dash of a car for a couple days….
I appreciate all the suggestions, but let me tell ya’ll, it t’ain’t my first rodeo (see previous restoration blogpoats)
HOWEVER
THIS one is nastier than ‘the usual suspects’ and to get it to a point where I can even try and START using heat/the dishwasher (Gretchen was PISSED last time) and whatnot… there’s a LOT of GOO I got to get thru….
Stupid question from an ignoramous, but…. can’t you get a big tupperware box and some naptha or other solvent and soak it yourself? My local auto-supply place sold me something the body shops use to wipe-down the cars just before painting, takes anything off in one swipe.
I’m just wondering if a plastic brillo-pad and something from that spectrum wouldn’t take the bulk of the old cosmo off?
It’s about how bad the Yugo SKS I got in the 90s was. That’s the one that I ended up leaving out in the Texas sun for a while to bake the grease out of.
I hooked my gas operated pressure washer up to the hot water tank once to blast a Layfette 42 tripod clean of cosmoline. Worked like a charm.
In your case you would probably gall the wood but maybe a lower powered electeic pressure washer would do well?
Rosanne Jongenelen
Here: https://redbust.com/rosanne-jongenelen-in-playboy/
Just talked to our business partner who is an RKI regarding atf stuff. He said as long as all you are doing is restoring C&R stuff and keeping it for at least a day, all you should be required to have is a C&R license. Me, I would keep a book on the stuff just because. But I tend to dwell on the paranoid side of the wall.
BCE, you need to build one of these to go with the Flamenwurfer:
https://x.com/i/status/1920951676510277855
Dude built a magazine-fed, full-auto crossbow
When I was active in secret squirrel program, we had brayco 762 hydraulic fluid. This shit would resolve cosmoline.
Give it a try
That one is definitely going to take some time to get down to metal and wood. It will be interesting to see how good/bad of condition the parts are in.
Ya gotta stop buying that crap. Cheese and crackers.
there’s got to be a better way.
And yes, I do remember the Bentley pre-owned car ad.
Oh, my!
Gasoline and a nylon brush will clean that up in 10 minutes. Good luck.
Let me tell you about a hot tank. The IG is coming and the armorer has a whole pile of decrepit m-16s that were pulled back from VN the CO figures issue them to the ranks they can clean and then shoot for record This will make me look good with no effort on my part. Soo since these things were absolutely corroded and encrusted and nothing the Corps had worked I get the idea to throw mine in the hot tank In the motor pool. Since I couldn’t even operate the bolt eh give it an hour or two. Had the most spectacular silver and brown m-16 on Okinawa Took everything metal right down to the base and removed the gel coat off the stock and rest of the plastic That really went over well . The springs in most of the weapons were so corroded from what ever rice paddy they were stored in none of them functioned at the range. Mysteriously they were taken back and disappeared and we were instructed not to mention this to the IG. I did get a personal ass chewing over my non regulation weapon but if it was formal then there would have had to be a record and the CO couldn’t have that.
Try to “obtain” some Skydrol hydraulic fluid. Easy to work with, just don’t handle the one-eyed villain when you drain.