Tips on how to remove cosmoline

[Travis590A1]

I just picked up a T53. Stock has a few dings but overal its in good shape. Its just moist with cosmoline lol. The whole this is covered in it lol. I'm new to "older" rifles so any help would be great. Thanks guys.


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[marksmandowntown]

There's no right way to do it. I use a heap of paper towels, WD-40 on the wood and mineral spirits on the metal. Lots of wiping down. Get a bunch of Q tips and some latex gloves too unless you want to smell and have greasy hands for 2 days. Hot, hot water is good on the metal parts too.

[Travis590A1]

There's no right way to do it. I use a heap of paper towels, WD-40 on the wood and mineral spirits on the metal. Lots of wiping down. Get a bunch of Q tips and some latex gloves too unless you want to smell and have greasy hands for 2 days. Hot, hot water is good on the metal parts too.

So just spray WD-40 on the stock and wipe? Or let it soak? I heard a blow dryer helps melt the cosmo out of the stock.

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[mofojoe]

409 or any degreaser on metal, boil the bolt in hot water, heat gun or hair dryer on the stock and lots of elbow grease.
You should've bought one off el tardo. He already cleaned them.
Have fun.

[Travis590A1]

409 or any degreaser on metal, boil the bolt in hot water, heat gun or hair dryer on the stock and lots of elbow grease.
You should've bought one off el tardo. He already cleaned them.
Have fun.

I don't mine putting time in. I dont have cable so I need somthing to pass the time lol.

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[RiflemanZ]

I submerge all the metal in hot water and CLR. The hot metal bleeds the cosmoline out of the metal and the CLR degreases it. The wood I put in a black trash bag and set it in the sun for 4 or 5 hours on a hot day. This bleeds the cosmoline out of the wood, then I will wipe it down with shop rags and paper towel.

[G-Man WC]

WD40 works great on the metal, you just need a few shop rags or roll of paper towels. Remove stock, put barrel/receiver it in a plastic trash bag in the sun after hosing down with WD40. Melts right off.
-g

[2shotjoe]

Heatgun

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[highpower790]

The garand i recently received from cmp had a light coating of cosmoline.I used mineral spirits and paper towels.

[Armistice]

Do NOT soak the stock. It will cause the wood grains to raise up and you'll have to sand it

You'll need:

Paper towels
Trash bag
Small and large buckets (the orange Home Depot buckets work great for the large size)
Mineral Spirits- 2-3 large cans should do it
2.5" PVC pipe
Rubber gloves if you want

Wood- Wipe off as much as possible. Wrap with paper towels (expect to use an entire roll). Place inside a trashbag (black is best) and leave in the sun (I leave them on my dashboard in my car in direct sunlight). Let sit and return every few hrs to wipe off cosmo and re-wrap with new towels. In the middle of summer you can do this in one day and you'll be pretty much good. In the winter you may have to do this over a few days because it's not as hot

Metal- I placed the barrel in one of my Home Depot buckets and poured boiling water over it slowly making sure to soak everything; trigger group, receiver, leaf sight, bore... Do the receiver side down first and really soak it. You'll then have to flip it over and go the other direction letting all the water flow down the bore. This might take 2-4 times. Leave the water/ cosmo mix in the bucket

I put all the small parts in a small container and poured boiling water on them and let them sit. Do NOT pour ANY of the resulting water down your drains. Pour water into previously mentioned Home Depot bucket. Again, you may have to soak them 2-3 times, dry them in between to remove water and cosmo and soak again if needed. Oh, and make sure the bolt is taken apart

Dry all parts or go immediately to the next step otherwise you'll chance the water sitting and rusting

After the boiling water treatment, do the same process with Mineral Spirits. However, use the 2.5" pipe and fill it with Mineral Spirits and let the barrel soak (note, the trigger will not allow the whole thing to fit in the pipe). (Make sure you measure from the end of the barrel to the trigger and get pipe just 1" longer. If it's too long, you waste a lot of Mineral Spirits)

Finally, give all metal parts a wipe down of the lubricant of your choice. I've had a bolt start to rust while sitting in Mineral Spirits so don't let parts just sit for too long

That's what I do. There are also many videos on YouTube with other ways to do it. I've meant to make a vid on what I do, but don't have a video camera

[chinaserf1]

Armistice's mineral spirit soak does a number dissolving the crud in the bore. If mineral spirit volume is an issue, a good rubber stopper in the bore lets you use the least. Boiling water and brute force also works.

One place that it essential to get real good is at the chamber, the seam where the barrel and receiver mate. Cosmo left deep in there will migrate out when you heat the gun firing.

[Vlad 11]

There's no right way to do it. I use a heap of paper towels, WD-40 on the wood and mineral spirits on the metal. Lots of wiping down. Get a bunch of Q tips and some latex gloves too unless you want to smell and have greasy hands for 2 days. Hot, hot water is good on the metal parts too.

This is essentially my method. You are basically just trying to re-liquify the cosmoline by heat or solvent and wipe it off.

One tool that is great are the small angled wirebrushes. I use the brass ones and put a .30cal patch on it. The bristles hold the patch and poke thru. So you scrub and soak up gunk simultaneously in the tight areas, esp good for the chamber.

[C&Rtrader]

Those air duster cans are great for getting it out of small places after you have liquified it by your chosen method

[KOOLKERRY]

The cosmoline is warm / hot when applied or the firearm is dipped into. I read on another forum to use the same theory when removing it. warm it up. Ill let a dissambled firearm sit in the baking sun on old towles before attempting any cleaning. The wood can then be placed in a green garbage bag on the dash of an older car and let it oooz. I don't use chemical on the wood at all. wipe down and replace frequantly.

[2meterB]

I warmed my mosin up with a heat gun (JUST the metal,I removed the stock) and the cosmoline flowed right out.