I've been wanting another SKS for a while to just add to the collection since they seem to keep getting more and more pricey to get. So when Classic had some "Cracked Stock" rifle on special for a decent price, so I said why not... Be a fun little project and I wanted a shooter anyway not as an investment piece. So I figured at the very least id have to find a replacement stock, which wasn't a huge deal as I have a buddy that had a Chinese set he no longer had the rifle for. So the day came the rifle came in and MY GOSH this was single handedly the most cosmoline I had ever seen on a single rifle lol. It was just drenched, covered, lathered, encased in it! But from what I could tell I couldn't see any cracks in the stock! So I proceeded to get the wood de-cosmoed as well as all the metal parts and clean it all up. So I soaked everything in a mixture of thinner and mineral spirits and let it sit over night most all the cosmo had leached out into the bottom of the tub by morning and after letting the wood dry I hit it with the heat gun and paper towels to finish off the cosmo removal. Then added 3 coats of poly-acrylic to seal off the wood. Then oiled down all the metal parts before reassembly. I did end up finding one small crack in the forend of the stock (see pic) so I just filled it with super glue and sanded it down and it turned out well I believe. This was awesome on a few fronts as this rifle turned out to be an all numbers matching Chinese SKS. So all in all it was fun little project and turned out even better since the crack was minimal. Super stoked to have a SKS back in the safe, their just a ton of fun!
An absolutely ridiculous amount of cosmoline
Soaking all the parts in Thinner and mineral spirits. You can see all that stuff melting off and settling in the bottom....
After the first coat of poly-acrylic (defiantly looks a ton better imo)
Here is the finished product. By no means a show piece, but most defiantly a usable shooter!
An absolutely ridiculous amount of cosmoline
Soaking all the parts in Thinner and mineral spirits. You can see all that stuff melting off and settling in the bottom....
After the first coat of poly-acrylic (defiantly looks a ton better imo)
Here is the finished product. By no means a show piece, but most defiantly a usable shooter!