Hey fellas,
Whats the best way to strip a rifle of cosmoline?

-Rob

Sorry...I know it's been asked 1.3 trillion times.  I'm just looking for a link or something.  I looked here on the forum by doing a search but it didn't result in anything useful.

-Rob

Pretty good tutorial on surplusrifle.com.

Brake cleaner and an oven (to cook the stock)!  

I've used good old mechanics solvent. It doesn't melt it away but will do the trick.

Solvent tank and an air compresser !

I've owned ALOT of surplus rifles of all types and the M59 from AIM that I got was the most full of cosmo gun I've ever seen. Must have been dipped in heated liquid cosmoline.

Quoted: I've owned ALOT of surplus rifles of all types and the M59 from AIM that I got was the most full of cosmo gun I've ever seen. Must have been dipped in heated liquid cosmoline.

That's what I figured they did with mine.  I stripped it down and cleaned it by hand using solvent and lots of paper towels.  

Wear rubber/latex gloves! No strong rubbing during any of this cleaning or you will damage the surface.

Take a cheap plastic wall paper tray, heat the ends with a heat gun to stretch out the ends to make room for a long SKS barrel,  pour in a can of Oderless Mineral Sprirts. Disassebly weapon placing only metal parts into tray. Soak overnight or a couple of days, if needed. Once Cosmoline is desolved or soft use an old tooth brush or other small brush to clean off the remains. Tooth pick in the corners.

If metal is brown from surface rust use 0000 steel wool soaked with oderless mineral sprirts and gentally , DONOT push down hard .You use any force and you risk damage to the metal treatment.  

On the wood use a half oderless mineral sprirts / half tung oil mix and a fine pad to remove the cosmoline and put some oil into the wood.  After cleaning you gould use a fine sandpaper to remove any humidty swelling the wood experianced over time and not damage the original look, just don't get carried away, then everyone will notice the finish is too smooth.

engine degreaser and a quarter car wash