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How to safely remove nail polish from blued sights

F

fish hunter

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Hello, I recently purchased a Mod.19-6 that the owner painted the front ramp and rear sight with white nail polish. What can I safely use to remove it. I have a bottle of acetone based remover but want to hear from the tribe first. Thanks in advance for you help.
 
Club Gun Fan said:
First off, the rear sight might have a white outline, so be careful. Secondly, try fingernail polish remover. If it's safe enough for fingernails, should be safe for your Model 19.
Click to expand...

I AGREE WITH CGF......

FIRST, I WOULD TRY TO REMOVE ALL THAT I COULD WITH MY FINGERNAIL, OR A POPSICLE STICK SHAPED FOR THE PURPOSE. THEN I WOULD USE FINGER NAIL POLISH REMOVER, FOLLOWED BY A SOFT BRISTLED NYLON TOOTHBRUSH, ONCE THE REMOVER HAS SOFTENED THE NAIL POLISH......
 
I just bought a K22 from a member that had red nail polish or paint on the front sight I just dipped it in acetone for about 10 minutes and used a tooth brush and it came right off.
 
Acetone or MEK will remove it without a trace. I think fingernail polish remover is a mixture of several solvents, ethyl acetate and acetone or MEK. Acetone by itself evaporates too rapidly.
 
Thanks to all for the good advice. Paint is gone and all is well. One thing I might mention if anyone tries using nail polish remover, is to remove any wood stocks first. Accidents do happen.
 
2 kinds of finger nail polish remover

OP; Glad to hear it worked OK for you.

I learned from my wife long ago that there are two distinctly different kinds of nail polish remover....one has acetone, the other does not.

I found out the hard way that the kind without acetone does not work at all, except to wear you out trying!. The kind containing acetone, works in just minutes using a Q-tip swab dipped then applied only to the paint. Almost perfectly dry with ALL of the paint residue (in my case one gun red, the other gun had some sort of safety yellow enamel) on the Q-tip, before I could even reach for a wiping/drying cloth. Both guns were deep blued finish and even now years later, no abnormal wear to the finish.

For some reason the ladies (at least my wife) have both kinds around the house, so if I run across this need I always look on the label for the one that has acetone in it.
 
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