Cleaning Glock Polymer Frame

[m4shooter]

I've been breaking in my Glock 26 and am noticing a lot of carbon buildup on the front of the polymer frame, just below the muzzle.

Obviously don't want to use oil to clean it off. Are you guys using anything other than a dry cloth?

 

[j1979]

When I had my glock I just used dish soap and really hot water. You can also use gun scrubber synthetic safe(non chlorinated carb cleaner), simple green etc..

 

[havoc7usmc]

Glock cleaning

Simple Green is good stuff...no hoppe's!!!

 

[Gun Slinger]

Glock frames are made using a stablized, modified polyamide called Nylon 66 which is a pretty stable polymer.

As long as you keep it clear of very hot water (which causes hydrolytic degradation of the polymer) and strong acids/bases, you can use just about any "gun specific" cleaning solvent to clean your frame without concern.

If you are "super-paranoid" about using even those (like I am, even though I know better ) you can use a "synthetic safe" gun cleaner.

I am certain that someone will be by shortly to tell you that you may even throw it into your dishwasher in order to clean it, but that is a practice that I would strongly discourage because you run the significant risk of exposing yourself to lead poisoning since doing so would contaminate your dishwasher interior and no matter how small the amount present might be, it is just not worth the risk IMHO.

 

[CWL]

Don't try to out-think your gun.

Glock polymers are made for use in wars, that means any and all sorts of chemicals, fuels and whatever else may get all over it. It still needs to function.

The Glock is rugged as all heck and will last longer than you in a chemical environment, go ahead and use whatever gun cleaner, soap, break-cleaner you have on-hand to clean it.

 

[Al Thompson]

Wet & soapy paper towel.

 

[Steve C]

I've never had any powder fouling on my Glock that couldn't be removed with just a rag. If there was something that didn't want to come off I'd just use a bit of bore solvent on the rag.

 

[CountGlockula]

Use M-Pro7, it's water based and easy on polymer AND tennifer.

You should be also getting some build up around the trigger and trigger housing area too.

 

[Andy-Y]

Maybe I'm a dummy, but I use a rag and a bit of hoppes no.9. Hasn't caused any problems yet.

 

[skers69]

A little break free, sometimes hoppes number 9, and some remi oil is all I use on my guns. Seems to work well for me.

 

[havoc7usmc]

Questions

I was told buy a glock rep that hoppes is not recommended for cleaning because it makes some type of acid when mixed with gun powder residue. They recommend brake cleaner and CLP. Also stated that the polymer is rated to only 150 degrees. Any opinions on this? I guess they had some thermal adhesion of flashlights to pistol frames when left in a car trunk in AZ

 

[railroader]

I use brake cleaner on my polymer handguns except my ruger p97. The ruger polymer turns white when you use brake cleaner so I use synthetic safe gunscrubber on it. Mark

 

[Baneblade]

Our officers have cleaned their Glocks with everything you can think of over the last 15 years (on this batch of Glock 22's) and nothing has damaged them yet. I just use a rag with hoppes or m-pro 7.

 

[possum]

just scrub it off with what ever solvent you use, shooters choice, hoppes etc, you won't hurt it.

 

[nofishbob]

I hose mine off with brake cleaner. Good results, no problems.

These frames were not made to be fragile or sensitive to common cleaning chemicals, otherwise they would fail by the thousands out in the field.

Bob

 

[rc109a]

Powder blast works great and you can get it at walmart. Gives it that nice citrus smell....JK...

 

[ljnowell]

As long as you keep it clear of very hot water (which causes hydrolytic degradation of the polymer)

Honestly, thats not a worry. Lots of glocks exhibit a pig nose, a condition involving the dustcover arching up and touching the slide. This is perfectly fine but some anal retentive people actually boil a pot of water and place the front of the frame in it for 60 seconds. Then they take it out and push it against something and hold it until it cools to fix it. This does no lasting damage at all.

 

[Gun Slinger]

As long as you keep it clear of very hot water (which causes hydrolytic degradation of the polymer)

Honestly, thats not a worry. Lots of glocks exhibit a pig nose, a condition involving the dustcover arching up and touching the slide. This is perfectly fine but some anal retentive people actually boil a pot of water and place the front of the frame in it for 60 seconds. Then they take it out and push it against something and hold it until it cools to fix it. This does no lasting damage at all.

ljnowell,

Agreed. Perhaps I should have specified better what I was refering to since I thought that specifying "very hot water" would suffice in my post above.

The "hot water" that we typically encounter from our kitchen faucets and bathroom sinks is not hot enough to have even a minimally noticeable effect on the Glock polymer frame material.

I once boiled part of a discarded (damaged) Glock frame for about four hours continuously and other than having to replace the water twice because it was boiling off, I noticed nothing significant in the way of damage to the frame after doing so.

In order for the Glock frame (Nylon 66) to demonstrate noticeable and significant hydrolytic decomposition the temperature of the water would have had to be higher (under much increased pressure of course) and the duration of exposure increased at least five to six times of what I subjected the Glock frame to in my completely unscientific, 'curiosity-inspired' "test".

This is all rather academic anyway since no one would reasonably or willingly (I hope) subject their frame to the abuse that I did, let alone put it in a pressure cooker for twenty plus hours.