Colt Nickel Python restoration

[BillTell]

I think you answered that yourself.

any porosity or ding in the nickel plate could let Hoppes underneath, where it will attack the copper layer

It's not that it's damaging the Nickel, it's that the Nickel is damaged, and letting the Hoppe's UNDERNEATH. I think the Nickel can withstand a cleaning with Hoppe's.

 

[BillTell]

I bet you can also use some plain Vegetable oil and a plastic scrubber like on a sponge.

 

[Riomouse911]

I think you answered that yourself.

It's not that it's damaging the Nickel, it's that the Nickel is damaged, and letting the Hoppe's UNDERNEATH. I think the Nickel can withstand a cleaning with Hoppe's.

Right. Since it’s impossible to determine how porous areas of the nickel plating is, and dings may be unseen on corners or edges, my Q was does Hoppes potentially ruin the finish of a nickel plated gun by sneaking underneath the nickel and removing the substrate layer of copper or will the copper layer be unscathed if this happens?

If Hoppes does eat copper, and the info I was aware of says it does that effectively, I’d personally pass on using Hoppes on my nickeled M-49 for a less potentially damaging chemical.

OP is, of course, free to choose any path he wishes. But he should beware that info is out there warning that any seen or unseen flaw in the pythons exterior may become an area of peeling nickel plating if the copper substrate is damaged by Hoppes.

Stay safe.

 

[grter]

Yes Hoppe's eats copper it's made to clean lead and copper jacket fowling from bores. Using it to clean a nickel plated surface is a bad idea. I think there is a very slim chance that any finish is absolutely perfect and if one keeps using Hoppe's to clean a nickel finish they will find that one day the nickel will start flaking off.

I use cooking oil to clean goo left over from peeling the labels off glass jars. I don't know if cooking oil will hurt nickel but I doubt it. Oils can be the best for cleaning oils that have hardened/stiffened.

 

[Orion Jim]

I used Flitz on a nickel plated revolver recently and the results were beyond my expectations. Zero evidence of harm to the plating.

 

[CopperClad]

My buddy's father left him a Nickel plated Colt Python that was stored in a foam case. The foam has disintegrated and covered the pistol with a
View attachment 1043142

with a hardened crud. He's searching for the best solvent to clean this. Any help is appreciated.

So op, any luck cleaning it up? Pictures maybe even??