Home › Forum › Ask A Member › How do I remove dried gas varnish from Martin 20 motor › Reply To: How do I remove dried gas varnish from Martin 20 motor
I use plain ol’ isopropyl rubbing alcohol from the drug store or grocery store, with a couple of handsfull of old nuts and shake till your arms fall off. it’s cheap and not as flammable as lacquer thinner or gasoline.
However, you might consider backing off and form a plan of action for your Martin. Those Martin two-piece tanks are almost guaranteed to leak badly. Martin assembled them with gobs of some kind of sealant which squeezed out inside the tank and comes loose, making traditional cleaning difficult. I suggest you do the other restoration work first, leaving the tank for the last project after you are satisfied you are going to wind up with a good running motor. (And they are good running motors).
When you are ready to tackle it, take the tank apart and clean all that crud out. There are gasket kits available for it. OR, on mine I used an aircraft tank sealant, which I was real satisfied with. I’ll dig up the details of it, if you are interested.