Paintball

[Ivan]

I got a Nelson based marker that is an ex-rental. It has the number 103 scratched into both sides of it. The scratching is fairly deep and it's into the metal.

I'm just wondering if there is any easy way to get rid of this. Is there anything I can fill the scratches in with so it won't look like the 103 is there any more? I don't want to sand it down, cause then I would have to polish the whole thing and reanno, and I don't want to do that.

It also has 103 written on the grips in black sharpie marker that refuses to come off (it is possible that the marker is 20 years old), any suggestions to get the 103 off of the grips?

[Mayvik]

You could try some acetone or rubbing alcohol on the grips but I'm not sure if that will hose up the plastic (or even work).

How deep roughly is the ID number scratched in? The one I picked up (one of MadLarkin's) was pretty much just scratched through the blue coating and barely in the metal at all, light sanding should get it out. You're still going to have to refinish the marker since whatever you to do eliminate the number is going to leave that spot either bare, or covered in with filler. Are you sure the body is Al and not stainless? You could try using JB Weld which is an Al based epoxy, but you can't anodize it as far as I know.

[Railgun]

If it's scratched into anodized aluminium then you're hooped. The only thing I can think of is to fill the engraved letters in with some epoxy, sand the area down flat and then paint with something like Duracoat.

For the grips I've always had good luck using rubbing alky to remove felt pen. Try getting some of the fancy 99% stuff and pour it over the grips in a small tupperware container for over night. The alchohal doesn't bother plastic in normal cases but as always check on the back side to make sure they aren't molded from shellac or something silly.

Acetone, lacquer thinner, toluene and other highly aromatic solvents will almost certainly melt the plastic grips so don't use those.

And if this is a steel Nelson like the Nelspot's then you can strip the paint and fill in the engraving with a hard solder, file and sand down to like new and then repaint again.

EDIT- Just remembered that some brake cleaner did a wonderful job on removing felt pen a few weeks back. And I have yet to find a plastic that it attacks. But if you try it test first. The brake cleaner may not melt plastic but do wear safety glasses when you're shooting it around. The stuff bounces all over the place.

Watch out for carb cleaner though. It's not the same stuff at all. I used some spray called Carb Medic and the splash back melted spots on the lens of the safety glasses I was wearing. I'm sure glad I had them on after seeing that.

[Ivan]

Thanks for the tips guys! Unfortunately it sounds like filling in these scratch marks is more work than I was willing to put into it, so I may just leave them scratched. Thanks though!