waffle stock ,removing paint

wrapping up the M4A1 clone build , looking through my parts drawers for a stock that would pass for correct and low and behold i found one with a cage code 8FW25 , it is made by a Gov Contractor Prudent American Technologies , its a legit M4 Gov stock , zero idea where i picked it up , and zero clue how long ive had it ,(memory is fading) ,probably gun show few years back, thats the good

the bad , is its been camo painted , no idea what kind of paint but denatured alcohol isnt touching it , suggestions on what to try to remove the paint , i dont want to melt the plastic with something caustic , half way tempted to matte finish black it , would rather restore , the waffle area may prove problematic

Do you have any M-Pro 7? Surprisingly, I have seen it remove paint and it doesn't harm plastic. Good luck!

Simple mineral spirits should not harm the stock. Whatever you choose to scrub with, though, might. I would opt for soaking an area by saturating a rag with mineral spirits and setting it on the stock, then scrubbing the paint off with a stiff AP brush (the blue ones). Singer, I'd bet there is mineral spirits in M-Pro 7. It's the main ingredient in many such light oils (although M-Pro 7 isn't as light as others). Heck, WD-40 is almost all mineral spirits.

thanks guys , i will first find some M pro 7 , i usually use old socks that developed toe holes , they are a heavy fabric especially the top half coupled with elbow grease , its slow but safe , the waffle areas concern me , im thinking i may spray the nooks and crannys black , wipe off the rest and concentrate removing the easier areas , i did some digging last night , these go for $50 -$60 so worth some effort

ive only painted two AR's , my farm gun which i built 100% from PSA on sale parts so the stock didnt come from there and the paint isnt mine , the pistol has a brace and was a debacle so i removed the paint , 0000 wool with some CLP was surprisingly gentle on the stubborn areas not damaging the plastic or rubber on the brace

actually , been doing some digging and i think i am going to try Goo Gone Graffiti remover , suppose to be good to go on plastic and polymer and very effective , and is in stock at my Lowes , its my day off after a long day yesterday so getting motivated is a slow process,lol

the plot thickens , its FDE under the paint , talked to a fella that deals in allot of used military surplus parts about it , he says yes its a legit M4 contract stock before i stripped the paint , when i found out it was FDE under the paint i asked did the military even purchase or contract FDE parts , or was this more than likely a Gov contract part , he said yes hes seen it before its G2G , i didnt want to be a pest so im guessing "seen it before" means it not unheard of but not overly common

the bad thing is FDE doesnt work with what i need so im buying a stock after all, lol , my luck , at least i found a nice stock in my parts bins , i have it about 80% clean now , got rained out , i took befores , so when im done i will do before and afters to show the Goo Gone Graffiti job, it had zero adverse reaction to the stock , i was having slow progress at first , then i was talking to my neighbor for about 15-20 minutes and when i started back to it it was easier , it needed time to soften the paint , the nooks and cranny's i am using a flat head screw drive , its pushing the paint off with little effort from the hard to reach and crevice's

i almost talked myself into painting it black but thought the FDE would show through once it wore , i have a really nice Armalite on the rifle now but it has the swoop in front of the lever instead of the 90 degree step

So the Goo Gone worked? That's good to know!