Cleaning soiled shop manuals

[MarkW]

Greetings,

I was just wondering if anyone had hints and suggestions for cleaning old shop manuals? Even if I could get the covers more presentable on some of them, not just dozer stuff but I have a veritable library of books going back to close to 100 years and some are in worse shape than others.

[digitup2]

get a hold of your local library or historical museum I know that sounds nuts but .One of my old flames worked for the Royal Ontario Museum and had chemicals that would clean paper and even add life to old old papers and books .Here is a good one she dumped me on Friday and was cleaning some family papers when done she flushed the last half gallon down the toilet when I got home some 350 plus miles away she phoned all up set I raced back on Sunday to find she was kicked out of the apartment building because what she dumped down the toilet had eaten the ABS pipe in the building and right to the road I loaded things up and took off home never saw the nag after that !!what a hell of a mess it ate the pipe right in the ground to the sidewalk so don't flush it what ever it is but those library's and museums are trying to preserve as much printed paper as possible so ask them they will show interest in your project .My great grand father brought the first Case steam engine and thrasher into this area and probably Canada and I have all the documents explaining his trip and Border crossing to his recollection as well as the manuals and two years ago I took them to the local Case International dealer and they cleaned the originals and got ROM to reprint everything then they archive the originals after repairing them it wasn't cheap but the grease and oil was lifted right off the manuals so they can do it . Digitup .

[Tigerhaze]

Historical document restoration is a hobby of its own and there are firms that specialize in it as well. There are basic techniques for paper restoration you can do yourself. However if you get into more advanced techniques like solvent washing it can get complicated. A Google search will introduce you to some of those techniques. Digitup's suggestion is a good one but I am guessing you won't get any free solvent from them due to liability issues.

Digitup, that must have been one heck of a solvent your ex used.

[digitup2]

Her daddy had money so she was a high maintenance b$&ch for sure,But it was funny as hell watching her father walking around telling everyone he was paying for it .I decided it was time to leave town and never go back.Lets skip the subject and talk crawlers ,the group would need a dozen good shrinks just to figure one old lady out and as a group we can figure out nearly all crawler problems!!Digitup.