Sellotaped Parker 51! how to remove?

[amk]

I thought I was pretty lucky to find a Parker 51 for £5. It does have a bit of a hole in the barrel, and alas it's been sellotaped together, probably quite a long while ago as the Sellotape has now decayed into a horribly sticky gunk under a rock hard surface.

What is the best way to remove sellotape from Lucite? I've tried scraping with a fingernail or old credit card, but that's not shifting the gunk; is there a solvent that is safe to use?

Definitely want to rescue this little Parker as the cap and shell are really nice - it's just the barrel has come in for a bit of abuse.

[D Armstrong]

Naphtha. Conservators use it to remove old tape residue from books, and it's perfectly safe on lucite.

[amk]

Thank you! I found a bottle of white spirit (naphtha in this-side-of-Atlantic English. I have no idea why) and it was the work of about five minutes to strip the nastiness off the 51. I think I'll be able to rescue the pen - there was a crack under the tape, but it doesn't go all the way across the barrel, and the hole can be filled.

Wonderful tough little pens these 51s!

[amk]

I've now epoxied the cracked barrel together with a mixture of epoxy and gold powder, and filled the hole - there'll be a little more filling to do as the epoxy has shrunk. I'm now filing and then micromeshing down the epoxy to not quite flush, and at the end of this all, I should have a working P51 with a faux-kintsugi finish. Photos are promised once it's done.

[Chrissy]

What epoxy are you using that shrunk?

If you can afford to buy a pack of Araldite 20/20 that's what I use.

[amk]

I'm using the end of a tube I (or rather my partner) happened to have. I've just refilled, and also used a bit of thinner so that having sanded out the worst bumps from the first try, for the second coat I can paint the epoxy on to get a nice rounded effect.

I'll make sure to get Araldite next time!

[tandaina]

I've now epoxied the cracked barrel together with a mixture of epoxy and gold powder, and filled the hole - there'll be a little more filling to do as the epoxy has shrunk. I'm now filing and then micromeshing down the epoxy to not quite flush, and at the end of this all, I should have a working P51 with a faux-kintsugi finish. Photos are promised once it's done.

We definitely need photos!

[amk]

Here's a photo. It's a bit rough, but better than a barrel with a huge crack and a big hole. (I used a bit of clingfilm inside to support the fill for the hole, and I've managed to extract that easily.) The epoxy has dried good and hard. If I don't like it after a while I can always sand it down... or junk the barrel and get a Kullock pretty colour one!
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/Parker51kintsugi.jpg