September 16, 2011
By George Spafford
A stub kit will consist of some amount of parts. I like to take everything out of the bag and see what I have stripping as I go. This means removing the furniture, taking apart the recoil spring, bolt, and so on. I do leave the barrel assembly intact — meaning I leave the barrel, rear sight, gas and front sight blocks intact. If there are any canted items, I'd go ahead and make the corrections before installing the barrel.
Most Yugo parts kits have a ton of cosmolene on them. I put them in a 5-gallon bucket and soak them in gasoline. If you do this — keep any sparks or flame far, far away! After an hour or two, a cleaning brush can be used to remove the cosmolene from the various parts. You could use any solvent or cleaning method you want. Some fellows wait until their wife isn't home and run the parts through the dishwasher. Let me tell you, I have never wanted to risk my life, so that's one method I will never try!
Once the cosmolene is gone, things are a lot easier to work with. It's critical not to lose parts. I put the small parts in plastic containers with lids. It's way too easy to lose pins, springs, etc. You can pretty much guarantee that the smaller and harder to see a given part is, the farther it will fly across the room!
If you're new to kits, don't rush the disassembly — there's a lot you can learn by carefully looking at parts and paying attention as you disassemble them. If you have a memory anything like mine, it can be real handy to have digital photos or sketches and notes of parts and what they looked like before disassembly.
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