New rusty screws for scope.

Today I tried looking for some replacement screws at a place that carries anything and everything dealing with hardware. They could not find one screw to replace the scope's old ones. All the sizes were off by millimeters. How could this be? Has screw technology changed in 20 years?! Alas, I was told that the screws were usable and that I should purchase a rust remover of some sort to bring them back to life.

Painting scope.

Yesterday, I started painting the scope with some standard hardware-store-bought spray paint. Probably not the best choice for painting this thing,and it will probably peel off at some point, but hey i didn't want to splurge on this. I'm saving for a new scope. This will just keep me busy until then.

First, I added one coat of white primer paint.

Then, two coats of black enamel paint.

Here is the recently-dried accessory tray, which was the most rusted piece in the set. See picture in first post.

Done!

The aluminium tube was painted with one coat of white primer and two coats of white enamel. The red was boring me...

Sanding scope.

Two days ago I sanded down the major parts of the scope.

The tube. Appears to be aluminium.

The finding scope mount and focusing unit mount. Die cast metal.

Dismantling scope.

Happy new year!

I have begun the new year by dismantling the scope to its individual pieces. I found that most of all the screws have rusted. Some were tricky to get out and they will all be replaced with new ones.

The finder scope.

the focusing unit.

The star diagonal and eye piece. This will be changed so I won't bother to clean it.