CSI and engine suffix numbers!
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: May 2002
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From: Back in Nebraska
CSI and engine suffix numbers!
The other night I was watching one of the CSI TV programs. They were trying to raise a filed off stamped serial number off of a handgun. They applied some kind of acid and did something else and the number reappeared. Has anyone out there ever heard of a process like that? The reason that I am asking is when the machine shop decked my block, they decked it all of the way to the edge over the suffix numbers. I would sure like to get the numbers back without having it re-stamped.
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From: Sometimes I wonder... why is that frisbee getting bigger? Then it hits me.
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St. Jude Donor '06
Page pewter99 in OT, he is a REAL CSI and can tell you about that method. I think that one is actually a "real deal" 
Race Director
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From: NM
From my understanding it can be done. But is not easy and takes an expert (thus expensive). And it does not "get the numbers back", may make some of them just visable enough to read so you can photograph or write them done. Don't believe that they will stay there in a readable format.
tom...
tom...
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They etch the metal, when stamping the numbers the metal's matric (chrystalline structure) under the stamps gets deformed also, just like on a note block, where the writing imprints on the pages below. When machining off the number it's not visible by the naked eye but when etching the metal the denser structures under the stampings become visible. It's pretty easy to do.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,546
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From: Back in Nebraska
Originally Posted by Twin_Turbo
They etch the metal, when stamping the numbers the metal's matric (chrystalline structure) under the stamps gets deformed also, just like on a note block, where the writing imprints on the pages below. When machining off the number it's not visible by the naked eye but when etching the metal the denser structures under the stampings become visible. It's pretty easy to do.
Race Director
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try hydrocholoric acid, I don't know for sure if it will work..may want to give it a shot on some scrap metal, punch some numbers in it, grind them off and then try it. I've never done it before either. You may have to use some kind of dye to make it readable.
Last edited by Twin_Turbo; Mar 10, 2005 at 07:29 PM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2002
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From: Myrtle Beach SC
Originally Posted by Apocolips
The other night I was watching one of the CSI TV programs. They were trying to raise a filed off stamped serial number off of a handgun. They applied some kind of acid and did something else and the number reappeared. Has anyone out there ever heard of a process like that? The reason that I am asking is when the machine shop decked my block, they decked it all of the way to the edge over the suffix numbers. I would sure like to get the numbers back without having it re-stamped.
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From: Arlington Va Current ride 04 vert, previous vettes: 69 vert, 77 resto mod
alot of the "reveal' is done microscopically so you may not see it with the naked eye....i would not be playing around with acid in my engine compartment....too many things can go wrong. like eating away your head gasket for one....
