Cleaning M body

Thanks everyone. In the end I went with what I had about the house so I got the bulk off with vegetable oil (was curious to see how it would work and it was very good) and tackled the few very stubborn marks with acetone (carefully!). Now it looks and feels so fantastic, an entirely different machine to the taped up thing I got down from the loft. I suppose my Dad was just very paranoid about badly scratching the thing having spent a lot of money on it, and I guess with Leica's being valuable things you want to be able to get a good price for them if you re-sell. Funnily now it's clean I feel exactly the same but have found a good soft case to protect it when not in use; I have the original ever-ready case but I don't think I'd feel very safe keeping it in there! Thanks again.
 
Speaking of orange zest and orange oil goop removers, in my oil painting days, I used a product called Zest-It as a substitute for turpentine...

http://www.zest-it.com/zest-it.htm

Far more benign than inhaling the fumes from turps, and actually quite a pleasant smell. I haven't tried it for cleaning adhesive, but might be worth a go, given that it's quite refined. Quite possibly available from an art supplies shop near you. Next time I have adhesive residue to remove, I'll give it a try.

On cleaning vulcanite with lighter fluid, I would be very careful. I tried this on my Zorki 4, and found that the cleaning cloth acquired a big black stain, and the vulcanite/leatherette went from shiny to matt. Got the same thing with IPA. (Maybe that's a job for Zest-It.)
 
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