I got a new Wearever lever filler. The sac had been shellacked to the pressure bar from too much shellac when the sac was last fitted. How do I get the hardened shellac off of the inside of the body?

Also the nib on this one looks like it is beyond repair.



How do you replace the nibs on the Wearever pens?

You can soften the shellac with heat (use a good heat gun and proceed with great caution in order not to damage the celluloid) or you can use denatured alcohol.
One of the advantages of shellac is that it is removable. I hope the previous repair person did not use nail polish, like so many do....

Doesn't look like nail polish because it is brown like the shellac I put on the new sac. Actually I was able to reuse the old sac as it is still very rubbery and stretchy. Also it is a plastic body.

I have a Wearever nib that arrived in similar condition and having nothing to lose; I slowly burnished the nib back into shape with a polished steel rod, using a ball peen hammer as an anvil. You could use a small screwdriver as a shaping tool.

Go ahead and give it a try; your nib is much nicer than the one I worked on. Just be sure you have a loop to check the progress with. I also bought a cheap OPTI-VISOR type tool from Harbor Freight that helps out somewhat.

The thing I love about these old pens is how a bit of time and attention can give an instrument new life.

Cheers,
Eli

Giovanni,
Please explain why using transparent nail polish as a sac-sealant is problematic.
Even Frank Dubiel recommends in" Da Book" nail polish being a valuable sac-sealing alternative.
Thanks in advance for your clarification !

Let me start by saying that Frank Dubiel was a friend and I really miss him. We often debated on pen-related issues in many forums, always with mutual respect. We also shared a passion for wide-screen cinema and we both wrote articles and posts about that subject, as well as pens. The last time I saw him, just days before his untimely passing, he asked me to describe to him how to replace the piston seal in a vintage Aurora 88: he was going to add that process to the next edition of his repair manual.
Having said that, one must remember that his book was written at a time when proper repair supplies were hard to come by and he often offers methods that are back-ups he adopted years ago because of the lack of the ideal product or because they offered a less expensive solution (he was a thrifty person).
Having said that, here are my reasons for not using nail polish:
1. Nail polish contains acetone. Acetone emits fumes that can affect several plastics and that are very aggressive to celluloid. I do not want those fumes in an small-volume enclosed space like the inside of a pen barrel.
2. Nail polish does not soften at relatively low temperatures as shellac does. Shellac's application is easily reversible.
3. Removing dried nail polish from a sac nipple is not as easy and risk-free as removing shellac. One often needs a small file and that means taking away some nipple material.
4. Some nail polishes craze with age and turn into a fine powder that ceases to have an adhesive effect on the sac and can actually clog a feed.
Gioven all this and given the fact that some excellent shellac-based sac cements are now easily available from several sources, I do not encourage the use of nail polish in pen repair.

The picture shows Frank Dubiel and I intent on discussing cartridge pens:

Thanks for your clarification, Giovanni,
Your argumentation, looks very sound to me.
I'll skip using nail polish for fountain pen sealing purposes as from now on.