Want To Restore Grandpa's Guns

[rivitir]

I have a couple of my grandfathers guns, a .357 mag pistol (S&W 19-3) and a .22 semi auto rifle (Remington 550-? I think it's a -1, can't remember exactly). Both of these guns are awesome shooters, but both are in pretty bad shape. Bluing is coming off, some pitting, some rust, etc. My grandfather unfortunately never took care of them, I guess he just never felt like he had to. Anyway, I'm asking for direction because I want to do this right. So here are a few questions and I'll probably ask more later.

 

Do you know where I can get or can you give me complete disassemble and reassemble guides for these?

What is the best way for me to remove the old bluing, remove all rust, and remove all dirt/fouling from these? (please keep in mind I don't have a shop, only my kitchen table to work on)

What is the best way for me to reblue them?

 

I think the work that I'm most nervous about is the reassembling and removing the rust.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

--Riv

[diggerdanh]

Riv,

 

I can't speak about professional restoration, but it sounds to me like you just want to restore them enough to look respectable and protect them from any further damage. I can help with that.

 

I have no idea on the disasembly guides, hopefully someone else can chime in.

 

After disasembly, the first thing you'll want to do is thoroughly clean off all the dirt, grease and grime built up over the years from all the metal parts. Simple Green, or any other cleaner/degreaser you have on had should suffice. Wipe off excess dirt and grime with rags and then use and old tooth brush to get into the cracks and crevices. You can use a small hand-held wire brush to take down any heavy rust - but use a gentle hand.

 

Now you should be able to better see what you've got to work with. Naval Jelly will remove the blueing, rust, etc. and leave nothing but the pitting. Again, a small wire brush with light pressure will help in the rusty/pitted areas. I don't know that I'd remove all the bluing - it may be okay in some/most areas. But for larger visible areas like the top of the barrel and receiver you may want to remove it all so that your new blue will have an even color.

 

After getting all the rust removed and everything cleaned up you'll want to use a degreaser on everything, I usually use brake cleaner.

 

Depending on how much pitting you have and where it is located you may or may not want to fill in those areas with epoxy. It's really your preference and also depends on how you plan to finish. I've had good luck with Duracoat spray finishes and it will easily cover over any pitted areas that have been filled and you won't even know they were there. But you may opt for a more traditional blued finish for these two firearms.

 

If you end up with just a couple of spots that you need to reblue then you can try a cold blue like Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. It might or might not look good enough for your purposes. If you want to go all out then you could rust blue everything yourself. There are some good tutorials on this site and other places on the internet explaining how to do it.

 

If it will be some time between taking it down to bare metal and when you finish it then you'll want to apply a light coat of oil to everything so it doesn't rust in the meantime. You'll just have to remember to degrease it again before finishing.

 

Additionally, you'll want to do the cleaning/degreasing or any work with chemicals (like degreaser and the cold blue) outside rather than at your kitchen table. The cleaning/degreasing will be messy and you don't want to be in a confined space while working with any chemicals.

[Sailormilan2]

Regarding the S&W Model 19. If it was me, I would send it back to Smith and Wesson and let them reblue it. They can do it at a resonable price, and you can ship the gun to them without going through a dealer. Blue takes so much careful polishing I would seriously hesitate to do it my self.

An alternative would be to send it to someone for bluing. I have used Mark Waldo in Lynchburg and he does good work. He said he used to work for Dan Wesson as a bluer, and his bluing is a very nice Blue black color. I believe his email is gunbluer@lynchburgnet.net

[BradD]

The Smith will always have more value if it was redone at the factory. However, if it's more than 50% don't do anything but clean it. 50% is worth more than a reblued Smith.

 

If it's pitted, no one can help.

 

If you're going to remove the side plate, write me and I'll tell you how to do it.

 

Smith & Wesson

2100 Roosevelt

Springfield, MA

 

Brad

[karlunity]

Step 1 for home cleaning when you cannot take the guns down.

Remove all the wood: grips, stocks etc.

 

Boil a BIG pot of water or several and pour it all over the firing mechanism, down the bore..everywere.

 

(Be sure you have something to hold the guns with as they are going to be HOT.)

 

Do that several times then spray with break cleaner ($1 a can at the 99 cent store)

 

Spray all the steel surface with oil and wipe, don't forget the bore.

 

Step 2

 

Clean the rifle and pistol as you would after a day's shooting.

 

Karl

[rivitir]

Thank you for all your tips. If you noticed I ended up trading the pistol for a Rem 700 30-06, however I still have the .22 rifle (I'm not getting rid of it). I ordered a Mosin and I'm going to practice on it before I start ripping open my grandfather's .22 rifle.

 

I would rather screw up a rifle I don't care about. :-)

 

Depending on how bad the mosin ends up looking I may just go ahead and spend the money to let a pro gunsmith do the work.

 

Thanks again.