Restoring/rebuilding a very old shotgun
02-19-2014, 02:25 AM
#31
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 921
Im starting with the spring mechanism for the fore grip since the fore grip finish is nearly complete. This assembly is made up of 7 parts, all of which are pretty corroded. This assembly also spent time in the ATF and Acetone solution so I could take it apart.
Here it is right off the gun as I received it.
Then Disassembled
I screwed up here and failed to take a pic of the metal parts after cleaning and before bluing but here are the parts after bluing.
The S.O.P. for the parts is as follows.
Disassemble
Manually descale (Dremmel, sandpaper, files, steel wool, etc) to get rid of as much surface rust as possible
Acetone bath with tooth brush (to degrease)
Chemical rust remover (30 minutes or longer on really corroded parts)
Water rinse and dry
Manual rust removal of any spots missed
400 grit sanding, Steel wool and polish
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Light oil
Bagged and tagged
The triple bluing and steel wool seems to give it good color and protection and shine.
All these parts are rusted and pitted so badly that it is not possible to remove all the pitting as it would dimensionaly change the parts or compromise them. While the pitting remains, the chemical rust remover does a good job of removing the rust and the small metal brush of the Dremmel gets into all the pits.
Many of these parts will need to be degreased again before I apply the baking lacquer ( protective coating) but for now they all get thrice blued and oiled.
Here is the fore grip spring mechanism reassembled after blue and oil. Not picture perfect but corrosion protected and functional. It will be disassembled again for the baking lacquer.
I did a better job with the pictures on the Trigger and trigger guard. Im not going to show all 40 pieces being restored as that would only slow down the whole process and there are a lot more parts to deal with but you get the idea. Its going to be a tedious process.
Larger parts like the receiver and barrel wont fit in a Ziploc bag of rust remover so I will have to address them differently when I get to that point.
To be continued……..
Here it is right off the gun as I received it.
Then Disassembled
I screwed up here and failed to take a pic of the metal parts after cleaning and before bluing but here are the parts after bluing.
The S.O.P. for the parts is as follows.
Disassemble
Manually descale (Dremmel, sandpaper, files, steel wool, etc) to get rid of as much surface rust as possible
Acetone bath with tooth brush (to degrease)
Chemical rust remover (30 minutes or longer on really corroded parts)
Water rinse and dry
Manual rust removal of any spots missed
400 grit sanding, Steel wool and polish
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Acetone bath
Dicropan cold bluing
0000 steel wool
Light oil
Bagged and tagged
The triple bluing and steel wool seems to give it good color and protection and shine.
All these parts are rusted and pitted so badly that it is not possible to remove all the pitting as it would dimensionaly change the parts or compromise them. While the pitting remains, the chemical rust remover does a good job of removing the rust and the small metal brush of the Dremmel gets into all the pits.
Many of these parts will need to be degreased again before I apply the baking lacquer ( protective coating) but for now they all get thrice blued and oiled.
Here is the fore grip spring mechanism reassembled after blue and oil. Not picture perfect but corrosion protected and functional. It will be disassembled again for the baking lacquer.
I did a better job with the pictures on the Trigger and trigger guard. Im not going to show all 40 pieces being restored as that would only slow down the whole process and there are a lot more parts to deal with but you get the idea. Its going to be a tedious process.
Larger parts like the receiver and barrel wont fit in a Ziploc bag of rust remover so I will have to address them differently when I get to that point.
To be continued……..
02-20-2014, 03:53 AM
#33
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 921
With all the small parts finished, I can move onto the receiver and barrel. I put naval jelly and the receiver in a gallon sized ziploc bag for 2 hours. Im impressed with its ability to remove all corrosion. Then it was the same regimen used on the small parts all the way up to polishing.
It cleaned up well but I did a lot of extra polishing work.
Here is a short video of how it looks just prior to cold bluing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmsw8HPVLDs
Here it is after being cold blued 3 times.
The receiver will be coated with Brownells baking lacquer colored stainless steel grey to mimic the metallic look the gun had originally.
Then it was onto the barrel. Earlier in the process while I had the ATF and Acetone solution in use, I soaked the barrel in order to remove the attached parts. I also used the solution in the bore with a copper brush. What came out of the bore looked like crude oil. I worked that brush through the barrel many many times.
While working the receiver I soaked one end of the barrel in the naval jelly. My container was too large (or I didn’t have enough naval jelly) so I threw some wood strips in to raise the level of the jelly. After 2 hours I pulled it out and rinsed it under hot water and dried it and only gave it a brushing with a stiff stainless steel bristled brush and then steel wool to remove the powdery grey surface created by the naval jelly.
The effects are pretty noticeable. Here is a video showing how well it worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zihls1wf3so
After 6 years, (and lots of projects) my Dremmel tool died. Off to the store for another.
While I was out buying another Dremmel tool I picked up two more containers of naval jelly so I could remove the rust from the entire barrel. I cut in half a plastic tube that paper comes on for our plotter at work. This tube bathtub worked pretty well once I plugged the ends with foam and tywraps.
After 2 hours I pulled it out and rinsed it under hot water and dried it. Here it is with the powdery grey film left by the naval jelly.
Then the wire brush and steel wool treatment.
After 3 applications of Dicropan cold blue.
The next step is applying the Brownells baking lacquer.
To be continued......
It cleaned up well but I did a lot of extra polishing work.
Here is a short video of how it looks just prior to cold bluing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmsw8HPVLDs
Here it is after being cold blued 3 times.
The receiver will be coated with Brownells baking lacquer colored stainless steel grey to mimic the metallic look the gun had originally.
Then it was onto the barrel. Earlier in the process while I had the ATF and Acetone solution in use, I soaked the barrel in order to remove the attached parts. I also used the solution in the bore with a copper brush. What came out of the bore looked like crude oil. I worked that brush through the barrel many many times.
While working the receiver I soaked one end of the barrel in the naval jelly. My container was too large (or I didn’t have enough naval jelly) so I threw some wood strips in to raise the level of the jelly. After 2 hours I pulled it out and rinsed it under hot water and dried it and only gave it a brushing with a stiff stainless steel bristled brush and then steel wool to remove the powdery grey surface created by the naval jelly.
The effects are pretty noticeable. Here is a video showing how well it worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zihls1wf3so
After 6 years, (and lots of projects) my Dremmel tool died. Off to the store for another.
While I was out buying another Dremmel tool I picked up two more containers of naval jelly so I could remove the rust from the entire barrel. I cut in half a plastic tube that paper comes on for our plotter at work. This tube bathtub worked pretty well once I plugged the ends with foam and tywraps.
After 2 hours I pulled it out and rinsed it under hot water and dried it. Here it is with the powdery grey film left by the naval jelly.
Then the wire brush and steel wool treatment.
After 3 applications of Dicropan cold blue.
The next step is applying the Brownells baking lacquer.
To be continued......
02-20-2014, 08:17 AM
#35
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 921
Putting time frames and hours and cost on a project makes it work or a “job” I hate those things. As a relaxing hobby I hate to put pressure on myself to be done by a certain date vs the project being done when I am satisfied and happy with it. All that said, I can tell you I expect to be able to assemble the completed metal parts by this weekend. The bottle neck on final completion is the daily application of tung oil. One application a day and I expect to have sufficient applications early next week. The foregrip is complete with all the applications of tung oil that its going to get. I have already given it 5 applications of paste wax as well and it looks like glass. I can only hope the butt stock ends up looking so good.
02-21-2014, 03:42 AM
#36
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 921
Last night I did all the baking lacquer parts. If you haven’t tried this stuff yet, it great. Ive done other guns with it. It easy to use and durable. Certain parts (in keeping with the original look of the shotgun) would be black while others would have a metallic appearance. I preheated the oven to 300 and got to spraying the parts with 3 light coats. Here they are baking for ½ hour.
The 30 inch barrel of course would not fit in my oven so I had to improvise and build at tall skinny oven just for the barrel. I used an electric hot plate, some stove pipe, plywood, tin foil, and a wire hanger.
I let that engineering marvel preheat while I took a diamond tool mounted in my Dremmel to the barrel to add a marking that was missing.
The barrel also cooked for 30 minutes.
Here are some of the small parts after they cooled and after I ran a tap through all the holes to clean up the threads from the over spray.
Here is the barrel after its cooled and two applications of paste wax applied.
I am ready to begin assembling all the parts into a gun. Im making progress on the butt stock as well. After several coats during this week, I took after it with 600 grit sandpaper and gave it another of many applications of tung oil.
We are in the home stretch now.
The 30 inch barrel of course would not fit in my oven so I had to improvise and build at tall skinny oven just for the barrel. I used an electric hot plate, some stove pipe, plywood, tin foil, and a wire hanger.
I let that engineering marvel preheat while I took a diamond tool mounted in my Dremmel to the barrel to add a marking that was missing.
The barrel also cooked for 30 minutes.
Here are some of the small parts after they cooled and after I ran a tap through all the holes to clean up the threads from the over spray.
Here is the barrel after its cooled and two applications of paste wax applied.
I am ready to begin assembling all the parts into a gun. Im making progress on the butt stock as well. After several coats during this week, I took after it with 600 grit sandpaper and gave it another of many applications of tung oil.
We are in the home stretch now.
02-24-2014, 02:21 AM
#39
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 921
When I began this project I took dozens upon dozens of photos during the disassembly process to aid me in reassembling the gun since I knew there was going to be a good deal of time before I would be putting the pieces back together and I wouldnt remember how to do it. I took pictures of the parts in their assembled state to see how they interfaced with one another like this.
Then as I removed the parts I took pictures of the orientation so I could reverse the process later on like this.
Despite my best efforts I still managed to mess up the reassembly. On more than one occasion I failed to pay close enough attention to my photos and tried to put it back together incorrectly. Perhaps I was in too great a hurry. Once I slowed down and really studied the pictures and put things back not only in the proper orientation but in the right sequence (some parts had to be assembled before others) then it all came together quite well. At this point all the metal parts are reassembled. Here are a few before and after pics.
These two springs proved to be the most difficult to compress and reassemble. I can envision the custom tool they no doubt used in mass production. I spent the most time coming up with a way to reinstall these springs without marring the finish on the receiver.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Then I turned to the fore grip wood and spring assembly.
There are still more applications of tung oil to be worked into the butt stock so I can't assemble the complete shotgun so I will turn my attention to building a remote means of test firing this old gun. I need to make a sled to hold the gun securely and a way to trigger it from about 60 feet away. Back to making sawdust.
To be continued…..
Then as I removed the parts I took pictures of the orientation so I could reverse the process later on like this.
Despite my best efforts I still managed to mess up the reassembly. On more than one occasion I failed to pay close enough attention to my photos and tried to put it back together incorrectly. Perhaps I was in too great a hurry. Once I slowed down and really studied the pictures and put things back not only in the proper orientation but in the right sequence (some parts had to be assembled before others) then it all came together quite well. At this point all the metal parts are reassembled. Here are a few before and after pics.
These two springs proved to be the most difficult to compress and reassemble. I can envision the custom tool they no doubt used in mass production. I spent the most time coming up with a way to reinstall these springs without marring the finish on the receiver.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Then I turned to the fore grip wood and spring assembly.
There are still more applications of tung oil to be worked into the butt stock so I can't assemble the complete shotgun so I will turn my attention to building a remote means of test firing this old gun. I need to make a sled to hold the gun securely and a way to trigger it from about 60 feet away. Back to making sawdust.
To be continued…..
02-24-2014, 06:38 AM
#40
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Coming along fantastic and I sure love the wood and the forearm looks great! What are you going to shoot to test fire it? Is the barrel the old Damascus twist method they used to make all the old guns?
Last edited by Topgun 3006; 02-24-2014 at 05:52 PM. Reason: spelling