Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

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Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Wed Mar 11, 2020 4:46 pm

I bought a shotgun and a Win 94 from an estate and the owner had left them in a damp wet basement....the rust seems to have pitted the surface (if not deeper?) and I'm wondering how best to bring it back to somewhat of a more normal state (without grinding). I thought about using some Flitz and a soft Dremel head; that'll of course remove bluing, but I figured they'd have to be re-blued anyway. I don't think I want to use anything like naval jelly or any 'rust converter' would I? The barrel inside looks ok, not great, just ok. And am not sure if treating that would be any difference than the outside of the barrel/receiver. Thanks in advance for suggestions,
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby 870TC on Wed Mar 11, 2020 6:00 pm

0000 steel wool wont remove anymore blueing, the things you suggested will. If the rust has a bit of crust layer to it you can lightly scratch those areas to break the top layer so the 4- O steel wool can do its job. Do that carefully with a very dull knife...like duller than a butter knife or try a old copper penny (newer ones seem to have some hardener mixed in with the copper?)
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby prushin on Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:26 pm

If you want to use a commercial product, Naval Jelly is pretty good. If you are looking for something more homey,white vinegar works very well on steel. If you can't submerge the part in vinegar, dampen a clean rag and wash the area thoroughly and lay it over the area and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. Take a brass brush to the area and repeat as needed.

With either Naval Jelly or vinegar you will need to rinse the area you're working on very well after you've gotten it cleaned up and then oil it to keep it from rusting while you're working on other areas.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Drizzle on Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:57 pm

Watch the YouTube channel Mark Novak, or Anvil, which used to be associated with C&Rsenal, another great channel.

Mark is a gunsmith and did an episode on conservation of firearms, which I remember expressly did NOT involve any steel wool, but did involve boiling the gun with wood removed. Have a look there and see what he recommends before you start anything.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby daleamn on Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:00 am

The 0000 steel wool is what I've heard can work on the rust but it takes a while.

I've also heard that even if the bore isn't perfect the gun may still shoot quite well so it's not unreasonable to think your rifle might shoot fine.

I don't know if you guns have any collector value but common wisdom seems to be that having them re-blued is NOT the thing to do. You didn't mention if you were thinking about doing that or if they any collector value...just throwing that piece of info out. Take it for what it's worth.

I had a nice old Ruger SA that had done quite nicely for many years until I got a hold of it and stored it for a week in a cheap leather holster (I will NOT do that again!!). There was a little surface rust on the gun, it was very light, and the steel wool trick worked okay on it but like I said the rust was very light and I can tell where I worked on it so the finish is not as good as it was when I got it. My stupidity still annoys me to this very day.

Good luck.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Rotary12 on Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:54 am

I've used navel jelly and reblued with Vick's cold blueing. Came out really nice.
Or you could give the gun to me and buy a new gun. :lol:
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:27 pm

So naval jelly won't harm the bluing? I'll check out the youtube vid suggested (am curious about the "boiling" concept). I've used a commercial rust remover that really ruined knives' finishes! So I'm scared to use anything off-the-shelf. I'll try and post before/during/after pics later. (These are just intended to be 'shooters' and not collectibles, or for resale.)
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Rotary12 on Fri Mar 13, 2020 5:28 pm

Bergie wrote:So naval jelly won't harm the bluing? I'll check out the youtube vid suggested (am curious about the "boiling" concept). I've used a commercial rust remover that really ruined knives' finishes! So I'm scared to use anything off-the-shelf. I'll try and post before/during/after pics later. (These are just intended to be 'shooters' and not collectibles, or for resale.)

Oh no, it will take the bluing right off, leaves a nice finish for the new blowing that you will need to do regardless.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:11 pm

[heavy sigh] OP here, so I'm trying to completely disassemble this stupid 94 and I can't quite figure out how to do it....its the Centenial version with the brass-colored receiver (which is really rusted and corroded near the barrel). I can't figure out how to get the lever to unhook from the bolt.....then there's the problem of trying to figure out how to get the magazine to detach form the receiver block AND get it to slide out from the ring that holds it to the barrel, AND then slide the forearm off the end (it won't simply drop down). Ugh! (Furthermore, maybe Odegard or Kobe know how to put these things back together!)
As for the corrosion, I see grinding (yikes!) on the brass to get rid of the pitting- looks like a mini volcano. So I either A) grind down and see if it can be 're-brassed' -or B) leave as-is and send to Turnbull out in NY to get it their funky colored finish. Are these worth restoring to brass?

*the shotgun is an old Wingmaster 12ga w/a FC barrel; coming apart much easier, but the bluing comes off just by showing it the steel wool!
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby 870TC on Sat Mar 21, 2020 10:22 am

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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:31 pm

870TC wrote:94 disassembly. http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm


Appreciate the site reference (I saw it earlier). But this is the Centennial with octagon barrel, a bit different than a regular 94. Looks like I have to free the rusted magazine, slide it all the way out, then knock out from the barrel the dovetailed-in band, only then will it be possible to slide off the brass-colored forearm cap and forearm.
And I can't find any reference that actually depicts the bolt/lever release from this model.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby 870TC on Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:27 am

ok so on the forearm cap models like you have look at the schematic/take-down for the Winchester model 1886 or any other Win-lever with the for-end cap style assembly the forearm, tube and etc come off the same way on those models.
Bolt lever release???. not sure what you are asking?. the receiver part of the take-down process should be the same as the one in the link.
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:04 pm

870TC wrote:ok so on the forearm cap models like you have look at the schematic/take-down for the Winchester model 1886 or any other Win-lever with the for-end cap style assembly the forearm, tube and etc come off the same way on those models. J
Bolt lever release???. not sure what you are asking?. the receiver part of the take-down process should be the same as the one in the link.


Here's what I meant by the bolt/lever release.....the lever (lever action) connects to the bolt somehow, probably a pin, or some kind of detent. The lever -according to the schematics- just hooks into that pin on the bolt. I can't see how to push out that pin (assuming there is one). I've uploaded a pic of the bottom view of the lever going up into the bolt.
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IMG_4108.jpg
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby 870TC on Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:35 am

Finger lever pin needs to be removed. If you look at the link I provided theres pictures showing how to disassembly that. counting pics from top down start looking at the 11th pic. heres the link again...
http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm
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Re: Pitted With Rust. How best to 'restore'?

Postby Bergie on Sat Apr 04, 2020 7:38 am

870TC wrote:Finger lever pin needs to be removed. If you look at the link I provided theres pictures showing how to disassembly that. counting pics from top down start looking at the 11th pic. heres the link again...
http://www.castbullet.com/misc/tdown.htm


Sorry, my bad- that's it!
I should have photo-journaled these projects. I gave the 870 barrel and receiver a bath in Brownells rust dissolver and it took her right down to bare steel! So now I'm a little gun-shy of doing the same to the Centennial. I don't want to strip the gold off the receiver. I might try applying a few drops on the inside of the receiver and let it sit overnight to see how it affects the gold coat.
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