Sad Day.. Need a pistol corpse identified..

[FourTenJaeger]

Found in my Friend's shed in a soggy leather holster. It says SW on the Grip, Small bore, I'd say .22, Maybe .32? Top break. 6 or 5 Shot, Can't tell. Rusted Solid. But Trigger and hammer are in decent condition and cylinder isnt rusted to the frame, But won't rotate. Sorry for bad pics





How much $$$ Would it cost to get it restored, let alone firing? He's intrested in doing so.

[efnick]

wouldnt waste the time to do it, its pretty much gone. nice wall piece or something, mount it to a board. my dad has one thats been oiled and taken care of (i think its nickle) and its still pitted and makes me uneasy shooting it.

[FNH5-7]

wouldnt waste the time to do it, its pretty much gone. nice wall piece or something, mount it to a board. my dad has one thats been oiled and taken care of (i think its nickle) and its still pitted and makes me uneasy shooting it.

I agree. I wouldn't waste too much time restoring it. Mount it to a wall instead. For what your friend will spend restoring it he could most likely buy a brand new SW revolver.

[efnick]

plus the value on these models isnt sky high or anything.

[Oldnoob]

R.I.P.

[Ubermcoupe]

R.I.P.

It kinda has character now, no?

[HonkingAntelope]

Even if you manage to get it unstuck and cleaned up, don't even think about shooting it. With that much corrosion, there's probably enough structural damage to make it liable to go kaboom even without the usual powder double-up. A replacement gun is much cheaper than replacement fingers.

[junkit_boy]

whoa! That looks nasty hehe

[junkit_boy]

sell it to a hollywood art dept. You might get some money for it

[efnick]

just get a tetanus shot before you handle it any more.

[JTROKS]

[InGrAM]

Lets all take a moment of silence for that poor wheel gun.

[Akula1]

I say at least send the photos to S&W to see if they can do anything. What do you have to lose? If they say it's beyond repair so be it. You have a a nice conversation piece. If they say send it in, they may be able to rehabilitate it.

I remember a long thread in the 1911 forums where a guy purchased a used SA 1911 Loaded model and road home on his motrcycle via the freeway. When he got home, he noticed his backpack was completely open and the pistol was gone. He retraced his route and found what remained of his 1911 strewn about a hundred feet of freeway. He managed to retrive the parts (I'm not sure I agree with his thinking on this part) from the freeway and called Springfield Armory about the situation. They told him to send it in and in a month's time he had a fully repaired 1911 which they charged him $180 for the repair. Just goes to show you that you never know to what extent the manufacturers can do bring a dead firearm back to life.

[Asphodel]

I've 'quasi-restored' a few which were rusted solid like that.

Its not worth doing, except as an 'amusement exercise' or a challenge, just to see whether it can be done........it can't be done commercially, rather obviously, as even if someone worked for minimum wage, the pay-roll for the time spent would be far more than the value of the piece when 'done'. (I say 'done', not 'restored')

If you've a bead blast rig, with fine glass-beads, and some time to invest in a hobby amusement, read on......

I glass-blast the piece, to remove the exterior rust. The steel will be pitted in spots, beyond any hope of re-polishing, altho if one were sufficiently patient, it could be nickelled, after a heavy copper strike to fill the pits, and polishing-out, followed by a light copper strike, then final polish, then the nickel.

Once the majority of the rust is removed by media blasting, the real challenge begins. Penetrants such as Kroil oil, or any of several varieties of 'witches' brew' using dilute phosphoric acid are applied to the 'stuck' parts, and a few gentle heating/cooling cycles done to help the penetrant enter the rust in the gaps or clearances between parts.

With the penetrants in the rust-filled clearances, rap the piece with a soft-wood mallet, the wood being the hardest one can find which won't scar the steel.

With more penetrant, and more tapping/rapping, the rust in the gaps will begin to emerge as a 'rust slurry'......this can be slow and tedious.

Eventually, enough of the 'rust slurry' will have emerged that the parts can begin to be moved relative to one another. It takes great patience to keep moving the parts ever so slightly, as the penetrants turn the rust into slurry, and it emerges from the gaps.

Eventually, the parts will be freed up, and will slide or revolve, as the case may be.

Stuck screws can be removed the same way, but applying localised head near the screw thread by heating a copper or brass bar to a red, then holding it against the steel to transfer the heat, will help break the screws loose. A rotary 'impact driver', used gently with screw driver bits carefully ground to fit the screw slots, will usually be the best tool for this work.

After the piece can be totally disassembled, gently glass-blast all the parts, except grips. I usually just blacked the freshly blasted parts with some Brownells' 'Oxpho'.

After blacking the major parts with Oxpho, I'd just give them a thin coat of clear spray lacquer, to prevent new rust.

This results in an interesting display piece. It can be impressive, in a way, to see an obviously deeply rust-pitted piece brought back to clean and apparently functional condition.

It may be safe to fire, with very light loads, but I'd not take the chance, myself.

cheers

Carla

[Grumpyoldretiredcop]

Maybe a good candidate for rust removal by electrolysis?