doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com From Case Colors to French Grey

*Note, this thread is a follow up to an earlier discussion.

I have ended up with a 1944 Ugartechea that I'm working on refinishing. The gun was cheap and it's not rare or collectible, so I'm going to have some fun with it and take a few chances. One of those chances is that I want to try removing the worn case colors from the receiver so that I'm left with a French Grey finish. I couldn't find another thread where someone documented this process, so I started a new one. I'll do my best to post pictures along the way that might help others who also want to give this a go.

This afternoon a new set of gunsmithing screwdrivers arrived with the UPS man, and I promptly went to work removing the stock according to the directions contained in the thread linked above. Worked like a charm.

Now I'm left with this:



Here's where I've hit two snags.

1) The directions I'm following don't say whether the action needs to be totally disassembled to have the colors removed (i.e. don't get acid on the internals of the action), or whether I can go ahead and just cover the whole thing in something like toilet bowl cleaner. I would simply disassemble the whole thing, but I've read a number of warning that "disassembling an Anson & Deeley boxlock is best left to a gunsmith". Anyone have any advice to give?

2) The top lever and the safety appear to have originally been blued and I'd like to send them out with the barrels for rebluing. The issue is the safety. There's a silver rod on the bottom/inside of the safety lever holding it in place. The rod doesn't want to move and I can't think of a way to get the safety button off with the rod in place. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I might deal with this issue?



Thank you in advance for your generous help. Although my knowledge is too thin to contribute expertise to the board, I'll do my best to contribute photos and write ups of my progress for others to learn from.

that silver rod should be removable, it will most likely go one way only. Try left to right. If this doesn't work it can be carefully cutoff with a Dremel or similar tool and a new one fashioned rather easily later when needed.

Innards in or innards out, are you really positively sure you want to dip it in acid?

Total disassembly? I say go for it. You made it this far. If you get stuck someone here will tell you how to get it back together.

Try heating the area around silver rod with the tip of a soldering iron to free it up.

Good luck.

Calebg:
I doubt if this gun would look any better in "grey", but if you have designs on dipping it in anything, it MUST be completely stripped down. If you haven't taken a boxlock to bits before, please find good tuition before doing so. The nasty buggers are the hammer springs. But getting it apart is easy for a novice, compared to reassembly.

For someone of your abilities, I'd say get the Jack Rowe DVD from Midway on English guns and be careful as you follow the instruction.

As for "dipping your bits," I'd suggest a mild boric acid solution -- or more conveniently these days, "Evapo-Rust." Either will give you a soft grey look.

Best, Kensal

Thanks. I know some people aren't especially fond of coin/grey boxlocks, but I like the look of the old Precision Sports Uggies.



It sounds like totally stripping the action might be tough. By the way, for future reference the Jack Rowe video is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSlmPGWRdgQ Wish I'd found it earlier.

Do you have any thoughts on using something like oven cleaner on the outside of the action without stripping the action down?

calebg:
You can try oven cleaner, but Evapo-Rust will work better. In your case strip all the bits off that you can, Leave the hammers and springs in, make notes for reassembly, and then wipe that stuff on the outside of the parts you want stripped. Watch for the level you need, then boil the parts in hot water to get the stripper out. Then let the heat of the metal dry things. Wait 24 hours... then blast the action and parts with WD-40 and let drain out. That should do it. With a Spanish gun, what little might rust won't hurt.

Best, Kensal

If you are going to "wipe that stuff on the outside" then you don't really need to strip the insides. If everything was working before you removed the wood, just leave the internal bits as they were, and make sure you thoroughly dry the assembly and lube it when done. I wouldn't use WD-40. I'd prefer Ballistol. When you remove the assembly from the boiling water, the internals will probably start to rust in short order. WD-40 will drive out the moisture but so will acetone; acetone is highly flammable, so don't apply it to really hot metal. WD-40 will leave an oily residue that may gum things up over the years and create new issues. Acetone will leave the surfaces absolutely clean and free of oil, so you'll need to lube things right away. The advantage of Ballistol over both WD-40 and acetone is that it mixes with water, so that you can bake off the remaining moisture in a low oven while the metal is protected by the Ballistol. Whatever "stuff" you use on the outside, it should be applied to an absolutely clean surface so that you get uniform results. If you don't want to dip your assembled frame in acetone before applying the "stuff," at least scrub the outside first with acetone or wax and grease remover from the auto body supply.

I would seek the advise of Ken Hurst, I think he can help you.

Craig

Ken's method

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...true#Post160158

I have french grayed blued & color cased actions over the years via this process. Strip the action, degrease, warm action/part in sun until hot, submerge or coat in Lysol toilet bowl cleaner & leave so phos. acid can loosen carbon nodules. Degrease steel wool & compack into a hard pad. Remove part from cleaner & repeatedly scrub with pad until enough color removed. You will probably have questions ---- feel free to call me for answers or help.

Pete

I'm of the persuasion to take it apart for any surface work. If you can't get past the safety rod without help, respectfully, I suggest to you that you probably don't want to tackle this job since there are tougher things ahead in the disassembly and reassembly. I suggest having someone like a qualified gunsmith, familiar with boxlock doubles, take it apart and reassemble for you. I really believe that you will likely be disappointed in the damage you do to the gun, more so than the enhancement you make if you tackle this.