Alright folks. It's colder than crap outside, so with no other real projects on my table right now, I started sanding and rebluing the old gun.
I noticed that the front bead was broken off almost even with the barrel, so no amount of whispering sweet nothings to it was going to unscrew it. So, the next alternative was to center punch the brass divot and drill it out to a 6-48 thread and I'll have to replace it altogether.
And here are a few macro shots showing the orange peel texture of the rust on it. It's mostly all on the surface and not a lot of pitting at all.
pay attention to this next picture because the next time you see it, will look a bit better
When I was sanding on the magazine tube, I was really surprised to see that it still had the original plug in it. I wasn't expecting that. Before I put everything together tomorrow or Thursday, I'm going to push the plug and follower and mag spring out and give it a good cleaning down in there. It's a bit "tacky and sticky" feeling. I may try to clean the dowel with some denatured alcohol. ??? Feels like cosmoline coating to be honest.
After about 20 or 30 minutes of sanding by hand with some 220 grit, it's smooth as butter. But when I say it was oxidized, that wasn't an understatement.
I only have a single coat of cold blue on it right now, and as well as it took it, the old gun has to have a lot of carbon in the steel. Much more than I'm used to these days for sure. Even with a single coat, it's not got a lot of light spots in it and it has a decidedly shiny black look to it. With one or maybe two more coats, it's going to shine up like a new penny.
I told you the next time you see this next part it won't look like it did before. I'm going to let the blue work overnight and tomorrow will go over everything again and then rinse it and oil it down well. I don't think I'll have much of a problem with it.