16ga.com ~ View topic

Joined: 28 Aug 2014 Posts: 924 Location: Eastern Tennessee

Neither is a 16 ga, but I received 2 free guns yesterday:

410 Winchester 370 - roughly late 1950's model

.22lr Winchester 77 (tube feed) - roughly late 1950's model

They had been sitting in a locker at a facility that has a high humidity level for 15 to 20 years. The exterior of the guns had a good covering of rust on the metal surfaces (about 85% on 410 and about 70% on 22lr). The interior and non-exposed metal surfaces had no signs of rust. After spending an hour cleaning up each gun and replacing rust with oil pitted surface (with the use of ATF, old socks, and wool), I feel pretty good about the usability of each weapon.

So here is my question - The exterior surface of both barrels has a good amount of surface pitting (nothing deep, just a lot of small pits), what type of finish should I put on them? Keep in mind, the guns were free and neither is worth much of anything to me or as to sell.

I have considered black spray on duracoat, camo tape, or leaving them as is. Love to hear your thoughts (except anyone, not naming names, that suggest I go the pink panther route!).

*Last edited by skeettx on Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:30 pm; edited 1 time in total*

I would suggest Singer 3 in 1 Sewing Machine Oil and use the heck out of these guns and enjoy them. Every time you look at them, smile and remember the joy you had cleaning them up to be usable firearms

Mike

Joined: 12 Sep 2014 Posts: 70 Location: Highland, IL

Spend 400 dollars and take them to a gunsmith and have them re-Blued.
GunBroker is full of junk weapons that people don't take care of. Respect them for what they are, they can bring you happiness and can be passed down to someone else you love.

steel wool and oil , like Mike said , sewing oil . Even a fairly bad barrel will be useable if you take a tornado brush , oil and a drill .

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3177 Location: NCWa

I would remove them from their stocks and set the metal somewhere where it will get hot, inside a south exposure window or such. when warm- a hundred degrees or so, I'd apply a liberal coating of RIG and let it soak into the hot metal. Let the metal cool, wipe it down to remove the excess and reassemble to stock- good for another fifty years. Smile

you have no cash in these guns . Have them hot blued they will look good and you will be glad you spent a little scratch to get them that way.

OxphoBlue might be worth a try. De-oil, warm the metal and take your time putting on a few applications. If you decide to have them hot tanked later, nothing lost.

Joined: 25 Jan 2011 Posts: 70 Location: Virginia

both good guns. Since you got them for free I would have them professionally reblued and the wood refinished . Tt will not hurt the value of these guns and be special if done by a pro.

If you decide to go the route of spray painting, here are tips from a someone who does it for a living. I found this on another site:
"Thanks for answering my question and I'll explain why I asked you. I'm a bodyman/painter by trade, I've been doing it for about 20 years. I've mainly made my living doing custom work like airbrushing, handlettering, pinstriping and graffics. Bikes, brain buckets, boats, etc. I experimented A LOT with different types of paints over the years for different types of appilcations. I'm telling this about myself so you don't think I'm some Joe-Blow giving bad advise about paint, which I see plenty of on this forum. So when ever I see someone having a paint related problem, I usually like to chime in and give my two bits.

I've never used Rustoluim BBQ paint myself, but what happened to your paint job I don't really think can be blamed on the paint itself. I'm assuming that the BBQ paint is probably an enamel based product and when it was fully dried it would have stood up to giving it a quick wipe down with oil. I think you just did it too soon, the oil started breaking down the paint and interrupted the drying/curing process. That's probably why it continued to leave black on your hands for days after.

I'll give you guys a little painting 101. There basically two types of paint out there, one-part and two-part paints. One part-paint is a paint that dries through evaporation; the one-part means there is nothing to add to it, the one-part is the paint itself. Two-part paints cure through a chemical reaction, they have to have an activator(also known as hardener or catalyst) to make them cure. The first-part is the paint and the second-part is the activator. One-part and two-parts apply to all paints weather it is latex, laquer, enamels, urethanes or epoxys. Two-part paints with be more durable in the long run and will be highly solvent resistant compared to one-part paints. Notice I said one dries and one cures...

But not everyone wants or is going to spray two part-paints, esp when spray bombs are quick, easy and cheap. But I'll give you guys a few pointers to make spray bomb paint fairly durable.

I noticed a few people were saying that Rusty brand BBQ scratches easily and flakes off. I'm guessing people are spraying it over bare metal, even if the directions say you can, it's probably not a good idea. As far a I know, there is no true DTM(direct to metal) paint on the market in a spray can. You have to get into two-part paints for a true DTM paint, even then it's not always 100% it's not going to flake off. Check out local auto-body supply stores and look for metal-etching primer in the spray can, it's usually farily cheap and it goes a long way.

Here are some simple steps to make sure your paint job will turn out great.

1-Degrease. Do this as many times as nessecary, also never let the degreaser dry. Wipe the excess off or blow off with compressed air.
2- Scuff/sand areas really well.
3-Blow off with compressed air; if you don't have an air compressor, compressed air in a can works very well(the stuff from computer stores).
4-Tack surface
5-Etch prime all bare metal.
6-Spray paint according to diections.
7-Let it become dry to the touch.

The last step is the hardest step of all, but simply put...KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF IT FOR 2-3 WEEKS, even better a month. I know this part is espially hard when you just got done building your new gun. Even two-part paints take 3-4 weeks to FULLY cure. I like to paint snowmobile hoods during the summer and bike tanks during the winter, it gives the paint time to fully cure and give the customer their moneys worth. But it is the hardest thing to get through to my customers; when it gets all nice and warm, that's when everyone wants their bikes painted"

This process is reversible should you feel inclined to have them professionally restored at a later time. Gil