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DIY: How to Resurrect Old Guns

Talyn

SAINT
Founding Member
As with so many things among collectors, worth is often in the eye of the beholder. No question, a rusty Colt Single Action Army from around 1873 could be worth thousands of dollars, and its value diminished by trying to restore it. However, a .22 rifle branded for Sears, rusty and non-firing, not so much.

DIY: How to Resurrect Old Guns

Resurrecting-Old-Guns-10.jpg
 
I watched a bunch of this guy's videos. Some of the stuff seems like maybe not the best idea, but it's pretty amazing what he does with some stuff. Like this CZ-75.

 
As with so many things among collectors, worth is often in the eye of the beholder. No question, a rusty Colt Single Action Army from around 1873 could be worth thousands of dollars, and its value diminished by trying to restore it. However, a .22 rifle branded for Sears, rusty and non-firing, not so much.

DIY: How to Resurrect Old Guns

Resurrecting-Old-Guns-10.jpg
Having spent quite a bit of time restoring some old guns last year and after going through a few bottles of the Birchwood Casey cold bluing, I can tell you one thing. You can get the job done with it, but it's a pain in the ass to use and even heating the steel up it will take several more applications than you think it will. And in the end unless you are extremely thorough you are still going to have a little after rust. Brownells Oxpho-Blu is far superior.


Degrease thoroughly. Then degrease again. I use Brake Clean. Wear Latex gloves. Heat parts to be blued with a heat gun until they are uncomfortable to touch. Wipe on Oxpho blue with NEW cotton balls. No need to clean between coats, just use a new cotton ball each time and wipe on a new coat until you get to the desired result. After it dries buff with 0000 steel wool and then dampen a rag with some Rem oil ( or oil of your preference), wipe on a light coat and you're done. No need for any arrestor. I re-blued 5 F'ed up guns last year and there isn't a spec of rust on them and they look great. Certainly cold bluing is not as durable as hot bluing, but hot bluing for touch ups is way more trouble than it's worth. Cerakote or something like that is superior too, but if you have an old gun with faded bluing and/or bluing missing in spots and you want to fix it without stripping the entire gun and hot bluing, Oxpho is the right stuff.
 
I watched a bunch of this guy's videos. Some of the stuff seems like maybe not the best idea, but it's pretty amazing what he does with some stuff. Like this CZ-75.

wow..

i got my first CZ 75 B, in February of 2020, and the build date was 2017, so it sat a while before being sold.

no rust, whatsoever, runs flawlessly since day 1

i had watched every second of that video, being a CZ fan

one of my best 9mm's, besides my G-17, which was bought about the same time.

i'm thinking he had no access to acid, other than baking soda, and i did see a couple of things that made me shudder, but he did a great job. also, looks like he did replace a few parts, rather than re-use the old
 
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