Before and After.....

siafu · Post by **siafu** » May 3rd, 2009, 3:21 pm

As delivered from www.centerfiresystems.com ...

After $12 worth of chemicals...

;D

frankmako · Post by **frankmako** » May 3rd, 2009, 7:47 pm

what type of chemicals?? good looking clean up job.

rottenrick · Post by **rottenrick** » May 3rd, 2009, 8:01 pm

I used Birchwood casey cold bluing on an old Charter Arms 3" Bulldog .44 spl. It was really rusty. Had light surface rust only all over,but not in the barrel or chambers. Very super fine steel wool, a good cleaning with freon to remove residue then three coats of cold bluing. The guy that sold it to me couldn't believe it was the same weapon. I bought it for $100.00 was offered $ 250.00 for it. It will never win any prizes, it's my field carry gun, doesn't need to be perfect. How long did it take you to do the p-64??

siafu · Post by **siafu** » May 3rd, 2009, 8:32 pm

I cleaned it with Gun Scrubber (Tetrachrolaethelyne-TCE) to remove all oil and residue. Then I went over it real carefully for about 15 minutes with 0000 steel wool and re-sprayed with TCE. After that, I put it in a 150 degree oven for about 5 minutes on a clean piece of foil to bring the metal up to temp. Then I liberally applied the Birchwood-Casey Superblue with a cotton gun cleaning patch, let it sit a minute and rinsed with cold water then I polished with 0000 steel wool again. I repeated the heating, bluing, rinsing, polishing step 3 more times until I was satisfied with the results. It was almost too easy. This is my first cold-blue treatment and I think it went pretty well.... ;D

rottenrick · Post by **rottenrick** » May 3rd, 2009, 8:49 pm

siafu, It really does look good. I'll try your method next time. Think ya' done good.

rfaudree · Post by **rfaudree** » May 3rd, 2009, 9:35 pm

Nice!!!!!!!!!!

hairypolack · Post by **hairypolack** » May 3rd, 2009, 11:29 pm

wow excellent job

tooldawg99 · Post by **tooldawg99** » May 6th, 2009, 6:24 pm

Newbie question: I am sure you removed the grips, perhaps the recoil spring: did you go beyond a basic field strip applying the cold blue? Also, only external components, correct? I hear not to mess with the interior as it could adversely affect fitting when re-assembling.

Looks great, and hope to try it myself: a few more details about the process and what to remove would be helpful!

Thanks

siafu · Post by **siafu** » May 6th, 2009, 9:07 pm

tooldawg99 wrote:Newbie question: I am sure you removed the grips, perhaps the recoil spring: did you go beyond a basic field strip applying the cold blue? Also, only external components, correct? I hear not to mess with the interior as it could adversely affect fitting when re-assembling.

Looks great, and hope to try it myself: a few more details about the process and what to remove would be helpful!

Thanks

I only refinished the slide. I did not mess with the frame.

ern · Post by **ern** » May 20th, 2009, 8:46 pm

the frame definately looks different to me, you didn't do anything to the frame? and did you only put the slide in the oven or the whole weapon minus the grips? Or is it the lighting that makes the difference looks like 1 was taken inside and the other outside. anyway it looks great.

siafu · Post by **siafu** » May 20th, 2009, 9:03 pm

frame is same. i did not do anything to frame. only the slide was refinished. 100% elbow grease. the first rule of refinishing is prepping the metal. once the metal is sufficiently prepped the rest is, as they say, "butter".

Post by **normsutton** » May 21st, 2009, 5:02 am

siafu

looks great, good job

NORM

srad · Post by **srad** » May 21st, 2009, 6:27 pm

Do you have to remove the safety mechanism & firing pin/spring, etc. for the rebluing touchup?
Will the oven temp mess up the springs at all?
Thanks.

srad · Post by **srad** » May 21st, 2009, 6:33 pm

one other question... what works well as a degreaser?
thanks.

siafu · Post by **siafu** » May 21st, 2009, 8:41 pm

srad wrote:Do you have to remove the safety mechanism & firing pin/spring, etc. for the rebluing touchup?
Will the oven temp mess up the springs at all?
Thanks.

I removed the grips. Oven was only at 125 degrees. Metal came out warm to the touch but not hot. I did not remove any springs. I am not an expert on the metallurgical properties of springs but I would be willing to bet that 125 degrees will not hurt anything. It is no hotter than the interior of a car on a hot sunny day.

Once the grips were off I submerged the slide and frame in a tupperware full of mineral spirits. That cleaned off much of the residual cosmoline and other gunk. I let it soak for about an hour and I would occasionally stir the liquid to agitate the grime off.

Birchwood Casey Gunscrubber or automotive disc brake cleaner works well as a degreaser. After I was satisfied with the cleaning process I blasted it off with an air compressor chuck.

The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum