The coffee can shotgun restoration

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.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 3:47 pm
I doubt I am the first person to add colored spacers. I have done it to several restorations I have done in the past. I cut up one of my flexible cutting boards (white plastic) and the divider out of a three ring binder to add a bit more style. The black plastic is easy to find when the guy that works in the cube next to you leaves for a meeting. (He will never know they are missing)

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I think it adds a bit of class to the look without adding any cost.

This is a 90 year old Enders Royal Western that I made a stock for from a walnut beam for a restoration I completed last week.

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That Enders came to me like this

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I made the two stocks from this walnut beam.

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I blogged that stock-from-scratch project on another forum but not here since its not an Ithaca
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.270 WIN
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:44 am
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:36 pm
I read about that one!

I do the same with old guns. I won't post pictures and hijack your thread, but will give the links to share with you. I have a 1957 that I am redoing and a 1952, both 16ga Ithaca 37's.

I think I will use this technique on one of them, probably the 1952 as it is going to be a tricked out, neat looking gun.

I have seen other folks use 1 white spacer, just never seen a stack like that !

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtop ... 9&t=385245

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtop ... 9&t=331343

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtop ... 9&t=389096

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:05 pm
Super nice work on those restorations. Im thinking of engraving the receiver of this old 66. Ine never done it before and this might be the gun to try it on. I would use a Dremmel tool.

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:30 am
I was out of town most of the weekend but did manage to get the metal parts of the Ithaca cleaned, stripped and reblued. The receiver is going to take some effort. The aluminum it pitted from the raccoon urine. Its going to take some elbow grease and time. That’s ok as there are still lots of coats of tung oil to be put on the stock.

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.270 WIN
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:44 am
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:56 am
Would hitting it with a mild abrasive, such as soda or walnut shells at a low pressure, (which would then give you a "satin" finish) work for you ?

I keep thinking about a beater 37 that I know of that is pretty pitted all over, that finished like that, and then electroless nickled, would make a great rainy day gun.

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:19 am
The spray on baking lacquer from brownells might do a good job of masking the markings. Im contemplating the black baking lacquer and then engraving through the baking lacquer to get to shiny aluminum. Its my own shotgun so Im not afraid of trying something new.
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.270 WIN
Posts: 293
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:50 am
My gunsmith buddy has engraving tooling and software for his CNC driven Bridgeport.

If you do it with a Dremel (or other handheld tool like that) do you have, or are you going to make something to help control a consistent depth of cut ?

If you could find a cheap PantoGraph (spelling) you could really do a slick job. When I was a kid, some friend's father made labels with one in their basement as an extra source of income.

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:34 am
Freehand just like the stippling I did on the stock. The depth is really only going to be getting through the black outer coating to the shiny aluminum underneath.

.270 WIN
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Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:50 am
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:36 pm
What process do you use for the re bluing.

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:50 pm
1977cutcher wrote:What process do you use for the re bluing.



The S.O.P. I use for steel parts is as follows.

Manually descale (Dremmel, sandpaper, files, steel wool, etc) to get rid of as much surface rust as possible and polish as best as possible.

Acetone bath with tooth brush (to degrease)

Chemical rust remover (30 minutes or longer on really corroded parts)

Water rinse and dry

Manual rust removal of any spots missed

400 grit sanding, Steel wool and polish

Acetone bath

Dicropan cold bluing with old tee shirt or Qtip for small parts

0000 steel wool

Acetone bath

Dicropan cold bluing

0000 steel wool

Acetone bath

Dicropan cold bluing

0000 steel wool polish

Light oil or paste wax (depending on the part)

The triple bluing and steel wool seems to give it good color and protection and shine. The better you polish the parts the better the blue will look. If you get it polished like a mirror and tripple blue you would swear its a factory hot blue job. Im working on resotoring a 1940 vintage Winchester model 37 shotgun right now with a rusty barrel. I spent 2 days working on the barrel before I even thought of bluing it. It took only half hour to blue. All the important work is done before you blue if you want a good looking blue.

The final blue is applied (and later polished) with the same 0000 steel wool that was used to polish the barrel prior to bluing. I havent been able to remove any bluing with 0000 steel wool no matter how I try. Its a deep bluing even though its a cold blue. The steel wool only makes it shine brighter.

Here is what the barrel looked like when I got it.

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After polishing (you can see my fingers in the reflection holding the camera)

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After bluing the mirror finish is still there and you can still see the reflection of my fingers and the green logo on my shirt in the barrel.

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Here are two very short videos of the barrel after polishing and after bluing and steel wool polish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgOKW2rzH7s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRh4BA-aRO0

A bad blue job is not always a bad blue job. Its more likely a bad pre-bluing (polish) that makes the bluing look bad. Before bluing it should look like a mirror, after bluing it should look like a black mirror.

Small internal parts that cant be seen dont need this level of polish.

.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 6:22 am
Got a new shipment of Brownells Baking lacquer so I was able to spray and bake the receiver and lever. I had the time so I spent it doing more to smooth out the receiver and get rid of the pock marks. It turned out pretty well. It will look even better with two coats of paste wax to give it some shine. Im almost ready to put the gun back together. The stock is nearly finished getting coats of tung oil.

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.22LR
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:24 pm
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 6:37 am
Last night was a banner night for this old shotgun. A few things of note took place. First of all since this gun was destroyed by a raccoon and it pitted the receiver and lever (and raised hell on the wood) I opted to mark the history of the gun into that same receiver. I was originally going to mark both sides but opted for just one side.

I masked off an area and sprayed it with flat, white spray paint.

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Then I placed tape over the paint and drew in the image I wanted on the receiver. I painted the receiver white so I could see the pencil lines.

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I used a fine pointed diamond bit in my dremmel to take away the black baking lacquer and shine up the aluminum underneath.

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Then I peeled away the tape and washed away the white paint with acetone leaving the tribute to the masked bandit etched into the metal.

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I assembled all the metal parts and attached the finished wood. For now I have the pitted barrel on the gun just for the pictures.

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The stippling worked out very well.

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The cracked stock is repaired and looks a bit better than before.

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This gun has come a long way from the coffee can.

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Also last night I won an Ebay Auction for a replacement barrel for this gun in the buckbuster configuration (with front and rear rifle sights) So this old gun can once again take to the deer woods. (once I recondition the barrel and reblue it) The barrel set me back $128 but since I got the gun for nothing, It all works out in the end. Here are the images from the Ebay Auction.

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With this one done its time to move onto a gun with some sentimental value to me. A 1940 Winchester model 37. Its my father’s gun and the first shotgun I ever fired. Time to start a new restoration thread for this rusty mule kicker.

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.270 WIN
Posts: 429
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 8:50 am
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:18 pm
Very well done.
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.270 WIN
Posts: 293
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:44 am
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:29 pm
Some of my higher end single shot BPCR rifles have a matte finish. One I had done with an old fashioned rust blue.

The company hits them with a very very mild abrasive, then goes over them with a soft wire wheel before bluing.

With the old family gun being a bit pitted (from your picture above) this type of finish would look exceptionally well and still be "blued steel".

Case coloring would hide any pits you couldn't get out of the receiver and looks good with a matte finished barrel.

It would end up top shelf also. Just some thoughts......

This is what they look like.

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.270 WIN
Posts: 452
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:07 pm
PostPosted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:44 pm
drcook wrote:
During that time I cut a few black and white plastic spacers to match the plastic butt plate size and hole spacing. Then I attached the spacers and butt plate to the stock and sanded the old finish off the stock and down to the size of the original butt plate. This shaped the black and white spacers. The gun didnt originally have black and white spacers but I like how they dress up the look of a gun so I added them.


That is a nice look ! Can you detail the material and the source ? I think I will use your technique on my next gun I do. Did you think this up or see it somewhere.

If you thought this up, I think we should call it the DIY_Guy pattern !!!


On Marlin 336 rifles, one of the primary areas of restoration are the white spacers under the grip cap and the butt plates. Those spacers tend to shrink to nothing over the years, just like on my otherwise mint 336 SC .35 Remington. The two most common sources for replacement material are the tops of white 5 gallon buckets or bleach jugs.

I'm thinking some of these plastic spacers mixed with some other color of some homemade micarta!

OP fantastic work!

Copper BB
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:41 pm
Location: Alaska
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:11 pm
You could take the old barrel and have it plated with a titanium or Scandium, for strength. Have a carbon fiber insert with a SS barrel and make a 28Ga or even a 22lr Then you could have 2x the fun. Carbon fiber has come a long way. Awesome project though.
Live life to its fullest, for time is but a fleeting moment!!!!
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