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Very Rusty Colt SAA

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  • V-Tach

    Watching While the Sheep Graze
    Lifetime Member
    Sep 30, 2012
    8,899
    96
    Texas
    Looking for advice, gentlemen.....
    1910 SAA Colt lost during the hurricane found yesterday. Owner wants me to clean it, not looking for restoration. Was found still in the holster. Completely locked up except for loading gate.
    Should I.........Soak it in something like Kroil for a day or two (may remove all nickel)
    Afraid to start wrenching on the screws without screwing them up....
    It will definitely need to be taken completely apart to clean it....
    Leave it alone and just say no thanks?

    Suggestions?


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    Maverick44

    Youngest old man on TGT.
    Molasses will remove rust given enough time. I have no idea what it would do with what's left of the nickel plating though. I would definitely recommend consulting an expert gun restorer.

    Would something like that even have collectors value at this point? The owner might be better off just considering it a shooter and having everything stripped down to bare metal, replated, and replacing any unsalvageable parts. I imagine the barrel isn't looking any better?
     

    V-Tach

    Watching While the Sheep Graze
    Lifetime Member
    Sep 30, 2012
    8,899
    96
    Texas
    Barrel bore is very rusty too......as is the cylinder bores. I don't know that it would/could ever be a shooter again.....

    Guy doesn't want to put a lot into it..he bought it for 2K before the hurricane..........currently thinks the gun is worth 1K...it's not....but he has some story about it being a Texas Ranger owned pistol that was carried in the RGV......no name of the Ranger or any verifiable provenance....just a story from the person he bought it from......thinks the Ranger museum might be interested in it....but I doubt that.... personally......
     

    baboon

    TGT Addict
    May 6, 2008
    22,464
    96
    Out here by the lake!
    I have to ask was it insured? If so who actually owns it the insurance company or him?

    Heard a story about a collector who had a house fire, who bought the guns back from the insurance company & dumped them into drums of oil. The guns had been passed down a couple generation & were said to be of great historical significance to Texas. The family ties in Texas went back to the 1852.
     
    Last edited:

    skfullgun

    Dances With Snakes
    Oct 14, 2017
    5,430
    96
    In the woods...
    I have to ask was it insured? If so who actually owns it the insurance company or him?

    Heard a story about a collector who had a house fire, who bought the guns back from the insurance company & dumped them into drums of oil. The guns had been passed down a couple generation & were said to be of great historical significance to Texas. The family ties in Texas went back to the 1852.
    My question, exactly. If the insurance paid for the loss, they may own the Colt (if there is anything worth owning now except for a conversation piece).

    At any rate, a sad loss.
     

    SQLGeek

    Muh state lines
    Sep 22, 2017
    9,591
    96
    Richmond
    I've heard great things about Evapo-Rust but I have no idea what it would do to nickel plating so caveat emptor.

    Damn shame though.

    @Mad John this appears to be your bailiwick.
     

    Wiliamr

    Well-Known
    TGT Supporter
    Apr 15, 2011
    1,807
    96
    Austin
    Being a Cowboy Action shooter for many years, I learned a lot about rust in SSAs and shotguns and lever rifles. If not cleaned properly black powder guns can get rusty. Most SAS black powder shooters in this situation will use ATF mixed about 50/50 with Acetone to lift rust. This gun is basically totaled and the plating is not really salvageable. The atf will lift rust and allow it to be cleaned better than most anything. If you do not want to mess with the Acetone, the ATF alone will work.
     

    benenglish

    Just Another Boomer
    Staff member
    Lifetime Member
    Admin
    Nov 22, 2011
    23,933
    96
    Spring
    Mad John has been called on in this and at least one other thread multiple times. He's received private messages about this thread.

    Whether or not and how he chooses to participate is entirely his call. So can we give Mad John a break?
     

    oldag

    TGT Addict
    Feb 19, 2015
    17,430
    96
    Being a Cowboy Action shooter for many years, I learned a lot about rust in SSAs and shotguns and lever rifles. If not cleaned properly black powder guns can get rusty. Most SAS black powder shooters in this situation will use ATF mixed about 50/50 with Acetone to lift rust. This gun is basically totaled and the plating is not really salvageable. The atf will lift rust and allow it to be cleaned better than most anything. If you do not want to mess with the Acetone, the ATF alone will work.

    Yep. The gun would have to be re-plated anyhow. I would not worry about removing the plating.

    Since he doesn't want to put much into it, he may was well hang onto it as is. His idea of the value in its current condition sounds unreasonable.

    Gun needs to be stripped to bare metal, bufffed and either re-plated or blued. Depending upon how deep the pitting is, may not be a shooter again or even a viable paperweight.
     

    ROGER4314

    Been Called "Flash" Since I Was A Kid!
    Jul 11, 2009
    10,444
    66
    East Houston
    First..... is this job for money or is it a "buddy" job. If it's for money, I'd respectfully decline.

    Toss it in a bucket of Kroil or ATF and forget about it for a while. Disassemble and glass bead blast it. There's no point in trying to restore it. Your best goal is to return it to shooting condition. He already told you that he didn't want to spend much $ on the job. That closes a lot of doors.

    After the glass bead blasting, use a cold blue and call it a day. The bores on these old guns don't need to be pristine for it to be a shooter.

    I'd tread very carefully on this job. If he thinks the pistol is still worth $1K, and he wants a budget repair job, his expectations are unrealistic. We can do a good job of fixing things but can't resurrect the dead.

    Flash
     

    OLDVET

    Well-Known
    Dec 14, 2009
    2,077
    96
    Richardson, Texas
    This gun is toast.
    As you know rusts eats metal. Even if you could get the surface rust off, you still have the extensive metal erosion below. This rust is bad on the outside, but is very likely deadly with it being in the barrel.
    I would take a steel brush and brush off as much as I could. Clean the barrel with a stainless brush. Swab it down with oil and hang it on the wall so you can remember the good old days.
    I have collected older revolvers for years. I would be hard pressed to pay $10 for this pistol in it's current state.
    As someone stated earlier, this is a shame. There are not many of these old warriors left these days.
     

    deemus

    my mama says I'm special
    Lifetime Member
    Feb 1, 2010
    15,590
    96
    DFW
    Yep. The gun would have to be re-plated anyhow. I would not worry about removing the plating.

    Since he doesn't want to put much into it, he may was well hang onto it as is. His idea of the value in its current condition sounds unreasonable.

    Gun needs to be stripped to bare metal, bufffed and either re-plated or blued. Depending upon how deep the pitting is, may not be a shooter again or even a viable paperweight.

    This was my thought too. With that pitting, it would seem to be done as a showpiece. The finish is trashed anyway, if it was mine I would drop it into a bucket of ATF after steel wooling off as much rust as I could.

    But I was very curious what the experts have to say, as I don't have a ton of experience with this type thing.
     
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