Colt Cobra Project (Bubba was here)

[V-Tach]

A friend gave me this little Colt Cobra and said I could have it. I know my friend, he didn't do what I found in this little revolver. I didn't ask how it came to be this way, I just accepted the gift.............

It was locked up, but the cylinder would mostly open. I say mostly because the left side plate wasn't flush with the frame. I removed the side plate then the cylinder.

The bolt (part that locks the cylinder in place) was inoperable...........

The Main spring was missing some of the end and was collapsed.

A lot of grinding was done on the rebound lever. The rebound lever also controls the the bolt along with rebounding the trigger after firing so that the firing pin doesn't stay protruding and moves a internal safety block to keep it from firing if dropped.

The firing pin is frozen solid and should be free floating.......I have it soaking in Kroil

The good parts are from my Cobra and will be ordering used parts, new ones aren't available.......

 

[Hoji]

Love these threads. What are your plans for it after you unfuck it?

 

[MountainGirl]

Hi, if you dont mind me asking... and I know it would be just a guess...

What might have originally happened that would prompt Bubba to do all those things to it? Something catastrophic? Him trying to trick it up? Maybe he just couldn't reassemble after cleaning so decided to 'make something fit' ? Or?

Thanks. The more I learn from y'all the better I'll be.

 

[SURVIVOR619]

Good question @MountainGirl. What was that knucklehead trying to accomplish?!

 

[Moonpie]

Same question: What was Bubba trying to “make better”?

It takes a very special level of retardism to go messing around with the innards of revolver.

 

[Mills]

Excellent write up !
A+ .

 

[oldag]

Wow.

Couldn't get it to fit going back together, so he broke out the dremel.

Had a 60's mopar a long time ago. Mechanical fuel pump with push rod between pump lever and cam. Was vapor locking. Checked all sorts of things. Found that the prior owner apparently did not know that you have to bump the engine to get the cam in the right position to reinstall the fuel pump. He just ground off the end of the push rod so it would fit. Needless to say, the fuel pump was not able to put out the proper pressure/volume...

 

[baboon]

Hi, if you dont mind me asking... and I know it would be just a guess...

What might have originally happened that would prompt Bubba to do all those things to it? Something catastrophic? Him trying to trick it up? Maybe he just couldn't reassemble after cleaning so decided to 'make something fit' ? Or?

Thanks. The more I learn from y'all the better I'll be.

My guess he was going to make the first full auto pistol revolver.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Hope you got that thing for close to nothing.

 

[jimbo]

Used to be nice gun. Sure hope you can find parts to restore it.

 

[V-Tach]

Hi, if you dont mind me asking... and I know it would be just a guess...

What might have originally happened that would prompt Bubba to do all those things to it? Something catastrophic? Him trying to trick it up? Maybe he just couldn't reassemble after cleaning so decided to 'make something fit' ? Or?

Thanks. The more I learn from y'all the better I'll be.

My first thoughts were they were trying to do a trigger job by making the spring shorter. That alone can cause problems and one thing lead to another. Colt and S&W revolvers are more complicated than they look to be.

Timing and clearances are acheived by hand fitting parts. They are not like the semi auto's of today where almost everything is a drop in swap.

A good Revolversmith is hard to find nowadays. (Which I am not) I always refused to work on them when I had the shop because 99% of them weren't just not working, but had been jacked with by someone else before being brought in. This one is a good example of that....

 

[robertc1024]

It hurts looking at those internals.

 

[V-Tach]

The firing pin moves but only with using soft jaw pliers. Even after soaking all night in Kroil. This concerns me as a new firing pin is not an easy task. The old one has to be drilled out and a new one is riveted, peened and filed to fit. Sourcing the pin and rivet may be challenging in itself....

The pin currently catches and prevents the hammer from rebounding properly.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Hope you got that thing for close to nothing.

Given to him by a friend.

 

[zackmars]

Hi, if you dont mind me asking... and I know it would be just a guess...

What might have originally happened that would prompt Bubba to do all those things to it? Something catastrophic? Him trying to trick it up? Maybe he just couldn't reassemble after cleaning so decided to 'make something fit' ? Or?

Thanks. The more I learn from y'all the better I'll be.

If you stare at the bubba, the bubba stares back at you.

Asking why a bubba ruined a gun usually only results in a headache.

 

[V-Tach]

Still waiting on parts......

 

[V-Tach]

Update:

I did not want to have to drill the rivet and re-rivet a new firing pin in the hammer, so I ordered a used hammer assembly from Numrich. When It came I was elated. When I put it in, it would only fire in DA mode. Upon a more detailed inspection I found the ledge/shelf for SA had been ground off. Great if you want a DA only revolver, I don't.

Another problem was it worked in DA with the hammer, but when assembled with the side plate it wouldn't function and locked up. When the side plate screws were loose it worked. Side plate screws tightened, no bueno......

The after market spring was too wide and when the side plate was tightened down the spring would not move up and and down properly. Filed the sides of the spring and all is well again.....

Back the hammer assembly went.............Numrich paid for the S/H back and replaced the hammer assembly no questions or hassle.

Replacement hammer assembly arrived today. Firing pin in good shape and moving as it is supposed to....check

SA ledge/shelf intact........check..........

The used rebound lever also from Numrich worked as well....

Works perfectly, hammer rebounding properly. Will take it to the range in the next couple of days and fire it.

If you don't have any experience on working on Colt D frame revolvers, let someone else do the work that does. Every part has to be hand fitted and why used parts may or may not work.

 

[V-Tach]

Just for future reference if someone someday has a Colt Cobra or similar D frame revolver and have problems with it and find this thread in a search..............

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WORK ON IT WITHOUT THESE MANUALS...........................study them before performing any work.

The actions are complicated and many things are counter intuitive.....new parts are NLA and you can ruin a good used part very quickly.