Recently, I came across a skanky, back alley, unloved Smith and Wesson 3rd generation in my local pawn store. It’s former owner sand blasted the entire gun and well it looked in poor condition. Flecks of surface rust abounded.
It is my understanding that whoever blasted it reused the media on regular steel not non-stainless and the reused media embedded small particles of the metal on the surface resulting in rust.
I broke the pistol down to the bare frame and dumped out old sand from the grip. I did have a hitch, the magazine release was impossible to remove. Red lock tight? Is there a trick to removing these.
I glass bead blasted at about 40-50 PSI with a medium nozzle. While I had it apart, I polished the extractor, barrel hood, feed ramp and rails (they had been previously blasted too).
The rear sight had dings from being driven out with some sort of punch and the front sight was silver instead of blue. After a good cleaning with brake cleaner, cold blue was applied with good results.
A stainless grease (RIG) was applied to the rails and light coat of Break Free was applied over most of the surfaces completed the overhaul. I think my skank mutt S&W has done well for herself and she’s all mine.
Before:
After:
It is my understanding that whoever blasted it reused the media on regular steel not non-stainless and the reused media embedded small particles of the metal on the surface resulting in rust.
I broke the pistol down to the bare frame and dumped out old sand from the grip. I did have a hitch, the magazine release was impossible to remove. Red lock tight? Is there a trick to removing these.
I glass bead blasted at about 40-50 PSI with a medium nozzle. While I had it apart, I polished the extractor, barrel hood, feed ramp and rails (they had been previously blasted too).
The rear sight had dings from being driven out with some sort of punch and the front sight was silver instead of blue. After a good cleaning with brake cleaner, cold blue was applied with good results.
A stainless grease (RIG) was applied to the rails and light coat of Break Free was applied over most of the surfaces completed the overhaul. I think my skank mutt S&W has done well for herself and she’s all mine.
Before:
After:
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