**This is my first attempt at trying any restoration on any of my guns. I was timid to place this in the 'Gunsmithing' forum, as I feel this is just a garage hack trying to emulate what others have taught for years. Anyways, I'm learning and trying, and quite enjoying it as I go.**
My old Mossberg 400G was in need of some TLC; the thing is as old as I am and has been used and abused for over 40 years. So, I decided to strip it down and give it a refurbishing. For a few weeks I have been reading all kinds of threads in this forum, watching videos on Youtube, and trying to find all the products I would need to try and tackle this project. I finally decided to dive into it.
Here it is before I ripped into this project on the weekend:
After stripping the old varnish off and a lot of sanding, I then added the first layer of colour - and it was a lot brighter than I wanted it to be, but was hopeful it would darken with oils added on top.
So far, so good. Been chipping away at this slowly but surely. Painted the receiver, ejector, screws, and mag tube the other day.
Today I blued the barrel - that was a fun process and it turned out great. I just used Outers bluing from Canadian Tire and took my time, did several coats and I'm quite satisfied with how well it turned out. No pics yet, I'm letting it cure for a few days.
Also managed to polish the trigger assembly, wax the buttstock, and then I sanded down the stock and pump. The natural wood is very light so I wasn't sure if I should stain it to darken it before adding Tru-oil.
So I wanted to see if the Tru-oil would darken it up, and added a first coat and let it dry. It didn't darken much at all.
So when that was dry enough to sand, I added a thin layer of black stain and it is now going the direction I envisioned.
I'm going to sand out the grooves in the black stain, I'll probably need to do a second or third coat of black before I can then start back with the Tru-oil. Overall, it's been a great project to do during this nice little heat wave - I hang in my gazebo and stay outta the sun. It's been fun learning how to do all these processes. I'm probably going to need to watch a video to show me how to put it all back together, because as time goes by so does my memory.
More to come.
My old Mossberg 400G was in need of some TLC; the thing is as old as I am and has been used and abused for over 40 years. So, I decided to strip it down and give it a refurbishing. For a few weeks I have been reading all kinds of threads in this forum, watching videos on Youtube, and trying to find all the products I would need to try and tackle this project. I finally decided to dive into it.
Here it is before I ripped into this project on the weekend:
After stripping the old varnish off and a lot of sanding, I then added the first layer of colour - and it was a lot brighter than I wanted it to be, but was hopeful it would darken with oils added on top.
So far, so good. Been chipping away at this slowly but surely. Painted the receiver, ejector, screws, and mag tube the other day.
Today I blued the barrel - that was a fun process and it turned out great. I just used Outers bluing from Canadian Tire and took my time, did several coats and I'm quite satisfied with how well it turned out. No pics yet, I'm letting it cure for a few days.
Also managed to polish the trigger assembly, wax the buttstock, and then I sanded down the stock and pump. The natural wood is very light so I wasn't sure if I should stain it to darken it before adding Tru-oil.
So I wanted to see if the Tru-oil would darken it up, and added a first coat and let it dry. It didn't darken much at all.
So when that was dry enough to sand, I added a thin layer of black stain and it is now going the direction I envisioned.
I'm going to sand out the grooves in the black stain, I'll probably need to do a second or third coat of black before I can then start back with the Tru-oil. Overall, it's been a great project to do during this nice little heat wave - I hang in my gazebo and stay outta the sun. It's been fun learning how to do all these processes. I'm probably going to need to watch a video to show me how to put it all back together, because as time goes by so does my memory.
More to come.
