I was lucky enough to aquire an old side by side in 12 gauge a while back. It was definitely in rough shape, so I decided to repair, reblu and in short, remake it.
Unfortunately I don't have any pre work pics, but this may give you an idea of what I started with.
Keep in mind this is after using a screw driver to scrape the gum from the action. It looks like progressive years of gun oil dried into a progressively deeper layer of axle grease like material that would have protected the internals from a small thermo-nuclear explosion.
In progress, after about half an hour of coarse steel wool and wire brushing to remove scale on the surface.
After a wire wheel session. At least it isn't red any more. I wouldn't normally use a wire wheel, but I didn't see any fine markings that would be ruined by the wheel. I would possibly use a buffing wheel and paste on something finer.
Hey, without the rust and mud, it's all matching!
Zinc phosphating all the parts. After having thoroughly cleaned and degreased the parts with soapy hot water, I went a step further and dipped them in a vat of zinc phosphate. It has the dual purpose of using acid to remove any still remaining rust, and then putting a thin layer of zinc onto the metal, providing a layer of protection very similar to parkerizing your guns. The beauty of this is that no heating processes or noxious fumes are involved. Each part was scrubbed, placed in a tin, on a piece of wire, or in the barrels case, on a piece of doweling to avoid touching the phosphated surface and leave glove prints in the drying zinc.
There are no pics of the bluing process, as I got into something of a frenzy, but it goes as follows.
1) rescrub all parts in hot soapy water, wear rubber gloves to avoid oil transfer to the metal.
2) attach a short hook of wire to each part that will take one and place it back in it's degreased tin.
3) remove all the racks from your oven and place one back as high in the oven as possible - this will be your "hanging rack". Remember that your oven is, and will always be greasy, do not let your gloved hands or parts touch any aspect of it. This includes oven door handles, as they'll always hold grease. Tie a long rag securely to it and use that to open and close it.
4) check and realise that most of the wires holding the metal parts are too long and let the metal parts touch various greasy parts of the oven. Shorten almost all of them so there's not only enought room to hang, but remove and replace them without burning yourself. Very short hook ends help with this process.
5) preheat oven to 100-140 degrees. Any hotter and you may get burnt, drop the parts, etc. Also when the oven turns on to maintain the temperature, it will heat the parts a little hotter. You have been warned, and rubber gloves will melt to skin very quickly. Extra heat also tends to create more "bad bluing" as I've called it (the appearance of unsightly red rus in big splotches... 110-120 degrees seems to properly heat the metal without creating much of the bad bluing).
6) while the parts are heating set up your bluing spot somewhere well ventilated where floor stains dont matter. A covered area outside is best. Set up a table covered in card board, a chair, a lot of clean rags, and some old tooth brushes.
7) Remove one part at a time, dash outside, and scrub part with solution and tool of your choice. I used Brownells super blu and it worked amazingly. The first time applying to a hot piece of metal requires a LOT of bluing, and it will froth and vaporize quite quickly. Keep working and scrubbing it in, keeping in mind any splotches or streaks will work out over time. You may also get creamy white to rusty red streaking or splotches where the bluing solution evaporated too quickly. Try to scrub these out as they appear. Work the piece until it is cooled.
8) return piece to oven, repeat with each part 3-5 more times, with the 4th and 5th times being unheated and merely working on light patches or rusty looking patches. It will look ok, but not great right now.
9)Oil with a rag and set aside somewhere open to set for the next 24 hours.
View the result!
Unfortunately I don't have any pre work pics, but this may give you an idea of what I started with.
Keep in mind this is after using a screw driver to scrape the gum from the action. It looks like progressive years of gun oil dried into a progressively deeper layer of axle grease like material that would have protected the internals from a small thermo-nuclear explosion.
In progress, after about half an hour of coarse steel wool and wire brushing to remove scale on the surface.
After a wire wheel session. At least it isn't red any more. I wouldn't normally use a wire wheel, but I didn't see any fine markings that would be ruined by the wheel. I would possibly use a buffing wheel and paste on something finer.
Hey, without the rust and mud, it's all matching!
Zinc phosphating all the parts. After having thoroughly cleaned and degreased the parts with soapy hot water, I went a step further and dipped them in a vat of zinc phosphate. It has the dual purpose of using acid to remove any still remaining rust, and then putting a thin layer of zinc onto the metal, providing a layer of protection very similar to parkerizing your guns. The beauty of this is that no heating processes or noxious fumes are involved. Each part was scrubbed, placed in a tin, on a piece of wire, or in the barrels case, on a piece of doweling to avoid touching the phosphated surface and leave glove prints in the drying zinc.
There are no pics of the bluing process, as I got into something of a frenzy, but it goes as follows.
1) rescrub all parts in hot soapy water, wear rubber gloves to avoid oil transfer to the metal.
2) attach a short hook of wire to each part that will take one and place it back in it's degreased tin.
3) remove all the racks from your oven and place one back as high in the oven as possible - this will be your "hanging rack". Remember that your oven is, and will always be greasy, do not let your gloved hands or parts touch any aspect of it. This includes oven door handles, as they'll always hold grease. Tie a long rag securely to it and use that to open and close it.
4) check and realise that most of the wires holding the metal parts are too long and let the metal parts touch various greasy parts of the oven. Shorten almost all of them so there's not only enought room to hang, but remove and replace them without burning yourself. Very short hook ends help with this process.
5) preheat oven to 100-140 degrees. Any hotter and you may get burnt, drop the parts, etc. Also when the oven turns on to maintain the temperature, it will heat the parts a little hotter. You have been warned, and rubber gloves will melt to skin very quickly. Extra heat also tends to create more "bad bluing" as I've called it (the appearance of unsightly red rus in big splotches... 110-120 degrees seems to properly heat the metal without creating much of the bad bluing).
6) while the parts are heating set up your bluing spot somewhere well ventilated where floor stains dont matter. A covered area outside is best. Set up a table covered in card board, a chair, a lot of clean rags, and some old tooth brushes.
7) Remove one part at a time, dash outside, and scrub part with solution and tool of your choice. I used Brownells super blu and it worked amazingly. The first time applying to a hot piece of metal requires a LOT of bluing, and it will froth and vaporize quite quickly. Keep working and scrubbing it in, keeping in mind any splotches or streaks will work out over time. You may also get creamy white to rusty red streaking or splotches where the bluing solution evaporated too quickly. Try to scrub these out as they appear. Work the piece until it is cooled.
8) return piece to oven, repeat with each part 3-5 more times, with the 4th and 5th times being unheated and merely working on light patches or rusty looking patches. It will look ok, but not great right now.
9)Oil with a rag and set aside somewhere open to set for the next 24 hours.
View the result!
.
