S&W 32 Safety Hammerless Model 2. Refinishing advice, please!

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Hi friends!

I recently became the happy owner of a Smith and Wesson .32 Lemon Squeezer Model 2. The original owner was my great great uncle Dave. It just got passed down to me.

Sadly, it is in horrible shape aesthetically... Mechanically, everything works. Lockup is tight. Safety works. Cylinder rotates and ejects. Double action trigger works...

I know it's not worth anything. But, I'm seriously thinking about getting it refinished back to Satin Nickle. I see, online, there are many companies willing to refinish guns.

What would you guys do? Does anyone on the forum re-finish old guns like this?

I'm guessing it needs to be disassembled, sand blasted, refinished, to reassembled... Anything else?

Thank you!

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I have a few of these. They are fine little pieces of precision work. Yours is Really rough and the finished product would reflect that. Clean it with some bronze wool and shoot it.
I do appreciate your opinion. And, you know a lot more about old guns than I do.

Looking at my family heirloom, the finish is almost completely gone, and all of the exposed metal is rusty/ patina covered. But, I don't see any pitting. (Maybe I don't know what pitting is and I'm judging it incorrectly. )

I just seems like I could disassemble and sand blast it and basically have a fresh gun to re-coat with satin nickel.

Am I way off here? Even if it cost a few hundred bucks, that would be no big deal.
 
Before you get your hope's up, call the nicking company and see if they would be willing to renickle it. Some company's do not want to mess with these old guns due to the possible liability. I think the lemon squeezes can handle smokeless powder, some of the older break top are only able to handle black powder loads.

If you end up bluing, I'd be happy to help you with the process. It's not as hard as you think, plus if you mess up all you have to do is sand it down and start over.
 
Before you get your hope's up, call the nicking company and see if they would be willing to renickle it. Some company's do not want to mess with these old guns due to the possible liability. I think the lemon squeezes can handle smokeless powder, some of the older break top are only able to handle black powder loads.

If you end up bluing, I'd be happy to help you with the process. It's not as hard as you think, plus if you mess up all you have to do is sand it down and start over.
I'd like to try and take it back to its original finish, nickel... But, if that's not possible, I'll definitely reach out to you about bluing.

Thank you!
 
Has anybody used Metal Rescue? This may be too good to be true...

Watch this short video:

 
I watched several YouTube videos and everyone dunking rusty guns into Metal Rescue had good results, so I picked up a gallon of it today.

I just took the pearl grips off the old revolver.

I'm going to soak it overnight and see what happens. The manufacturer says that it will not remove nickle, so what little bit of nickle is left will probably still be there tomorrow morning.

After I get the rust off I'll need to get the last little bit of nickle off... Then, maybe I'll just get it cerakoted instead of sending it off for new nickel plating...

Maybe I'll just get the rust off, put the grips back on, and shoot it like @BatteryOaksBilly said...

I'll try to post some before and after pics of the rust removal process...
 
Alright! After 18 hours of soaking in Metal Rescue, here she is. Before, it was 100% coated in a thin layer of brown and red rust.

Now, it's a little shinier and you can read every word on the barrel. I couldn't see any words before.

Im really happy with how this turned out. But, now I'm thinking I need to buy a bench top wire wheel/ buffer.

Maybe I could use that to gently get the rest of the nickel plating off and shine up the metal before cerakoting. What do y'all think?

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If you're going to use a wire brush, I would get a fine wire wheel and use it in a Dremil tool.
 
The transformation is stunning. Thanks for being the guinea pig. ;)
 
Bead blast it. This will also serve to prep the surface for cerakote.
I don't have any blasting equipment. Should I go on a Harbor Freight shopping spree?

Maybe I should. I've got two other old guns in similar shape. Maybe I should blast them all at once in one of those sand blasting boxes with the built in gloves.
 
I don't have any blasting equipment. Should I go on a Harbor Freight shopping spree?

Maybe I should. I've got two other old guns in similar shape. Maybe I should blast them all at once in one of those sand blasting boxes with the built in gloves.
If you do, I wanna know all about it! I've been ogling a sandblasting set up for a while. Hold up for me is having a compressor with enough oomph to push the abrasive. IIRC the 40-lb tank wanted something like 9.2 SCFM at 90psi. That's a bit beyond my carpenter-tote-around compressor.
 
I stand corrected:
40-lb'er at HF specs:
  • Holds 40 lb. of abrasive material
  • Air consumption: 6 CFM @ 60 PSI, 25 CFM @ 125 PSI
  • Working pressure:60-125 PSI
  • Safety valve

EDIT: Wait. Maybe I was righter than I thought:

That's 25 cfm @ 125 psi for the tank-style pictured 3rd from Left.
blast.jpg
 
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I have a 3rd model .38W&W Safety Hammerless, in Nickel, however it's not quite as rough. But seeing as it's over 130 years old, I think I'll just oil it up and keep it close. BTW I have fired mine with factory 145gr powder puff loads, and it's fine.
 
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