It's down to the original Parkerizing, I got all of the bluing off with a combination of oiled bronze wool and soaking in 5% acetic acid (white vinegar). I may get this sandblasted and Parkerized, or try the Parkerizing myself if I can find a chemical kit. What do you think, David? I'll post some pics after church...

I think this may be your best bet...

Brownells "GunKote"

It will stink up your house for a while though. Second choice would be Dura coat, but you need a spray gun to apply it. Gun coat is in an aerosol can.

DuraCoat Firearm Finishes

Go with a matt finish or the old parkerizing underneath will make it blotchy.

After stripping almost all of the bluing off...
 

I still need to completely strip the gun and then get all of the bluing off...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301229014.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301229064.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301229235.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301229409.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301229464.jpg

The metal itself looks good, no pitting or rust, the lines are all sharp and well-defined, so nobody took a buffing wheel to this gun when they blued it. The Parkerizing is still on the metal and I'll take the gun all the way down and clean off the remaining bluing on the smaller parts and nook and crannies. I'm careful not to damage the frame or slide. No abrasive will touch the gun except for oiled bronze wool, which seems to be very effective in getting the bluing off.

I don't know anyone who sandblasts guns or Parkerizes them, so I'll have to figure out what to do next. In the meantime, I'll continue cleaning up the gun and I'll keep it greased so it doesn't rust, while it's in this condition. The gun really looks better than the pictures represent it. No rust pitting, which is a big plus!

David,
I saw the videos on the DuraCoat and I'm leaning toward re-Parkerizing since the metal is in such good condition with no pitting or bad spots. Underneath the craptastic bluing is a really nice M1911A1 that I think would look great Parkerized and put back like it left the factory....If the metal was bad, with lots of pitting, I would go with DuraCoating, but this is really a very nice gun, believe it or not!

I was thinking about budget. These guys are in MI.

Handguns Baroda, MI - Red Rag Gunsmithing

David,
Great talking with you today! Here is the link for the gunsmith who is a neighbor of my brother-in-law. I sent him an email asking if he would sandblast and Parkerize the gun.

Customized Creationz Custom Gun Works Shop

Here's a fantastic link to a YouTube video series showing the restoration of an Ithaca M1911A1, which turned out great! There are 6 parts and you won't be able to stop watching it!

YouTube - Jason Ithaca 1945 1911A1 video 1 Restoration

David,
Great talking with you today! Here is the link for the gunsmith who is a neighbor of my brother-in-law. I sent him an email asking if he would sandblast and Parkerize the gun.

Customized Creationz Custom Gun Works Shop

Here's a fantastic link to a YouTube video series showing the restoration of an Ithaca M1911A1, which turned out great! There are 6 parts and you won't be able to stop watching it!

YouTube - Jason Ithaca 1945 1911A1 video 1 Restoration

is there an echo in here?

Yep... The new version of FireFox is buggy and driving me nuts... Anyway, I completely dissambled the M1911A1 and cleaned the parts, and they're soaking in oil right now. I can even see the Ordnance Dept. "crossed cannons" marking on the right side of the frame, The frame and slide are great with one area on the edge of the slide that will need to be corrected, but overall, the gun is fantastic, no rust at all!!

Ready to be sandblasted and Parkerized...
 

Cleaned and oiled parts ready to be taken to a shop to be sandblasted and Parkerized. The M1911A1 is completely disassembled and almost all of the bluing has been removed, the sandblasting will remove the rest. The parts are in remarkably great shape considering this pistol was manufactured in 1943. No rust pitting, the only "scar" is an small area that has been banged up on the edge of the slide that a craftsman with a file could repair.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301258528.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301258568.jpg

You could be that craftsman. Just go slow. You may be able to repair it with a piece of emory cloth and oil. Use a flat file as a block.

David,
I'm not going to learn on this gun, I'll get a FEG or Makarov and practice on that. I have 2 M1911A1's and I want to restore them to pass them down to our kids some day...

Do you want me to do it? just send it. It's only the slide. Just pay for the shipping I'll fix it for free.

David,

Thanks for the very generous offer, but I'll try to find a local shop to repair the slide, sandblast everything and then Parkerize it. I sent a few emails last weekend and I hope to be able to drop the gun off this weekend. If I can't find anyone willing/able in my area, I'll let you know.

I'm sending you a .223Remington "care pkg" on Friday and I hope you enjoy it!!

Thanks Art. I'm sending some RIG to you today also. My guess is that any smith you find will charge you around $70.00 per hour to fix that.

Art, David,

Thank you for sharing this thread. While I don't own and have never fired a pistol of any type, I am always fascinated with shiny gadgets. I have learned a lot about hand guns from this forum and it usually serves to remind me how little I know.

A question: Art, you mentioned a couple of times your reluctance toward using an abrasive to the 1911, but then say you are thinking about having a gunsmith sand blast it. (If I understand correctly).
Would it really be sand blasting (which I think of as about as abrasive as you can get) or media blasting which would remove the Parkerizing but leave the steel unharmed?

Thanks again for letting us 'listen in' on the conversation. I appreciate it very much.
Les

Les,
Good question! apparently, the manganese phosphate (Parkerizing chemical) requires the metal to be prepped with a very light application of sandblasting with Aluminum Oxide 120 to prep the surface and get it textured to accept the chemical properly.

I've seen guns ruined by guys with sandpaper, emery cloth, buffing wheels, etc... because they knock off the sharp edges, round everything off and soon the gun looks like a blob. They try to remove rust pits, scratches, etc... and take off too much metal, which weakens the gun and the bluing just exaggerates the poor metal prep they did. They usually remove stampings and marks that should be left on the gun and in their effort to make the gun "look good", they ruin it.

Since the metal is in great shape on this WWII M1911A1, all I really want to do is put a new Parkerize finish on it and repair the very small damaged edge on the slide.

Watch the video that I posted in a link for David and you'll see the entire process, it's VERY informative and you'll see how the pros repair what the idiots do to these guns.

I love watching these videos because I learn something ever day and I've learned that it's easier to avoid mistakes than to try and repair mistakes (usually cheaper, too!).

I found a shop in Mason, MI that will repair the slide and sandblast the parts, but they don't do Parkerizing, so it looks like I'll be learning how to Parkerize soon! I'll post the pics and document the process here if people want to see it...

I'm in.

Ok! I will take the pistol to the gunsmith next Monday and I hope he can do the work in a week or two. In the meantime, I'll order the Parkerizing chemicals, get my gear ready and study the process thoroughly. I figure if I can brew beer and reload my own ammo, I should be able to Parkerize the gun!

My goal for the M1911A1...
 

This is what I want the Remington Rand M1911A1 to look like... (top gun)... if possible...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301357924.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301357940.jpg

Brewing beer won't kill you though Art so be REAL careful with these brews. I have scorched my sinuses a few times. A lot of these chems smith's work with it nasty stuff. Plenty of ventilation is essential.

Ok so now I have one for you. A guy brought a little .25 cal Walther sem-auto to the shop today for repair. Sometimes it won't fire and sometimes it just slam fires the whole clip. Ask me how I know. Scared the ****e out of me. So ....how do you get the sucker apart? I used the usual walther procedure of ..lift out the trigger ring and slide and lift the slide rearward. Didn't work. Help me out here brother.

Man those are nice looking pistols pal.

David,
Is this the Walther that you're referring to?

Walther Model 4

No it looks more like the Ortiges/ Duetche Werk you had.

This is it...http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301359419.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301359434.jpg

David,
Here's some info on the Model 8...

Historic Firearm of the Month, March 2000

More pics...
 

Here are my two WWII Remington Rand M1911A1's. The darker of the two is the one that was horribly re-blued and is being re-Parkerized...
The "nicer" of the two...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362250.jpg

The "basket case"... you can see the slide is banged up in one section just below the ejection port...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362276.jpg

My Star PD in .45ACP and My S&W 645 in .45ACP...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362315.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362334.jpg

More pics... I'm on a roll...
 

Three of my friend's M1911A1's are featured in the Clawson book (the book is $1000!)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362549.jpg

Stevens 520-30 trenchgun that we just sold...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362607.jpg

Read this!!
Unbelievable find...
1902 Military Model - Colt Forum

Wow! Just sitting in the store all these years. Wow!

Hmmm...I tried that method and it didn't work for me. I must not be using the right cuss words. I'll try again on friday when I go to the shop again. Damn thing is cute and you can see the PP in it. Scared the hell out of me though. Thank God I was pointing down range with I racked the slide. It was like a tiny machine gun.

Wow! I've heard of that happening on Jennings pistols, but I've never seen it myself.

I didn't EVEN have my finger on the trigger! Unless I can fix it, I will have to give this little thing a black flag to it's owner. too bad it's a cute little bugger. I'm hoping it's just crud inside once I get in there. I would hate to see it go to the band saw.

Wow! I'd be interested in seeing pictures of what you find. I'm sure you'll be able to fix it. Most of the problems I've seen with pistols (semi-autos) have been due to poor ammo (Russian steel-cased garbage), poor internal springs, weak mag springs or poor quality after-market mags. A good cleaning, oil/grease and good ammo and mags have fixed every pistol I've worked on. I really enjoy getting these guns back into shape, it's very challenging and rewarding (not financially, though).

The Internet provides me with all the information I need to get up to speed quickly on a particular pistol and learn about it's mechanisms and common issues.

Art,

Thanks. After watching the videos (yep, all seven) I have a better idea of what was going on.
If I am not mistaken, that was a cosmetic restoration of a gun that had had a piss poor prep job done on it to prepare for bluing (being a USArmy pistol it had been Parkerized to start with?).

It was interesting to see the screw that that had been used to replace a lost pin. Looks like something I would have done, but at least, from this thread, I now know to use a drill bit shank. ;)

Thanks for your patience.
Les

Drill bit shanks are great because they incremental in size and hardened already. They work great. My little 08 Colt .25 was given to me disassembled in a coffee can full of motor oil. It was all there but the pins, which are unobtainable. Every pin in it now was a drill bit at one time.

Well Art. I got it apart. Careful inspection revealed that the lug on the trigger ring, inside the frame had sheared off and was rattling around inside. Once I fished it out it came apart as described. However it needs a trigger ring, the take down latch, pin, and spring. All these parts are close to unobtainable.
I may just offer him $50.00 for it (that's what the state police would pay him for it) and hope that someday I will find the correct parts. You never know.

Hello David,

If you obtain the Walter, I would be happy to machine up new parts for it. I am coming to the States in 2 weeks and will be here for several weeks. You can send it to a local FFL (We'll figure that out) and I will ship it back to you with the old and new parts. Let me know.

That is a generous offer my friend. Actually I would like to meet you. Where are you going to be? For how long? I will let you know if the walther comes to me and we can go from there. Thanks!