A while back I posted that my girlfriend would be getting her fathers old 550 that was in less than good condition. I guess it had been sitting in a hunting lodge and the roof leaked, and when we got it the finish on the stock was all cracked and there were spots of rust all over every piece of exposed metal.
We are just getting done with refinishing the stock with Tru-oil and it looks beautiful (I will post pics).
The bigger issue is what to do with the barrel, magazine tube, receiver, and trigger guard. All have spots of rust on them with some pitting. The action still works fine (although everything that is not held in with pins we stripped out to clean, we will probably break it down completely).
We have rifle blue and have stripped off most of the old blue and will be getting some dremel adapters to grind off the pitting, but I doubt we will be able to make the metal as smooth as it is on the unaffected portions of the barrel. What is the best way to smooth down the metal? Also, is it even worth it, or will the blemishes still be completely obvious? If that is the case, should we just spray it black with high heat enamel? The bluing looks MUCH better than paint, but if its going to look like crap, it might make more sense to spray it, right?
Thanks,
Mike
We are just getting done with refinishing the stock with Tru-oil and it looks beautiful (I will post pics).
The bigger issue is what to do with the barrel, magazine tube, receiver, and trigger guard. All have spots of rust on them with some pitting. The action still works fine (although everything that is not held in with pins we stripped out to clean, we will probably break it down completely).
We have rifle blue and have stripped off most of the old blue and will be getting some dremel adapters to grind off the pitting, but I doubt we will be able to make the metal as smooth as it is on the unaffected portions of the barrel. What is the best way to smooth down the metal? Also, is it even worth it, or will the blemishes still be completely obvious? If that is the case, should we just spray it black with high heat enamel? The bluing looks MUCH better than paint, but if its going to look like crap, it might make more sense to spray it, right?
Thanks,
Mike