Savage 29 Restoration Project

Blackwolfe said:

Beautiful! Nice werk. Do you have any before pictures and or in progress pictures? id you do the metal refinishing? If so, what process did you use?

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Surely, here's some before photos:







The trigger guard assembly was slightly sprung and it's locks were not fully engaging the rear of the receiver. I checked the chamber with my No-Go guage and it was still okay. The bolt, chamber, and lock in the upper receiver showed no signs of damage at all, but the barrel was slightly loose. I took that apart, cleaned everything and reassembled it with Loctite 638 retaining compound, which fixed the problem. I bought a stripped trigger guard assembly for $50 on Ebay and moved the internal parts over from the original one and everything fit and functioned fine again.

Blackwolfe said:

Beautiful! Nice werk. Do you have any before pictures and or in progress pictures? id you do the metal refinishing? If so, what process did you use?

Click to expand...

I refinished all of the metal and wood myself. The bluing was mostly gone on the replacement trigger guard assembly. The original finish on the rest of the rifle was freckled overall. There were a few areas with some degree of more minor pitting. I always strip the metal and polish everything to 220 grit in the same direction as the factory finish. Then I rust blue the barrel and receìver with Mark Lee's Express Blue #1 in a old home made rig constructed of 3 inch cellular core PVC pipe with a bell reducer and electric water heater element on the bottom. It's attached to a makeshift wooden stand with metal strap adjustable band clamps. I do the small parts on a hotplate in a cheap Mainstays stainless steel pot. I card everything off with Briwax oil free steel wool or a Brownells carding wheel in an electric hand drill.

If a stock and forearm are in solid condition, I usually just strip them and put them in a pan of boiling water on the stove to get any old oil out and pop out any dents. If there are any dark stains, I mix oxalic acid and water to make a paste and apply it and let it work for a few minutes before rinsing it. On missing wood I usually use Acraglas dyed with the same product I plan on using on the rest of the rifle. In this case I decided to just gradually change the angle of the stock near the chipped toe and grind the old butt plate to fit the new contour. I finished this one off with Truoil.