New Project Remmy

[Captainkirk]

Call me a dumbass. No, really. It's OK.
Repeat after me: The Cap'n is a DUMB-ASS! 

See; there was this Remmy Brasser for sale on Armslist, and......
Well, yeah. I bought it.
It wasn't free, but close enough. Anyway, the deal was this:
The guy was advertising it as "restored" (he does "gunsmithing", you see)-Warning #1
It was missing the cylinder. Too rusted to restore-Warning #2
The pictures were blurry-Warning #3
BUT......
I've been looking for a brasser to do a Kirst Konversion on. This one fit the bill, more or less.
I met the guy tonight in a dark parking lot after he got off work at the local Bass Pro. I looked it over under the dim light of halogens and saw it was all there but the cylinder, and greenbacks and gun exchanged owners.
What he told me next should have been Warning #4
He said the gun had gotten wet and wouldn't even turn when he got it. The cylinder was beyond repair. That's OK, I'm looking for a donor for a Kirst Konversion, I told him.
Naturally I didn't bring a flashlight or bore light. I figured if the bore was bad, I could shorten it.
I may have to.
See, there is a blemish down the bore about halfway. Can it be polished out? We'll see. It may not even affect the accuracy that far down.
It looks like the brass and bluing were de-rusted via wire wheel, The bluing is polished through in some areas. The grips are scratched down to bare wood in spots. Overall, I'd say it's worth $25.00 as is; I paid a bit more.
But that's OK. I will have no qualms whatsoever as to chopping, cutting, grinding, polishing, etc. I may re-blue it. I might go polished steel. It's a ripe plum for the pickin'.
I took a bunch of pix, some with flash, others without to show the contrast.
So, here's my "pig-in-a-poke":
Left side shot:

Frame:









Barrel:

[Captainkirk]

More photos of the "train wreck"




You can almost see the blemish down the bore, about 7 O'clock:


Anyway, trust me. It's there. Whether or not it can be polished out will have to be seen.

[Captainkirk]

Damage assessment:
My new brasser now sits totally disassembled on the bench. I'm happy to say, other than two small patches in the barrel, (about the size of a finishing nail head), the bore appears OK. I may try lapping the bore using one of my .44 conicals. From what I've seen, it doesn't look like it will bother much, though.
Internals are actually quite nice. The brass needs a little polishing, smoothing, and some blemishes worked out. The bluing does need attention, and the grips need sanding and re-staining. Other than that, it's not as bad as I thought.

[Captainkirk]

SCORE!!!!
I called The Possible Shop today and asked, if by chance, they had any ASM cylinders (since nobody else seems to). First he said "Good Luck". Then he told my I could try Deer Creek and gave me the number.
I called Deer Creek, and sure enough, the guy said he had some! I asked him to measure it; he said it came in at 2" even, which should be a perfect fit. I ordered up one along with a set of nipples and should have it in few days....knock on wood! This thing could be finished soon!
I will keep you posted.....

[Captainkirk]

WOO HOO!
Got my cylinder today! Can't say enough about Deer Creek; they threw in a set of nipples free and charged me way less for a brand-new ASM cylinder than the garbage I've been seeing used and beat-up on eBay is going for!
And less than I could get it from through Dixie or any of the other parts houses....IF they had an ASM cylinder, which they didn't.
OK, so there was some surface rust on it and it was in the white. Big deal. Nothing a little ScotchBrite couldn't spruce up in a jiffy! (and did!)
I hastily assembled the pieces and tried the cylinder......YESSSSSS! It slid right in, although it was dragging a little bit on the recoil shield. I tried working the hammer. It rotated and locked up tight in all six positions. I could feel it dragging some, so I popped out the cylinder and noticed a light wear ring on the recoil shield. The inside of the frame was still rough-cast from the factory, so I milled it smooth and flat with a file both at the from axle point and on the recoil shield. And since I was at it, I continued around the inside perimeter of the frame, removing all the rough casting pock-marks and casting flash, then wet-sanded using 180, then 320, and finally, 600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper. Once all the sanding marks were gone, it got the once-over with Flitz, and suddenly the inside of the frame looks like the outside! Once again, I hastily assemble the thing and drop in the cylinder.....UNBELIEVABLE!!!! What a GEM!
There is only a hint of cylinder gap, the cylinder spins like a Swiss watch, with nice, even lock up and timing spot-on. No timing adjustments will be required. All I need to do now is re-blue the barrel and loading lever, and blue the cylinder. Mind you, this thing is assembled dry-no lube whatsoever-so I don't screw up my forthcoming bluing task. I need to address the scratches in the grips as well, not sure if that will be a complete strip and refinish, or a touch-up, but I'm leaning towards the complete job. We'll have to see how nice it looks after the bluing!
Since I hadn't installed the new nipples in the new cylinder yet, I had a go at dry-firing a couple times (the hammer bottoms on the inside of the frame and does no damage)....Oh, baby! Unreal. This is gonna have better action than any of my Remmies, except maybe the Pietta Target. I can tell already. Trigger is crisp, but light, and smooth as a mill pond at dusk. And I'm not even done polishing the internals yet, like the hand or bolt.
I might have a tough time letting go of this one, boys!
Pix to follow!!!!

[Captainkirk]

And after all is said and done, we have lift-off!



Turned out pretty nice!