Well, as some of you know, I picked up an "unfired" brass-framed Navy off Auction Arms last fall.
Anyway, after a week of playing guns with it and cogitating, I took it down into the shop for a few photos ad then tore it apart.
Initial impressions:
1) Never fired, my ass! There is so much powder residue inside I could probably scrape it off and get a cylinder-full.
2) The ring on the inside of the recoil shield is indented pretty good. Somebody wasn't shy about packing the bowl.
3) At least the arbor is nice and tight...
4) Parts spread out on the bench; everything steel is covered with surface rust. There is heavy corrosion on the brass in the innards. Trigger and hammer are horrid......which is surprising, as the trigger/hammer action didn't feel that bad.
5) Mainspring surface where the hammer roller rides is rusty, pitted, and has a groove where the roller rides. (Now, you were saying about "unfired"....)
6) The end of the muzzle is not square with the the frickin' barrel!! I shit you not! Looks like Guido used a hacksaw at the factory instead of the plasma cutter that day.....
7) The grips are not bad as far as wood goes, but they are coated with some sort of plastic poly shit that looks phoney. There are drips on either side, same place as if it pooled up while it was hanging to dry. In my opinion, wood to metal should be indistinguishable and perfect. I may have to fix this......
While not corroded, the barrel is full of dust and dirt.
9) Wedge goes all the way home and pops out with light finger pressure. Wedge screw is missing.Wedge has been molested, bluing ground off. Probably amateur tuning...
10) Cylinder-to-barrel gap is not excessive, but more than I would like. Probably from the indents in the recoil shield from Rambo....
11) Bolt lug seats nicely in the cylinder notches. Very little work required here....
12) Arbor hole drilled too deep; will require a screw on the end of the arbor to shim it out
This is a plain-cylinder .36 cal pistol, and should fit nicely with my Schneider & Glassick theme. The only major area which I will stray from the originals is the (still unexplained) excess cylinder gap the original S&G's had. Everything else looks like it should be. Can't wait to get started!
Day 1
Stripped and disassembled. Began with a thorough cleaning of all the caked on powder residue. Stuck a hunk of Scotch Brite on the end of a screwdriver and went to work on the internal cavities, especially the hand/spring slot which were caked chock-full of powder residue. Filed bearing surface of mainspring smooth and polished out all the file marks (which, if left in there, will set up stress risers and cause failure down the road).
Cleaned rust from bolt, hammer, and trigger, sanded and polished sear area on both trigger and hammer. These were horrid...rough, many grooves and imperfections, with the half-cock notch worn. (Unfired, my Aunt Fanny!) Filed evenly and deepened notch for a positive safety..
PHOTOS TO FOLLOW SOON!
