edwardware
Member
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 4,424
A friend of mine with the sort of fortune we'd all be jealous of bought an estate of firearms last month, for ~50% on the dollar. He told them as much, but they liked him more than the next guy.
Among the collection was a barely-used Ithica 37 (serial of 1970 vintage) with a 20" cylinder bore, corncob fore, and honest to goodness parkerizing. When he handed it to me it was completely inoperative; none of the controls worked. Up the skirt I looked and behold. . . eww.
3 hours with a toothbrush and ATF, and it's like new. . . my diagnosis is a healthy soaking of WD40 sometime in the 90s or earlier turned into varnish somewhere between peanut butter and cold carmel sauce. There must have been a half a can in there.
It's the first 37 I've had apart, and I admire that clever mechanism, pump-fire and all!
Among the collection was a barely-used Ithica 37 (serial of 1970 vintage) with a 20" cylinder bore, corncob fore, and honest to goodness parkerizing. When he handed it to me it was completely inoperative; none of the controls worked. Up the skirt I looked and behold. . . eww.
3 hours with a toothbrush and ATF, and it's like new. . . my diagnosis is a healthy soaking of WD40 sometime in the 90s or earlier turned into varnish somewhere between peanut butter and cold carmel sauce. There must have been a half a can in there.
It's the first 37 I've had apart, and I admire that clever mechanism, pump-fire and all!