4” flood in safe room. Need advice.

now, mine aren't collectable, nut I've been astonished how well wd40 and 0000 take rust off. yes, you lose some blueing, but my stuff all has some wear and tear on it already. That's why I buy used. The first scratch is hard, the 5th and 6th, they don't hurt as much.

sucks about the flood though. I liked what I saw of your collection behind the poor handi rifle.

my buddy owns a water restoration company, and I did a lot of work with him earlier this year during the aftermath of the great texas ice storm. He now swears he will never own: copper pipe plumbing, overhead plumbing, a basement, an upstairs bathroom, and he turns the water to his house off if he is going to be gone more than 2 days. Extreme, yes, but that's his business.

Very sorry to read of this. As most are saying, I'd get them dried and wiped down with a good oil as step 1. Not certain what is the best practice, but absent any other actual knowledge, I'd probably use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat the metal and help drive out moisture. Once you have stabilized them, I've seen some pretty amazing results with Frontier Big 45 (or even steel wool) and oil to remove rust.

I woke up to a half inch flood in our master's bath last March and water went to the closet where the safe was. i had to wet vac from 3-4 am with having to go to get up for work at 5:30 am. that sucked. safe sat on wet carpet for a couple of days and I had to take all the guns out of the safe. water mitigation company came the next morning and dried out everything over 3 days. cutting holes, taking out baseboard etc....kept the empty safe open during that time and the gypsum inside does not appear to have had any water get absorbed through the bolt holes. my safe is big and heavy and bolted down so i cant tilt it. we are still awaiting reconstruction , then a safe company will move it then return it to be bolted down again after the work is done. i hope the bottom didn't develop any rust. fortunately no rust marks on my guns from the humidity. so far i haven't seen any scratches from having to move them quickly and propping them up against another.

hopefully your guns get through it ok. did the handguns get completely submerged as well?

greyling22 said:

now, mine aren't collectable, nut I've been astonished how well wd40 and 0000 take rust off. yes, you lose some blueing, but my stuff all has some wear and tear on it already.

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There is a product like steel wool that you can buy at the LGS’s and even Walmart here. It’s like steel wool but it doesn’t remove the bluing. It’s in the gun cleaning section but for the life of me I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s not ChoreBoy. It looks like this. You can scrub the heck out of your gun and all it takes off is the rust. If I can find it, I’ll post it. It’s about $8 for one “pad”. But it will last years.

Maybe it has been mentioned, I would elevate the safe as much as possible with cement blocks or move it to the upper level of the house.

BigBore44 said:

There is a product like steel wool that you can buy at the LGS’s and even Walmart here. It’s like steel wool but it doesn’t remove the bluing. It’s in the gun cleaning section but for the life of me I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s not ChoreBoy. View attachment 997867It looks like this. You can scrub the heck out of your gun and all it takes off is the rust. If I can find it, I’ll post it. It’s about $8 for one “pad”. But it will last years.

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That's the Frontier Big 45 product that I mentioned above. You can order it direct from them for about $8 or so delivered. It's good stuff.
https://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

I'd try something like Motherofmag or like polishing compound with clean rags for the surface rust. Then oil.

@1KPerDay, some good advice here to which I have nothing to add, other than to say I am sorry you're going through this. I feel for you, man.

Oh, and as if you did not have enough trouble, any drywall in that space is toast. And needs chopping out sooner rather than later, too.
It may or may not mold, but the backing paper will mildew and develop a stank.
You'll need to cut at least a foot above the waterline all the way around.
Ordinarily the recommendation would be to make a cut 48.5" above the floor so you can use whole sheets, but given that drywall is more expensive than 9x19, if you can get by with 24" you are better off.
You need to dry any wood studs out, too, and tuit suite.
If metal studs were used, they might benefit from some wd40.

The gun rugs are a pain to dry, expending some metal hanger to prop them open and blowing a fan over them may help. Rifle socks may be toast--the "treated" ones just don't seem to "come back" from being soaked.

It's a less-than good time, your normal security for your arms is disrupted, and at a time when you might have strangers (insurance adjusters, water remediation people, trade guys) in the house. All while you are trying to preserve and protect your treasures. BTDT. Be glad it was burst pipes and not a watershed flood, or you'd have the joy of removing silt from everything the water touched (electrical outlets get icky).

RIG grease, after cleaning them rub them down with RIG grease it would have stop much of that rust if it ever happens again.

Looking at your photos - if those are in fact "some of the worst" you're not in horrendous shape.

I assume *Happy Valley*, Utah is in one of the drier areas?

First thing I'd do is mitigate the rust by applying almost any lubricant. Note that the insides are likely at least as bad as the outsides.

Then assess where you stand with the wood damage as that can be a pain in regards to whether or not you chose to expose the wood by removing components prior to the wood drying.

Todd.

I6turbo said:

That's the Frontier Big 45 product that I mentioned above. You can order it direct from them for about $8 or so delivered. It's good stuff.
https://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

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Yes’ my apologies. It has a different name here. Those things are AWESOME.

THIS will help with most of the rustoleosis that you have to deal with.

GunBrite – Iosso.com

1KPerDay said:

Details unimportant. Pipe broke. Sump pump failed. Bottom line is garands M1 carbines, enfields, SCARs and ARs were sitting butt down in roughly 3”-4” of “clean” water for a couple hours and maybe more.

what’s the beat way to mitigate any damage? Remove buttplates, dry metal thoroughly and oil, and let stocks air dry and then rub with BLO or something? There were also pistols in cases on pallets that may or may not have been wet. I haven’t had a chance to see the actual situation yet because I’m off site. I’m heading there ASAP.

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The wife says to buy a "bunch of bags" of rice and cover them completely... May work, I don't know

I really hate that you have to go through this. Some great advice from a lot of knowledgeable folks. My first reaction would have probably been blowing compressed air into every crevice of every firearm prior to soaking them. I'd also wondered about opening up adult diapers and laying them flat in the bottom of the safe, with maybe something not too heavy on top to keep them flat.

BreechFace said:

That NEF and Sig are in tough shape, but if those are the worst I would say you are lucky. Take a deep breathe and grab that gallon jug of WD40 and get after it.

Once you get through mitigating the current issues, I would be building a 16" shelf to sit your safes on top of and rework your flood contingency plan.

I have my safes sitting off the ground on a platform I build just for this reason.

@1KPerDay sorry to hear this, such a bummer but it looks like you got there in time to mitigate a lot of the potential damages.

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The NEF looks like mostly surface rust. Some oil and either 0000 steel wool or even a microfiber cloth should remove most of it if not all of it.

1KPerDay said:

Most of the rust is coming off with oil and brass brushes. My tasty Colt SAA which was fully immersed and sitting in a sock in a rug just had some rust on the ejector rod and spring. But I keep it pretty liberally hosed with oil. This M15 is making me physically sick.

rust is coming off but the bluing is damaged. I guess I don’t have to feel guilty about shooting it anymore.

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Oh man. That’s rough. There is a guy who can reblue it and likely fix any engraving. His name is Michael Gouse. He’s the guy who did @CraigC ‘s open top. I’m sure you’ve seen it. He does incredible work and from what I understand, isn’t expensive. For a treasured heirloom, I wouldn’t care what the price was. But his prices are good. Check him out.
http://www.gousefreelancefirearmsengraving.com/

1KPerDay said:

would dropping them into trays filled with ATF save anything?

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That's what I'd do. Remove the stocks and immerse the handguns in Mobil 1 or some such and leave them soaking for a while. Spraying or wiping may not get into the nooks and crannies . I feel your pain. Any chance your homeowners' insurance will cover anything?

FWIW I had a video somewhere of a
documentary type show of the Uberti
factory, and one of the segments showed
them soaking finished pistols in Castrol
motor oil for rust prevention before
boxing and shipping

JMHO- we don't have basements
here, but if I did I would never treat
it as anything but an outdoor storage
shed except under the house.
I've seen too many photos and heard
of too many incidents of basements
filling with water and ruining built in
bedrooms and recreation rooms, etc.
to the tune of many thousands and
the ruin and loss of irreplaceable
items

Sorry to hear about that. It's a real bummer, and I know that from personal experience. Except in my case it was only a sump pump that died and it was discovered before the water began to get deep. What I did do afterwards is build some stuff to get my safe and a gun security cabinet a few inches above the floor which could buy a lot of precious time if that happens again. Just made them out of 2x4's and a picture says it better than me explaining it. Around me it could take days after a pump failure to get a few inches deep. Here's a shot of what the gun security cabinet is sitting on.. .. This thread also reminded me of those high water alarms available for when these things happen. I swore I would get one and I still haven't but I should get busy on that.

In terms of space and convenience in my home, I'd love to feel confident enough to store my firearms in the basement. But even with a dehumidifier running full-time and the "golden rod" in the safe, the moisture factor, let alone the flooding possibility, keeps me from doing so (too, I don't live in an arid clime).