Are my rusty Thompson parts worth anything?

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Titanium Wolverine

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If they were in good condition I know they would be worth a bit,,,but in this condition, are they worth ANYTHING................(more than $20.00 for a neat paperweight)?:scrutiny:

A guy I know gave these to me,,,and has a huge CRATE full of these just like it, demilling at its finest, and then leaving them in your garage to rust:(!

Thinking of throwing them in the milling machine and just shaving the rust off. Then tigging them up and machining them down to spec if they ARE worth working on

(the mags I will just keep I guess)

thanks
Brent
 

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Well those parts aren't worth a whole lot right now. There are still a TON of the Russian parts kits out there. But do your best to preserve them anyway.

Even if you just dump them into a 5 gallon bucket full of oil it will at the very least stop the rust. At some point in the future that stuff will be worth something.

Do you have any other Thompson parts? Or just what is in the pics?
 
Those Russian parts kits are pushing a thousand bucks in Shotgun News right now. Get those parts cleaned and oiled and inside a climate controled enviroment pronto. You might get $200 for a lower or a bolt assembly! A guy with a crate of these parts should run a big ad in Shotgun News or even start an internet business selling them.
 
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Are those kits up to that much now? WOW!

The whole premise of it makes me sick. I have one of those 1928 parts kits to go with my 1928.

The "kit" that I got looks like it was made yesterday. Except for the fact that someone used a chop saw to cut straight through the ejection port.

Think about this for a second. American made firearms of the highest quality, i.e. 1928 Thompsons. Produced by American craftsmen in a time when our country was in terrible peril. Those firearms were given to the Russians. They then were sealed underground and forgotten. When they were discovered 60+ years after the fact the only way to bring them home was to destroy them. We can thank our lawmakers for that. It is disgusting.

Here is the forward reciever and barrel section of my parts kit. Notice that there isn't the slightest sign of a round ever being chambered in this weapon. It just sat quietly in grease for decades, until someone cut it apart with a chop saw. It makes me sick.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

cutreciever.jpg
 
Was just curious. I dont want to sell them because the guy GAVE them to me. Never felt right about selling ANYTHING that someone gives me out of kindness.


Was thinking of rounding up some more parts from him and making a few guns,,but if the guns I make out of the rusted parts would be considered JUNK than maybe I would rather just stuff them in the very back of the gun vault and forget arbout them for 5-10 years,,,,,,THEN SELL THEM! :D
 
You can't legally build a full-auto Thompson. You could use the parts to build a semiauto gun, but it would not be a trivial project. There is some fairly serious collector interest in Thompson parts anyway, though.
 
Nice April Fool's joke, you are a few days early. Any fool knows those magazines alone are worth more than $20 each.
 
The Russian Thompson kits came from Thompsons included as standard equipment in US tanks supplied to Russia as lend-lease in WWII. The Russians had no regular source for .45 ACP and put the Thompsons in storage, just recently releasing them as parts kits for US Thompson collectors. They are usually unfired condition.

I have soaked rusted steel parts (for other guns) for a couple of days in WD40 inside plastic bags, then shaved the rust off with a straight edge razor blade. No need to use a milling machine.
 
Nice April Fool's joke, you are a few days early. Any fool knows those magazines alone are worth more than $20 each.
Click to expand...

Well, thank you for calling me a fool.........:scrutiny: I have not priced a single thompson part ever,,,know NOTHING about them. The mags are pretty rust pitted on the outside, so figured they might be worth 10 buck a piece. They work but are severely pited in the rust spots. Had no idea, that a old rusted mag would pull 20 bucks per piece,,,,,,,

The lowers are way past scraping with a razor,,,they are pitted pretty deep, I have already dissolved the rust,,,,what you are looking at is BARE metal.

Ok, well thanks for all your comments (except for the guy that called me a fool,,,LOL:D) I guess I will scrounge a few more rusted out parts and make some non nonfiring replicas, ones that looks like they were pulled out of the dirt. With the sole purpose if actually LOOKING like it was dug out of the mud in a field.

Will make some NICE wall hangers

thanks
Brent
07ffl
 
...sand-blasting and/or polishing media on a few pieces, to see how they take...

I suspect that you have some items of value there.

Good Luck!

p

...if'n you'd like, you could send a few pieces my way, and I'll try to shine 'em up a bit....
 
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Relax, no one called you a fool!

If the guy gave you a bunch of rusty parts maybe he wanted to just get rid of them instead of throwing them away. Doesn't seem he cared much about it since he left them sit uncared for in a garage to rust. If you feel bad about selling something someone gave you as a gift maybe you could cut him in on the action. You do have a definite business opportunity there.
 
Top is M1 or M1A1 Thompson, bottom is probably a 1928 version.
A slight change where the pistol grip attached (a "jog" or rebate) signifies the M1, as well as the cylinderical attachment point to the rear which is where the shoulder stock attaches. The '28 had a stock that slid on rails and a catch to hold it.
 
I'd certainly hold onto those lowers at the very least. They will work quite well in spite of the pitting, and the day is not very far off when they will be just about all that's available and the price will be set accordingly. Granted they aren't in the best of condition but there will always be a market for usable parts, including the internals. If the mags have heavy pitting they may be worth very little. How about the springs & followers? Keep in mind you can still find good usable mags for around $15 from time to time, $20 for like new.

The two lowers you posted can be distinguished by the attaching screw posts on the M1/M1A1 and the sliding rail for the 28 models.
 
Let me re-phrase that. He's a fool for giving that away, because most of us recognize there are collectors (or rubes if you're feeling cynical) that would pay over $20 for just the magazines.

There has been a substantial cottage industry in selling Thompson "dummy" guns for hundreds of dollars. While it would take some work to convert a crate full of those to make parkerized non guns for display, there are folks that do just that.

So no, your pile of parts are NOT junk in that sense.
 
There are guys out there that can restore rusted gun parts so well that colectors are cursed to tell them apart. If you have the time, and want to learn, you can get real good at it, and double any money someone will give you fo the rusted part. Find a guy that parkerizes and/or does bluing, and your halfway there. Share the profits.
 
:rolleyes: there you go again with the fool comment...........:D

This guy has about 20 m249 kits sitting on a shelf collecting dust,,,,, talk about falling in love at first sight!!! He has about 4 4ftx4ftx4ft pallet crated full of m1 carbine demilled receivers, barrels triggergroups,,,,

well lets just say he claims to have enough demilled guns to fill three freight train cars

...............and I believe him! From what I have seen this guy is no joke and true to every word he has spoken so far. Very nice and giving guy!

He does not need money,,,he is already rich, he just loves guns and has the right connections! He has crates from the 70's that I saw and looked at and asked "whats in there" he replied, "don't know:confused: one day I will get bored and open them up, been so long I forgot!" just crates and crates and crates of military stuff from demilled brens to mp40s to cannons,,,,,,,,,,just crazy ammount of stuff that most of us dream of having collections like!


I am a dealer/ and a manufacturer with a 12x12 vault and some pretty heavy duty and rare fast stuff,,,,,,,,,,when I saw all this I was more awestruck than a 5 year old the first time at disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!:what::what::what::what:
 
I wonder what ever happened to those 4 connex's full of Thompsons that we had at the S&S Co. in Vietnam back in '68. I doubt they brought them back to the US, There were several thousand of them in wrapped up greased (looked like black tarred) paper.
 
Dr. Rob said:
Let me re-phrase that. He's a fool for giving that away, because most of us recognize there are collectors (or rubes if you're feeling cynical) that would pay over $20 for just the magazines.

There has been a substantial cottage industry in selling Thompson "dummy" guns for hundreds of dollars. While it would take some work to convert a crate full of those to make parkerized non guns for display, there are folks that do just that.

So no, your pile of parts are NOT junk in that sense.
Click to expand...

Well, I can attest to that myself; about five years ago, coming into an unexpected bit of extra $$ ..... I bought one of these (a 1928 version) and it's now a wall-hanger ... right next to a German MP-40 .... which is one of those pot-metal dummy guns...but it looks good.
 
Knowing that it takes the availablity of spare parts to keep a collectible thompson shooting, those closeups in Post #16 are real gruesome. Yep, a 48 hour soak in WD40 and a razor blade won't help that level of corrosion.

The Brits almost disarmed after Dunkirk made a lot of wooden dummy Thompsons for (distant) news photo ops to fool the Germans. Repro Products Prairie View Illinois advertised wooden dummy Thompson 1928 up to the late 1970s at least. People will buy rubber movie prop "background" Thompsons as used in war films. Wall hanger dummy Thompsons do sell, as do solid aluminum dummy receivers for use with parts sets. Those parts may be worth more than just scrap metal to someone, even if cleaning them up would be a chore, and even if they are only good for "non-gun" use.
 
Nice April Fool's joke, you are a few days early. Any fool knows those magazines alone are worth more than $20 each.
Click to expand...

Really? Because I have ~30 30-round original Thompson mags, at least half still in their oiled wrapping paper, and I couldn't sell them for $12/magazine at our local gun show.

Anyone want to buy some original Thompson magazines? There might be a few rust spots or cosmoline on them... And they can easily be modified to fire in a semi-auto version. These were bought by my father MANY years ago at a Navy auction yard.

Seriously, pm me if interested... I'd like to get rid of them.
 
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