Flooded 1911A1

[kutter]

So the floods in Baton Rouge hit us pretty hard, 8 feet of water in the house so I am sure you can imagine the damage. I think my blued Encore barrels may be toast and so I will be filing a claim for those. But I have no intention of filing a claim for the 1911A1 my father gave me.

It is pretty badly rusted, I tried to lightly green pad the rust off, and managed to get most of it off, but in the process the parkerizing was either badly damaged or is completely gone. I do not shoot this pistol often, it is mostly a nostalgic thing for me since my father gave it to me and there is a funny story behind how he got it. The pistol is all original and the last smith that saw it said at that time it was a great example in very good condition. So the question is do I just leave it with the interesting patina on it and keep it well oiled or try to have the parkerization redone.

Thankfully most of my other guns are stainless and so only small parts on them that are carbon steel have rust, I will drop them into my bucket of Ed's Red and let them soak a bit and then clean and reassemble and they should be fine.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

If it were me, I'd look into preservation/restoration.

Why?

Because it would have sentimental value to me and I'd treat it with the care it would deserve accordingly. Regardless of what anybody else may say or think about the effect on its value, sitting there as a rusting hunk ain't going to help its value any either.

 

[BBBBill]

^^^^ It won't get more valuable if it remains damaged by the flood. If it is an all original pistol I would seek out someone well qualified to restore it. Brandan Bunker in Ellenton, FL (right next to Bradenton) is a whizz at that stuff. He's doing fantastic work on par with anyone out there.

 

[Slamfire]

I do not shoot this pistol often, it is mostly a nostalgic thing for me since my father gave it to me and there is a funny story behind how he got it.

If it is an original M1911A1, that is GI military pistol, you can have the thing reparked and no one will know the difference. Assuming that the guy who does the finish removal is careful not to buff the markings.

GI pistols went through rebuilds, some many times. Look at the current color and do a web search and find someone who duplicates that color. There are guys who do Green, black, gray, etc.

 

[hdwhit]

It is pretty badly rusted, I tried to lightly green pad the rust off, and managed to get most of it off, but in the process the parkerizing was either badly damaged or is completely gone.

I agree with RetiredUSNChief that professional restoration may be the best way preserve both the functional and sentimental value. It won't be cheap, but it will probably provide results you can be happy with for years to come.

My grandfather carried an M1911 pistol through World War II and Korea. For reasons he never explained, he didn't like parkerizing so he buffed the parkerizing off with steel wool and "seasoned" it with vegetable shortening just like you would season a cast iron frying pan. Given the state of metallurgy in the 1940's I'm surprised "baking" his pistol didn't hurt it, but it was used regularly for the next 40+ years after that. I inherited the pistol. The baked shortening coating is strange. It feels sort of "sticky" when you pick it up, but when you set it down there is no residue on you hands and it has kept the pistol from rusting for more than 60 years. I'm not recommending anyone do that to any pistol, just sharing one old Colonel's quest for the ultimate combat pistol.

 

[Taurus 617 CCW]

I too recommend the professional Parkerizing route. It will be one of the best ways to preserve your heirloom for years to come and keep it as original as possible.

 

[kutter]

Well thanks very much everyone, I contacted Bunker Arms and I am going to have it reparkerized. I am not overly concerned about value since it has more sentimental value than anything else.