Marlin 39A rebluing help

[jshudson]

I'm a proud, new owner of a 1967 Marlin Golden 39A and it's also my first rifle. Yeah, I'm getting a late start at the age of 24! Anyway the barrel of this rifle has some bad spots where the bluing has completely faded. Would getting these areas repaired by a gunsmith affect the value? Here's a photo:



Thanks for any input and happy shooting!

 

[rcmodel]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but:
That's not faded.

Thats were somebody left blood on it, or tried some Internet chemical rust removal technique that removes rust, & bluing!

At this point, there is nothing you can do that would hurt the value.
Its hurt about as bad as it can be hurt already from a collector standpoint.

The only "gunsmith" repair that would work is a complete polishing & re-bluing in a hot blue tank.

It will not hurt the value, as the damage is already done to the collector value.
But to professionally re-blue it, expect to pay about half what you likely already paid for the rifle.
And it won't add any collector value at all.

rc

 

[jshudson]

Thanks for the (horrible) news RC. I guess us newbs have to learn somehow. I'm going to try and rid my hands of it.

 

[Liberty1776]

If you don't have too much in it, why not just keep it as a shooter? You'll never find a better shooting gun... I like a gun with some character - that way I don't feel so bad when I scratch and ding it in the woods... If the bore's shiny, you're all set...

 

[rcmodel]

Yes! I agree 100%!

Always try to learn something twice from one mistake if you can.
It's a good rule to follow through life!

This one is PUURFECT for you to try your hand at a little home gunsmithing.
You have nothing more to lose, and lots to gain!

Get a 4 Oz bottle of this, a pack of 0000 steel wool, and Gofer It!!
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1072/Product/OXPHO-BLUE-reg-

You might be pleasantly surprised at the result.

And at the very least, you will end up with a presentable rifle you can tell your friends you refinished all by your lonesome, as well as one of the best .22 rifles ever made.

And you won't have to worry any more about actually using it and getting it dinged up and hurting the value!

It don't get no better then that for a working gun!

rc

 

[Mac's Precision]

Another vote for keeping it. Those are great guns. The only issue they have occasionally is that they will break a firing pin now and again. Otherwise they are one of the best .22 rifles ever made.

Hang on to it...even if you don't fix the eye sore mark on the barrel. There are a number of guys (Me included) that are always keeping an eye out for those regardless of condition as they are wonderful shooters.

 

[jshudson]

Thanks for the encouragement guys and I apologize for the hasty words of getting rid of it. I was just disappointed in myself for making a stupid mistake.

Anyway, RC are you suggesting I try my hand at just refinishing the whole barrel or just the spots?

 

[788Ham]

Yep ! Just follow the instructions on the bottle, pretty fool proof actually { NO jabs intended! }. I've used this on a couple of shooters I have, works good. I've also used BirchWood Casey blue on an older pistol, has made the barrel and slide very dark blue, was skeptical at first, have about 5 coats on it now, looks exceptional now.

 

[rcmodel]

The only issue they have occasionally is that they will break a firing pin now and again.

You know, I have never seen one break a firing pin.

I have a friend who buys & sells them like pop-corn, looking for the "perfect" one.

Through the years, I have replaced a lot of broken ejectors for him though.
I attribute that to ignorant gun owners cleaning from the muzzle and breaking them off with a cleaning rod.

If you take the rifle apart in the middle with the easy takedown feature, and lock the ejector down out of the way with the lock screw as designed?
It is impossible to break one while cleaning from the breach, as god & Mr. Marlin intended.

rc

 

[Mac's Precision]

RC, I have seen a couple three now with broken firing pins. I suspect that there might have been some heat treat issue along the line of production back in the day. The last one (just a couple months back) with a broken firing pin was broken in 3 pieces. It worked for the owner for quite a while with the fracture in the middle. It carried on this way for a while till the tip failed.

I checked all the normal sources for parts and nobody has one. They aren't available. I have a buddy that owns one..so I have borrowed it to measure the part. I'll fabricate my customer a new one...from dimensions I get from my buddies gun.

The broken firing pin in the customers gun is hard as hell.

 

[wsm]

I saw several guns that looked like that. These were in a house during a fire and got some of the fire fighting chemicals on them. Have it checked very carefully. Great rifle, though.

 

[45-70 Ranger]

As rc said. Do use the Brownell's blueing. I always joked about the name and called the "Blue-OX" but it is one fantastic liquid blue. Do not dip anything into the bottle like the steel wool! Use a clean cloth or swab. Anything metal or dirty getting into the soultion will cause contamination quickly and turn your once fresh bluing liquid to a rust colored mess that will fail. Just keep it clean and you'll have no problems either with a touchup on the bad spot or if you strip it, the total reblue. I used that product in my gunshop for years and my customers were always pleased that I could do a touchup at much lower cost than a full reblue in the tank.

Good luck with your project. Wade

 

[jshudson]

Thanks for the information Wade. As someone with experience do you have any other pointers for me? I admit I know about as little as most about the whole process. Do you think I could do a satisfactory job just touching up the spots that need it rather than re-bluing the whole barrel? I'd say around 15% of the barrel has been effected as seen in the photo. Obviously there would need to be multiple coats to match the surrounding areas right?

 

[mnrivrat]

Follow the directions given on the cold blue bottle. Make sure the surface is degreased well . You can do it more than once in order to match the original bluing . Another very good cold blue is 44/40 . After touch up, just keep it oiled .
The cold blue is not as durable as the orignal hot bluing but you can always touch it up again.
We await pictures when you are done.

 

[45-70 Ranger]

jshudson,

The Brownell product is able to be used with metal that is not 100% clean. It will go through very light oil if need be. That said, the first thing I'd do is lightly polish the effected area with some fine steel wool. What you are doing is two fold. 1. removing surface rust, chemical scoring, and light surface pitting. 2. blending the effected area with the surrounding surface that retains the original finish.

Now steel wool has oil on it to prevent itself from rusting. But with the Brownell's bluing, this has never been an issue. Once you have the effected area polished and blended, apply the blueing with a clean cloth. Don't worry about the surrounding area. It will take more than one coating to get the metal dark, but a trick you can do is: Simply apply the blueing. Wait till dry. Lightly polish with 0000 steel wool. Reapply until you are satisfied that the colors are a match. Then let it sit a day, and on the following day, take some very coarse cheap papertowels and do a DRY rubbing of the finish. Believe it or not, this will do a fantastic polish of both your repair and the remaining finish near it. Rub with LIGHT pressure and do the entire barrell. This will do wonders for your overall appearence of your weapon. Don't be surprised if you see some trace of rust on the paper. It is doing a polish on the surrounding metal that has surfacre rust and it is just pulling it off the metal. (Used to use the old brown papertowels like the ones in the school bathroom from the 50's, but can't find them much these days!) After the towel rub, lightly oil the barrel and go shoot!

This type of finish repair will effect the collector value, but not as much as a complete reblue. A log of repairs was always kept in my shop for my customers if they wished to sell a classic and required such information for the buyer. Having a list of repairs from a gunsmith went a long way in gaining the confidence of the buyer.

Good luck on your work. I hope in the future to see you providing instructions to the 'new guys' to the forum on gunsmithing and such. From your genuine interest here, I believe that you're going to move on to many fine projects in the future.

Regards,

Wade

 

[jshudson]

Thanks again guys, and especially to you Wade. I really do appreciate all the information and your tips. Your willingness to share advice is refreshing and downright nice. I'm happy to learn and will most definitely let you guys know how it goes (with some photos) once I get a hold of some of that Brownell's.

Scott

 

[jrhines]

Just another thought on applying cold blue

What Wade said not withstanding, I have found that using an oil free applicator to apply any bluing formula was important. The one I found best was a new toothbrush. Q-Tips, old tshirts, degreased steel wool, sterile cotton balls, all of them still had some sort of oil or fabric softener or the like, on them. A new tooth brush has nothing on it (thank you FDA).

 

[jshudson]

Here's the Marlin after around 10-12 coats of bluing. I'd apply more, but I think this is as dark as it'll get. Thanks for all the help guys, you made this much easier than it would've been.