SA M1 Restoration- Worth my While???

[ahhartenstein]

Ok, so I am quickly learning that it would be super expensive to restore my M1to "Correct Grade" if I bought all the necessary parts by themselves. But what if I trade parts off my M1 for the correct parts that I need at gun shows, etc.? Will it still be too expensive and not really worth the time? My thinking is that I should be able to trade for the correct parts at minimal damage to the wallet? Wrong?

 

[Tom C.]

Correct parts? With the number of arsenel rebuilds most of these guns saw, there are probably very few with original matching parts. More important is function and accuracy. My Korean expat gun needed a new barrel and new wood. It also got refinished. Shoots very well now, but I don't care if the parts match.

 

[MechAg94]

I consider myself a bit of a collector, but I much prefer function and accuracy over correctness issues like that.

 

[ocabj]

I would recommend against it for one reason: the stock.

Unless you have a verified original stock, then I wouldn't bother. It would be a lot cheaper to buy a correct grade from the CMP.

Trying to put together a correct rifle including stock on your own can be very difficult, considering stock forgeries have become more common in recent years.

I bought a field grade last year that I turned into my JCG match gun that I did acquire the correct parts for except the stock and barrel. I had the whole thing reparked and a new stock and barrel via DGR (see my sig). I didn't cost me much to get the correct metal parts since I didn't put much priority into getting the parts. Whenever I found a good price, I bought the part. The only thing I actually splurged on was the lockbar sights. Paid a slight premium to Orion 7 for a complete set.

 

[ScottsGT]

The CMP can swap parts all day long and print out a sheet of paper with "Correct Grade" on it and charge much more for it, but if you did it, it would still be a basic Garand. Just enjoy it as is and have fun with it. Put that extra money and time into ammo and targets!

 

[Eightball]

If you want to "restore" it, good luck---people already have that corner of the market taken care of, and the rifles cost a gajillion bucks (or might as well, because it's just as far outta my price range). If you want it to look good/function well, try some of the places around that just refinish them, etc; without the original stock, as ocabj said, there's going to be no "historic" value to them. My advice--google "dean's gun restoration". For a few hundred, he'll do a whole lot to your gun, including new hand-oiled wood stock, replate the metal, etc etc. Check it out. But, I wouldn't even bother trying to get it back to "historic" value. It'd be a fun project, but cost more than it is worth.

 

[Plain Old Bill]

Second that motion to look at DGR. Good man, good work, great results, reasonable pices. Very happy with what he has done so far, and he's getting more of my business in the very near future.