Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Gun coating for pitted receiver?

Got a receiver that I'm thinking about cleaning up and put back into action. May not be able to get all of the pitting polished out (pretty deep).

What gun coating(s) would look best on an old lever action, and might help hide the pitting and protect the metal?

Just ran into a reference to a product called Lauer Durafil Surface Filler? Spray on and sound down to fill in flaws like deep pitting.

Anybody ever use it or hear anything about it?

What receiver is it?

R.

Old Savage 1895 receiver.

I don't know how flat that action is. I did hit a Model 94 action a few years ago, with paper and block, that has some really deep pits in it. I sanded on it for a day or two, and was suprised how much came out. I let it sit for while and finished it up, no pits. Because blueing hits the steel only, I am leary of any filler that says it will blue. Sand it until you're sick of doing it, then sand it some more. Stay away from the buffing wheel. If you are looking to paint, then kill the rust with Rust Mort, or Royal Jelly, bondo it up, sand smooth and coat with any of the two part epoxy coatings availible. Don't know if I could paint an oldie though. Hope this helps.

R.

Was talking with the folks at hotflashrefinishing.com and they were the ones who said they probably couldn't remove enough metal on the left side to get all the pitting out and it polished up. It is in pretty bad shape.

So if they can't, that's why I'm looking at possible options. I'd rather not duracoat it (or similar), but if I have to then I will. Want to bring it back to shooting status.

Appreciate the feedback, just gathering info for possibilities right now.

If you end up needing to use some sort of filler, then a coating of some sort is going to be what you need.

Bluing isn't going to work on fillers, and will likely end up looking worse than leaving it as-is now.



Depending on how it looks now, I might be tempted to just knock down any standing rust, oil it up well (or run some good cold blue over it to help "seal" the metal a bit), and run with it, pits and all. If you keep it oiled, it won't get worse, and hopefully will develop a patina'd, well carried, hand rubbed "experienced" look to it.

It doesn't sound like you'll ever be able to make it look "new" again, so you're faced with either a bad looking refinish bluing job, a coating job that may not hide everything anyway, or leaving it with "character" and going hunting with it.

I have done several with an epoxy filler and ceracoat. The first took awhile to figure out, but it goes slick now. Think of it as auto body work with two part epoxy.

Rory, an 1895??? I smell a story.

My current 1899 project receiver had some nasty pits that I draw filed out, then worked down through the grits with emery and wet/dry paper- always backed by a hard block. Took some elbow grease and time, but the receiver panels are flat as glass, with sharp edges where the radii begin. I defy anybody to see evidence of heavy pitting. Rust blue, here we come!

That's my hope!

This is what I did to a Marlin 39A Mountie. Pits add character and really aren't that detrimental. Pitting is visible above trigger in amongst screws. Receiver and lever are cold blued (Brownell's Oxpho Blue)

I have lots of old shooter quality rifles with some pitting. Don't mind them at all, and ain't going to touch 'em. Heck, my old 99EG that gets me nice bucks every year is gray with dents and dings in the receiver. Ain't nobody touching it!

But this one is being pulled back from the trash bin, and I'm gonna try to clean it up some. If I fail, I've lost nothing but some $$. Barrel is toast, stock is toast, some of the internals are probably toast, receiver is probably toast..

Just trying to come up with options.

I refinished one like you describe. It was an EG with terrible pitting everywhere except the bore. On the flat sides and bolt I used a power disk sander. On the curved surfaces I used files and Emory cloth with WD-40 to flush the metal bits away. Finished it with cold blue. It took me 2 weeks of daily work but it finally was done, and it looked pretty good too. I was between jobs at the time.

I'm got a Win 94 that I'm working on a little right now. It was definitely a well used gun before I got it. The bore looks good and the action is fine, but the receiver and barrel have a little pitting. Luckily most of the pitting is covered by the forearm. it's good to see what other people were able to do with a similar quality gun.