project GS42
 

A few quick pics,

A nice coat of rust, and not much finish
The perfect combination for a shooter project
Fortunately the rust was for the most part confined to the outer surfaces,
And all parts present matched, including the magazine, however I will pickup a couple Mec Gar
Pitting is not bad, and can stay, I will rust blue it once it is completed and operational

I've had a lot worse..it's a noble cause!

Looks like a fun project, and should result in a luger you won't have to worry about firing!

Will

I think that can become a nice LUGER, you were lucky that the rust was for mainly on the outer surfaces, anyway it's a challenge that you'll surely win.

Good luck and best regards.

Should be a great personal restoration project. My only question is what were the conditions in which this gun was stored to result in its current condition?

No clue how it got in such a sad state,
Stored in a leather holster would be my guess
Proof marks are 63 and 92 plus a third design
Magazine has aluminum base, with 63 proof and nickel plated?
Any idea if this would be original, or were they sometimes serial numbered to match at a later time?
Any advice on refinishing the mag, or just leave it as is?

"0000" steel wool and a lot of elbow grease will make the mag LOOK better, and may even function...but it will never be as nice as an un-rusted one. Buy yourself a couple of good aftermarket magazines (Mec-Gar), or an original mag of the FXO variety... and just put that one away would be my advice.

Not too bad, I think it will look pretty good after some rust blue. Enough rust on it already to get a good start. ;)

I have done quickie jobs on guns like that by blasting the parts with fine aluminum oxide (150 grit), followed by rust bluing. A fine grit like that will clean off the remaining rust and give the bluing a good bite, and the blasted texture is so fine that it will disappear after rusting and carding.

Here is one I did that way:

Olle,
Did you sand the Savage to remove the pits before blasting ? I have a batch of water/smoke damaged non-Lugers I've been asked to rescue.
John

Will

I agree with you, the rust pitting seems spread all over wich makes me think that the poor Luger probably remained stored inside a leather holster for quite a long time.

It has been a while, but as far as I can remember I didn't. Could be that I hit some of the worst spots, but I know I did the whole thing in just a few days (and most of that time was of course just rusting) so it wasn't much anyway.

You can probably do a pretty nice job like this if it's just a matter of surface rust and light pitting. It's not a show finish by any means, any pitting will still show but won't be nearly as noticeable as it would be with a high polish finish. Parkerizing would be the next option, the coarse blasting and flat black finish will hide a lot of imperfections.

Cleaned up the magazine with a bit of oil and OOOO steel wool
The spring was twisted up inside, I had to disassemble it and straighten it out, funny I just got a Walter PP with the exact same mag spring problem,

Well l got the last few missing parts, and finally assembled it for the first time,
I only gave it a quick cold blue so l could test fit everything, and hopefully test fire it soon
but thought l would post a couple before and after pics of the progress so far
as l got it, and today

3 times I have seen in this thread " probably remained stored inside a leather holster for quite a long time." Might as well add..in a wet basement. Cause I have a test Luger in an original leather holster now going on ten years with no indication of ANY issues. After this length of time I come to the conclusion other factors have to be involved besides just being in a cool dry holster.

I had a revolver left in a leather holster for only a couple months and when l took it out it was frozen and covered in rust, but it could have been stored in a damp shoe box, or old rags, or just sitting in a damp basement as you suggested, however, in my case only the revolver that was in the leather holster rusted, all my other firearms were fine, so that is why it was my first thought

Now we're getting somewhere! :thumbup:

You could also try and straw color the small parts, I don't think it would be correct for this gun but it does a lot to the overall appearance. Makes it look more Lugeresque, so to speak. :cool:

Being a 1935 G date, l think straw should be correct, and I do plan to try the 450 degree oven method when I refinish it