Found my Fathers 1911, very sad

[osteodoc08]

As many of you regulars know, my father passed in May. I was unable to locate 3 guns. A Kimber 82 Government that we bought a pair together, a Walther PP in 32ACP and a RIA 1911 I bought for Father's Day several years ago and ended up putting some small parts on to make it look like a current Sig Nightmare to give you an idea (before these even existed)

I haven't had much of a chance to spend in my fathers gun room, but I did look
Briefly for those guns with no luck.

In the interim, the pan on the AC started to leak and was noticed by my younger brother who still lives at home. I asked him to clean it up and shut down the AC. Neither happened. I came home to almost a 1/2 inch of water in the basement. I cleaned it up and the pan was fixed. I asked my brother again to dry out all the wet stuff including my dads range bag......again, wasn't done. My brother claims to have gone through is range bag.....I went through it over the weekend to find the 1911........covered in rust to the point of not being able to move the slide, hammer, etc. I was sick.

[osteodoc08]

I was finally able to get it apart with my rubber and plastic persuader. 89811

[osteodoc08]

89812

[jumbeaux]

Take off the grips and let it soak in solvent (kerosene works great)...or use a good commercial rust breaker...mineral oil might work. Let it soak and after a few days take a nylon bristle brush (toothbrush works) and do some light scrubbing. Re-soak...do it again...you should be able to get it totally taken apart and then work on soaking and brushing on the parts...does not look like any pitting so just take your time and good luck...

rick

[osteodoc08]

I stripped it down to each individual part and scrubbed with a brush and steel wool to get all the rust off. When disassembling the MSH, I shot the 3 pieces and spent 1/2 hourin my basement looking for them. Finally found them and put everything in the ultra sonic cleaner. Everything was dried and oiled.

This morning I took it in the back yard and ran 2 mags through without a hitch. It's ugly now, has no real value but is sentimental. I've got a gun to carry with me fishing and hiking if need be.

I was surprised to find it in his gun bag as he was a revolver man. It tells me he took it shooting the last time he went. That and a 3 screw BH I bought and he was "borrowing".

[jumbeaux]

Nothing beats a 1911 with some character and adding that it belonged to your dad is a bonus to cherish...

rick

[osteodoc08]

Forgot to mention I found his Kimber 82. It was in a case and was just fine. He had scoped it since I saw it last. Still have no idea where the Walther went.

[9.3X62AL]

Nice work on the restoration. The finish anomalies are now "character marks", mileposts in its history with your family. Were I in your position, such things would not diminish the pistol's value one iota in my mind.

Nice that you located the Kimber, and best of luck in locating the Walther.

I'm not approaching the end anytime soon, but my life is closer to its end than to its beginning--and I've had a few medical issues. Speaking here as the son of coroner's office executive.......do your heirs a favor and make note of the locations of ALL valuable items that you wish to pass on to them, and place documentation of same with a younger trusted family member. I came very close to That Good Good Night in October 2004, and I will admit that my preparations for departure were incomplete. I have since remedied that situation, and review it every couple years to keep things current.

[seaboltm]

degrease it, card off as much rust as possible, degrease again. boil it in hot water for 30 minutes. remove from hot water and card the old rusty areas with 0000 steel wool. use a generous amount of water displacing oil. WD 40 will do. Blow off WD with an air compressor. Re-oil and enjoy.

[nhrifle]

You might have a good candidate for a refinish there. If there is a shop near you that does hot caustic bluing, you could detail strip the pistol, polish the metal and have them drop it into the tank. The expensive part of a reblue job is the metal prep and if you take care of that it should be a fairly inexpensive process. There are also a few finishes that can be applied at home without too much trouble. If you don't want to go through refinishing it, I would atleast give all the metal a good scrubbing with 0000 steel wool and a liberal dose of Hoppe's #9. It won't harm the remaining finish, will remove the rust that is still there, and will keep new rust from forming.

Glad you found the pistol and were able to save it.

[GabbyM]

Looks like you got lucky and found it in time.

Seen a lot worse. Friend of mine had me clean one Colt 1911 up. He's carried it in the fresh air duct on his semi tractor. FYI it's illegal to carry a firearm in an ICC stickered truck. Which is why no truck drivers carry a firearm. To make it worse he had it wrapped in a cotton shop towel that held moisture. It had only been in there for a week right after he purchased it brand new out on the road. Looked like it had been out in the rain for five years. It had pretty deep pits all over. It all cleaned up and some cold blue touchup made it look passable. No effect to form fit or function. I don't see any serious pitting on your dads gun. Few pinholes maybe. I'd put a little ATF in the odorless K2 you can buy by the gallon at wal mart or hardware store sold as lamp oil.
I use 50/50 mix of K2 and ATF as gun oil. ATF is loaded with rust inhibitors. It's the Ed's Red style of oil. Very sheik.

[rondog]

FWIW - rust removal by electrolysis works very well. Pretty simple too, just search on Google and YouTube for info. Also, I have a RIA 1911 that I had polished and blued, and it took the finish very well. But it wasn't rusty either.

[detox]

Oh brother. I have a brother like that.

[nodda duma]

I could clean that rust away easily in an electrolysis tank. My wife's grandfather's Kar 98 was rusted all over like that. After removing the rust using electrolysis and a wipe-down, it looked brand new (original bluing intact). There is a thread over on surplusrifleforum which explains how to set it up. Works better than any other method I've ever used.

[rondog]

I could clean that rust away easily in an electrolysis tank. My wife's grandfather's Kar 98 was rusted all over like that. After removing the rust using electrolysis and a wipe-down, it looked brand new (original bluing intact). There is a thread over on surplusrifleforum which explains how to set it up. Works better than any other method I've ever used.

I have a mess of photos from some guy that had an M1 Garand that had been in a fire and all the parts had rusted badly. He did the electrolysis treatment on the parts and they looked like new.

[gray wolf]

Glad you found it and best of everything with the Re-store.

[Larry Gibson]

Hey, when does the brother get out of the hospital............

Larry Gibson

[btroj]

Can you divorce siblings? Well, I mean outside the south.......

[GabbyM]

Don't be to hard on your brother.
I've one that used to be an over achiever. Great patriot and all that.
Now he's just washed up. But he's just a couple years short of drawing SS.

I do mold remediation on call along with water damage. like in a storm we go out any hour to pump water.
Your brothers lack of cleaning up the water is really nothing compared to what we often deal with.
Half million dollar homes with a single $85 pump to clear the site. They'll have one of those twelve volt battery backup systems some jerk sold them for feel good. those guys are the real a holes. What kills us is when we go back to the same house a few years later to pump it out. Another 23 grand of damage due to not having an $85 dollar pump or a $500 dollar gas powered backup. I have to be very careful talking to these customers because as any of you whom have read my post here over the years know I'm not exactly a sensitive guy. BTW outside water damage is not covered under home owners insurance. But good luck trying to sell an American on a product that he only may need years ahead. Not ten hours from now. That's not every American but its the majority of people who are in trouble first time it rains over five inches. well Whatever. Sorry for the gabby ness.

[osteodoc08]

Thanks for the support guys. My brother has always been and will continue to be a mamas boy, who gets catered to. He still lives at home and still gets milk money (now gas money) and has his own job. We are a few years apart, but worlds apart when it comes to responsibility and maturity.

His interest in guns is passing. He has never reloaded. He bought components to reload for his glock. I set the Dillon 550 up and let him have at it......the powder is still in the powder measure on the press even though I asked him to put it back in the canister. That was over a month ago.....still there. It's gonna be fertilizer when I'm home next.

Enough of my rantings.

It's functional, that's what matters.

[waco]

Not even sure what to say..... I hope you can restore your fathers gun. Godspeed.

[GabbyM]

Oh my:

I didn't gruff your mother still lived there.

All I can say is get your fathers stuff out and into your hands. Talk this over with your mother. Leave your brother in some other room. None of his damn business. This would be between you and your mother. Get what is yours from your father. Then just take care of your mother after that. Very basic stuff. Main point is to have good communication with your mother. Make sure she knows you will be there for her. Never ask your brother for anything. Doesn’t sound like he will pony up. Time comes if he mans up he’ll do it.
Till then just write him off and take care of your mother in spite of him. If there is any hope for him he will man up and follow your lead. If not all the bickering would not of done any good. Just don’t let your mother ever see you and your brother arguing
Totally separate your relationship with your mother from any feelings you have for your brother. Then tell your mother that’s what you are doing. Don’t think she doesn’t know her own sons. In other words. Forget your brother. It’s just you and your mom. Work on that and be true to her then he can be responsible for his own life.

[CLAYPOOL]

Do Not Refinish that pistol. Its history of your family now. My dads model 12 does NOT have any blue left. You can twist it in any direction , any where.. Yes you read that right. But oh the story's about it, and the things it has done....Think about that...

[JHeath]

Clean it up and shoot the hell out of it. That can be his memorial.

You can try to solder up the crack in the Liberty Bell, or you can enjoy it for what it is.

I saved my daughter's favorite book from childhood. Recently our 5 month old Catahoula mutt chewed it to pieces overnight. I had to explain to my daughter (now 14) why I was sad, because she did not remember that book at all.

When I came home from work that day, she had taped the book back together, hundreds of pieces, and left it on the kitchen table. It means more to me now than before the dog chewed it.

[waksupi]

Well you got your Dad's 1911. How lucky can one get.

What is wrong with leaving powder in the Dillon 550 powder measure hopper?
I have done that for years, I leave a piece of paper in each hopper with the powder name on it so I know what's in it and what it's set at. Never had a problem. Last thing I want to do is go to reload and have to start from scratch every-time.

Some powders will eat the plastic chamber if left in more than a few days.

[hickstick_10]

Can you divorce siblings? Well, I mean outside the south.......

http://www.andpop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Denzel_Washington.jpg

[osteodoc08]

Well you got your Dad's 1911. How lucky can one get.

What is wrong with leaving powder in the Dillon 550 powder measure hopper?
I have done that for years, I leave a piece of paper in each hopper with the powder name on it so I know what's in it and what it's set at. Never had a problem. Last thing I want to do is go to reload and have to start from scratch every-time.

Dual based powders can eat the plastic hopper tube. Plus it needs to be stored properly as the basement doesn't have a dehumidifier except in the gun safe. That and he's just lazy.

[Catshooter]

Good advice from Gabby.

I would clean it up and rock on.

I too have my father's 1911, a Springfield Armory plain Jane. He always loved the 1911 but never had too much money and never got one customized. So I decided to build it up as it would have been done in the '70s.

I like to think he'd have liked it.


Cat

[MtGun44]

Sorry about the 1911, sounds like a reblue is in order.

I have left powder in RL550 and 450 hoppers literally for decades, just topping off when
it needs it. Can't imagine the "fertilizer" comment unless you don't plan on being back until
about 2150 or so.

Bill

[Lloyd Smale]

probalby a bit pitted so a nice blueing job isnt going to work. I think before i had it matte blued id consider one of the new high tech coatings.

[osteodoc08]

probalby a bit pitted so a nice blueing job isnt going to work. I think before i had it matte blued id consider one of the new high tech coatings.

I had actually used the at home gun finishing on it before I gave it to him. Those areas were good. It was where it was bare steel (where it was worn) it was rusted. Slide rails the worst for sure.

It functional now. Gonna leave it as is. Shoot it every now and then and keep it as a reminder of him and how NOT to trust my brother to do somethings.

[HATCH]

The plastic tube on the powder measure will turn colors and crack over time if powder is left in it.

I would just refinish the 1911.
A good refinish with Gunkote and you will not even tell the abuse

[snoopy]

"FYI it's illegal to carry a firearm in an ICC stickered truck." I will repectfully disagree, as long as you are compliant w/ state law, it is perfectly legal as far as I know. "Which is why no truck drivers carry a firearm", ok.

[FergusonTO35]

Osteodoc, I totally identify with your frustration over your brother. My best friend's brother and brother in law are the same way, and both were made that way by their respective parents. One set of parents was stern and unforgiving to the point that the kid grew up to be a people pleaser who can't think for himself. The other one had every thing given to him and was rewarded for his tantrums, now he believes he is entitled to the family resources for the rest of his life. They had totally different upbringing yet the result was much the same!

[thekidd76]

Post up a couple after pics of the 1911 for us.

[starmac]

Gabby do you know where to look up the no firearm in truck law, I have drove all my life and never heard of that, except in certain states and cities. I even buy a permit when entering Canada.

[GabbyM]

Brownells Oxpho blue is a great cold blue.

I use it on my varmint rifles. Just buy CM alloy steel barrels then use a single application. Three or four would make it pretty. I burn them out from the inside not the outside. CM last longer than SS. I've never had a barrel wear out from the outside.

Mix transmission fluid. (ATF) with 50/50 % odorless kerosene. Sold as lamp oil in hardware. Use that as your gun oil wipe down and whatever. ATF has loads of anti rust inhibitors in it. Slick enough.

[GabbyM]

Gabby do you know where to look up the no firearm in truck law, I have drove all my life and never heard of that, except in certain states and cities. I even buy a permit when entering Canada.

Come to think of it starmac. It's what my company told me. That would be ADM Trucking. Possibly they lied to us.
That would of been circa 1990. Which is 23 years ago. Wasn't to many months after I stopped driving for them that the President went to prison for lying. It's possible.

We were Decatur Illinois based so it may have been state law.

I generally had my AMT 380 In my pocket and my 9x19 in the pit. 06 in the box. First Gulf War was starting up. Was pulling fuel tanks with that stupid ethanol. Back hauling sub octane. Perhaps it's a haz mat thing? Bee a long time since I took the test.

[gwpercle]

Rick's tip about soaking rusty guns in kerosene is a good one. It works and seems to neutralize the rust so it does not re-appear. One of my kids left a pair of side cutters in the yard, I found them about two years later and they were a solid mass of rust. Soaked in kerosene for a month, cleaned them up and am still using them and they no longer get rusty...they have a sort of patina on them that doesn't rust any more. I wouldn't call it rust blue but the kerosene did something.
Gary

[hicard]

Sounds like your brother should be living under a bridge somewhere.

[FergusonTO35]

Gabby do you know where to look up the no firearm in truck law, I have drove all my life and never heard of that, except in certain states and cities. I even buy a permit when entering Canada.

What kind of permit do you buy when you go to Canada? What guns does it cover and how can you carry them?

[Capt. Methane]

Sounds like you saved it in time...

[osteodoc08]

90745

[osteodoc08]

90747

[osteodoc08]

Compared to what it looked like, it's passable and functional at this point. There is a guy locally that bead blasts. Maybe ill blast it and take the home dura coat off. Will this affect the parkerizong underneath?

[Catshooter]

Sure will. It'll take it right off.


Cat

[sqlbullet]

A couple years ago I sandblasted, re-parked and then cerakoted my EAA Witness. It was quite easy to do if you have any DIY in your veins at all.

Details here: http://10mm-firearms.com/gunsmithing/parkerizing-advice/msg3260/#msg3260

[saz]

She has stories now. Good job on getting her shooting again! Now you have something to pass on.

[762 shooter]

That's one firearm that you don't have obsess over keeping perfectly clean and unscratched. It's a sentimental tool. Use it.

762

[Treetop]

osteodoc, I was with my Dad in 1960, when he bought his only 1911 for $99 NIB. It was a beautiful blue, pre Mark IV, commercial model. Surplus ammo was cheap back then and we shot it a lot! When my Dad passed away in 1987 I inherited the 1911.

About a decade later, Texas passed a CHL law and this particular .45 became my EDC pistol. Yes, I have other 1911s, but this one is special. The only mods I made were the necessary (IMO) ones. Novak sights, beavertail grip safety, and an ambi safety (I'm a southpaw).

My Dad was one of America's "greatest generation". A hard working, moral, ethical, seven day a week Christian gentleman. I think of him every time I belt that Colt on! Tt.

[DougGuy]

I'd leave it exactly as is!


90745

[Tristan]

90747

Looks awesome!

It's now where it needed to be. Enjoy it!

- Tristan