Pacific Cast Iron C press ID side of frame says 1933 Patent

[afish4570]

Someone gave it away as a freebe at my club. Badly rusted frame may be missing a pi for handle to ram. Has several rams , different sizes as the shell holders are not removable. a few small rust spots on rams ... Might be fixable with alittle cleanup. What is best way to remove rust from frame without destroying. If I paint what was original color? I have to check rams and see what calibers they fit.
afish4570

[Bent Ramrod]

It sounds like you have an original Pacific C-press. The earliest ones had “Patent Pending” cast into the frame; later ones had the patent number.

Pre-war specimens have a cylindrical top where the die screws in and had an elaborate aluminum attachment that clamped over this for the auto-priming feature. Postwar versions had two lugs on the front of the cylinder with a hole to fit the more conventional auto-prime setup everybody else was using.

The shellholders were machined into the rams, and there was a knurled pin for takedown that at least made the changing operation doable, if not as convenient as the later snap-in shellholder that RCBS invented.

Your rams and surfaces ought to clean up with Evaporust and rubbing with steel wool. Keep it off the paint, if it’s original, and try WD-40 and paper towels on that rust. For a time after the War, the color remained non-gloss black, but changed to blue sometime in the 50s or early 60s, IIRC.

There’s some threads on the early Pacific presses here on Vintage Reloading Tools and also the ARTCA web site.

[Scrounge]

Someone gave it away as a freebe at my club. Badly rusted frame may be missing a pi for handle to ram. Has several rams , different sizes as the shell holders are not removable. a few small rust spots on rams ... Might be fixable with alittle cleanup. What is best way to remove rust from frame without destroying. If I paint what was original color? I have to check rams and see what calibers they fit.
afish4570

Get a gallon of EvapoRust, for the easiest way to get rid of rust without messing with the paint that might be left. You'll need to degrease it. Dawn dishwashing detergent with hot water will do the job. Last I looked, Harbor Freight has gallons of EvapoRust for about $30.