Thread: saved from the drop saw

I acquired this Marlin 989mk2 from a fella after he priced the parts to get it going and realised it was not worth spending the money on.



I looked it over and thought it would be a bit of fun to get her back up and running and it would only cost me some money so who cares?

Well to be honest I am really missing my tools and any project would be good.

I started by reassembling it and working out what it needed to get it to function, Bubba had obviously disassembled it at some stage, because if it was supposed to be straight it was bent, and if it was supposed to be bent it was snapped.

Not to worry, I straightened everything and replaced the few bits that I needed, unfortunately as these guns were discontinued in the seventies, parts are not as cheap as I would have liked, hence the salvaging of everything I could.

I put it all together and tested it for function, seven shots from the mag, flawlessly!
The stock was, as I suppose would be the case, in poor but functional condition. But I saw that it was a walnut stock and recall, that a lot of these old guns were stocked with quite respectable pieces of walnut. As it was not considered as valuable as it is nowadays.



I stripped back the old finish and saw a considerable amount of oil had soaked into the wood around the action, also the usual dings and scratches.

Learning a while ago that a dishwasher will raise dents and draw out old soaked in oil, I snuck it into a load the boss had started and plucked it out before she caught it in there.

What a difference! The scratches still needed a bit of sanding but it was not too bad.

I have now sanded down to 400 grit and thought what better finish than boiled linseed oil, hand rubbed for a classic "working" gunstock.





Greg

Looks pretty good so far Greg. Amazing how good the wood looks with all that varnish off it

Stock come up nice Greg

I like that

I stripped down all the metalwork, removed the front sight and started on the rust along the barrel. Although not bad, it was unsightly and the blueing was rather "hit and miss"
I "warm blued" using selenious acid and a heat gun, the finish was pleasing, but I will be setup for rust blueing soon, so if I find this finish poor, I will redo it.



The receiver and trigger guard being alloy, had very little paint left on the surfaces exposed to ware, so I stripped and polished them back for repainting.
Again, I had to make do by "slow baking" the finish on the receiver and trigger guard over the wood fire for a couple of days.
The end results are quite pleasing; I have scoped it and took a hurried sighting in session whilst dodging the weather. I found that it is a definite high velocity shooter. As it intermittently failed to pick up the next round when using subs, but win power points cycled flawlessly, and provided a tight 7 round group.

Not too bad for a Junker.
Greg

You have talent Greg

Thats looking pretty Greg

Awesome, I did a similar thing with an old winchester dad gave me. Wish I'd taken before and after pictures!

Looks real good well done.
You could just use a wet rag and a iron for dents in wood, its easier than the dishwasher and no worries on getting caught. Unless you dont want her to know you know how to use an iron.

Nice looing gun