Thread: Winchester 88 Restoration

Well spring comes around in about a month so the winter project better finish up. Restored a 1961 Winchester Model 88 .243.

Before. Stock was quite banged up, action was rough, trigger felt like there was several forests worth of dirt in the internals, bluing very worn on the barrel. There was piles of dirt in every nook and cranny!







Metal work stripped, rust blued, soaked in oil, cleaned and gun oiled. Used the rust blue solution @rambo-6mmrem made up. I did "adulterate" the mix with a very small amount of ethanol to improve the wet out on the metal, increase drying speed, and dilute it a bit more. This significantly improved the solution, but please if you do choose to do this, do not mix in ethanol in the bottle, only mix with the amount you dispense each time you use it.




Stock. All the dents steamed out, several coats of finish, repair a couple of areas of gouges, checkering, final coats of finish, then buff back.




Assembly. I'll just say a Winchester 88 is not a low parts count firearm and is not as simple as a 1873 Winchester style lever gun to pull apart and assemble!
Added a bit of bling with the Skinner peep sight and a brass foresight. I ordered the tallest front sight and will file it down when I sight it. I'm hoping I can get a front sight hood on but I doubt it.

That is a very nice job you have done. You'd have to be happy with that.

Lovely workmanship

Very nice. Great work.

Please stick a couple of photos in the lever Action thread. Well done.

Nice, good effort, what a turnaround you’ve done.
The ‘before’ pics look much like my Finnwolfs current appearance!

Very nice job mate
Bring it along when i see you next so i can have a look in person
How many coats of blue did you use

Good winter project and well done on all the different skills at play.

Nice too see you kept it real with the Skinner sights

What are you doing next ?

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

Very nice job mate
Bring it along when i see you next so i can have a look in person
How many coats of blue did you use

Ended up being 6 for the barrelled action and between 4 and 5 for the other parts. The first two passes on the barrelled action revealed a few solder spots/smears I couldn't see. This was form me having to resolder the front sight ramp on so I cleaned those up. Front sight ramp was rusty underneath and only had about 1cm of solder hanging on and it predictably popped off when I went to remove the front sight element. Cleaned up and re-soldered it now has 100% solder contact and you can't see my join .

Originally Posted by akaroa1

Good winter project and well done on all the different skills at play.

Nice too see you kept it real with the Skinner sights

What are you doing next ?

Nothing in the works yet. I might just go hunting and shooting. Rambo keeps letting me know about cool black powder events coming up so I best get out and do some practise!
Also this Saturday I was in the shed beavering away as I wanted to get this squared away while the missus went for a hunt/scout in what turned out to be a very productive new spot. So itching to get back out in the field.

I'll keep an eye out on Trademe or here for a banged up rifle with potential.

Well done, that man!!

Nice!

Originally Posted by Makros

The first two passes on the barrelled action revealed a few solder spots/smears I couldn't see. This was form me having to resolder the front sight ramp on so I cleaned those up. Front sight ramp was rusty underneath and only had about 1cm of solder hanging on and it predictably popped off when I went to remove the front sight element. Cleaned up and re-soldered it now has 100% solder contact and you can't see my join .

Looks like nice work all round. Must be satisfying.
Just a tip on sweating/soldering parts - you can use a pencil to "draw around" where you want solder. give it about a 1/4" border - this in addition to only fluxing where you want solder, will stop it from running away (or rather, sticking, when it does run away)

Originally Posted by 11mms

Looks like nice work all round. Must be satisfying.
Just a tip on sweating/soldering parts - you can use a pencil to "draw around" where you want solder. give it about a 1/4" border - this in addition to only fluxing where you want solder, will stop it from running away (or rather, sticking, when it does run away)

That's a good tip. I only fluxed the area intended but a cheeky bead ran down the barrel with some flux along for the ride and I got a blob and smear half way around the barrel. Probably exacerbated by the barrel being spotlessly clean and oil free, so perfect for solder adhering!
Wasn't hard to clean up just very hard to see if I got it all until I started the rust blue process.

That is nice the basket weaved stocks aren't as nice.

Originally Posted by erniec

That is nice the basket weaved stocks aren't as nice.

Yea, they're the post '64 models they have boring wood and that horrible pressed on checkering and aren't as good in the metal work department either.