To Restore or Not to Restore, That is the Question
Tom McHale 02.12.14
I’m a purist. Sometimes.
I tend to think you should generally leave historical specimen guns alone. For example, I’ve got a Japanese Type 99 Arisaka that’s in great condition. It’s missing that jangly monopod, but probably because the soldier who cared for it tossed it in the Okinawa surf in a fit of frustration. I don’t plan on doing a thing to it other than regular cleaning. I shoot it, of course, because that’s what it’s made for. But you won’t find me sanding and refinishing the stock or thinking about refinishing the metal. And I have no intentions of mounting an Aimpoint Micro on it, even if I had the 3x magnifier to go with it.
Sometimes, deciding whether you should restore and refinish an old gun is easy.
Some years back, before I knew better, I bought a Walther PPK/S from a gun auction site. The ad description was a little light and the photo seemed to show a stainless steel model that needed grip panels and a few miscellaneous parts. And the price was right. A home gunsmith special! No worries, I could take care of that! After all, I owned a Dremel tool, plenty of duct tape and at least two and a half cans of WD-40. So I bought it. The gun arrived, and it turned out to be a blued Interarms import that appeared to have traveled at Warp Factor 12 through an asteroid belt. It had pits, dents, explosion craters—the works. This gun had apparently survived three wars and and two episodes of Real Housewives of East Liverpool, Ohio.
I acquired some new grips and assorted missing parts and took it to the range for a test shoot. Reliability was excellent. It could shoot almost two rounds without jamming. Not bad, but I felt there was room for improvement. And that’s when the Dremel tool came out. I figured that I could polish up the feed ramp and turn that pistol from a Frankenstein into a Franken-Fine!
That plan worked out so well that I waited almost 24 hours before calling the gurus at Cylinder and Slide for help. Among many other things, they specialize in making Walthers sing classic opera tunes.
As you might surmise, this was one of those situations where you deliver a bag of parts to a professional along with a lame explanation. “Boy, the idiot I bought this from sure messed this thing up. Look at the Dremel tool marks on the feed ramp!” Fortunately the gunsmiths at Cylinder and Slide are also trained psychologists and they know when to nod their head and agree.
To make a long story short, I had them do more restoration on that Walther than has been done on Joan Rivers’ face. And it turned out to be stunning. With this gun, there was no intention to restore it to original condition. The work was done with the sole purpose of transforming it into a masterpiece carry gun. The trigger is now radiused, meaning it’s beautifully rounded. The top strap is etched to reduce glare. The rounded portions of the top of the slide are matte-finshed, also to reduce glare. The feed ramp is shaped and polished so this gun will eat any combination of .380 ACP ammunition stuffed into its gullet. The wood grips are not just installed, but glass-bedded. And of course, the whole gun is polished smooth and re-blued. It’s gorgeous and shoots like a dream. We won’t talk about the total cost of this little project.
The decision to renovate the Walther was an easy one. Interarms-imported PPK/S pistols are not particularly rare or historic. This particular gun was an absolute mess and practically un-shootable. And it was butt ugly.
But all restoration decisions are not that easy. Right now, I’m having a dickens of a time deciding whether to do anything with a Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless.
I bought this pistol some years ago at a gun show. You know, where all the gang bangers go to buy their guns. Anyway, I spent about $350 on it. It’s a .32 ACP pistol with an eight-round magazine. It’s a Type III variant, manufactured sometime between 1910 and 1926. The gun is in pretty good shape. The grip stocks are original and undamaged. It shoots (mostly) fine. The only drawback is that some idiot (before me) with a pre-Dremel tool filed down the front sight. Because of that, the gun shoots about four inches high. Drives me nuts.
I bought the Colt 1903 because I think they’re elegant. I don’t know why, I just like them. Given its age and design, it’s not safe to fire modern high-velocity self-defense ammo, so it’s not really useful as a carry gun. It’s a fun plinker.
Here’s the the thing. While it’s old, it’s not exactly rare. Colt made about 570,000 of these. You can find one at any gun show for less than $500.
But, the Colt 1903 has some interesting history behind it. It was the gun that notorious gangster John Dillinger carried when accosted by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in 1934. Bonnie smuggled one into Clyde’s jail cell by strapping it to her thigh, enabling a successful breakout. The secret OSS organization used them in Word War II. It was so classy that the 1903 was the issue gun for United States General Officers for about 30 years. In other words, many people appreciated its thin and concealable form and classic lines.
On one hand, I could keep this gun as is and let it collect dust in my safe. On the other hand, I could ship it off to Cylinder and Slide for some cosmetic surgery. They do wonders with Colts. Heck, they even built a 1903 look-alike in .45 ACP. It’s gorgeous.
So the question is, do I sacrifice whatever historical value it has and breathe some new life into it? If it was jazzed up with modern amenities, it would be one heck of a shooter. Or do I respect its heritage and leave it as is?
What say you?
