M1 Project

[sgt z]

I just finished this M1 today. I had some rust issues to deal with and the stock had some chunks filled with some type of bondo ( bought the stock from The Garand Guy, he camouflages the bondo pretty good, not to be trusted). I reparked the metal and finished the stock with a sand colored and textured paint.

before pic

after, color of this pic is closest to actual color of the stock. Other pics got funky under the lights.

It' s different. I'm gonna use it for my shooter. SA 1944 reciever, SA 45 or 46 barrel muzzle gages about a 2.5 or 3.

 

[Request Dust Off]

I always heard good things about the Garand Guy, but thats how it goes.
There was a guy who ended up in the middle of a storm on another site. I think he did have a few problems but nothing like it was made out to be.

Will the bondo affect you shooting in the John C. Garand matches or is it just cosmetic?

 

[goodburbon]

I think it looks great

 

[sgt z]

Thanks goodburbon.

I don't know about the John C. Garand Matches, rules say something like no fiberglass, epoxy ect. the putty or whatever it was, was applied cosmetically to the toe of the stock and an area in front of the magazine well (I know it's an enbloc clip) but no real bedding.

The Garand Guy had covered it up with a dark stain and I stripped the stain because I thought the putty was 1 1/2 to 2 inch blotches of spray paint or excessive stain but i found out it was the filler stuff. I'm not very patient with staining and matching wood with wood filler so I painted it.

 

[Request Dust Off]

What paint did you use? I have seen a few suggestion. A guy on THR swears by one of the rustoluem textured sprays

 

[sgt z]

Yeah It's the Rustolium Textured Spray. I bought two cans and made it through on the first can and then opened the second for touch up to missed areas and second can sprayed a little different. It is very thick paint and at only a couple of days old seems easily dented and scratched. Also porous so clean hands with no oil. I found that out after I applied a couple of oily smudges. I'm hoping it hardens more in the next week. I was not impressed with the Brownell's Alumihyde II in Dark Park for the Gas Cylinder. It chips very easy but then I think I should have given it a week to fully cure. I was very excited to finish the gun and couldn't wait. I have another that I am waiting the whole seven days to see if it performs any better. The color was pretty close to how the barrel came out. i used the Brownell's Manganese Phosphate Park and had a wide variety of colors from the same batch. I still have a lot to learn about parkerizing. Next project is an AK build of a hybrid AMD 65 kit and Romy Barrel. Gonna refine park hopefully on that one. I have a .22 Ruger MK II 5 1/2 Bull Barrel after the AK build. The MK II was a pawnshop find for $120 with cosmetic issues and missing rear sight blade.