Joined
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7,707 Posts
I've had a TG built PSL for a few years now. It started out as a POS. Wouldn't feed or eject. But at least it was accurate. Finish had random grinder marks all over it. Shellac flaking off in chunks. Rear sight smashed and BHO missing. TG replaced the missing and smashed bits. But since they had no replacements to offer for the function problems, I just kept the rifle as a project.
Bit by bit I was able to tackle the function issues. Much thanks to folks here who have shared their own solutions and to QGunner 2 whose ideas helped out in finally getting it to run 100%. A couple years ago I refinished it in black GC. Very first time I tried that! It looked good and I was proud of it. But recently I took it out for a cleaning and saw that the GC had bubbled in places where the original finish must have had tiny rust pits that I couldn't see at the time I applied the GC. I oiled it up and put it away figuring I'd re-finish it some time.
QG2 was over here yesterday to use my shop for a project of his own. As usual, it ran long. :roll: :grin: We wound up spending 15 hours out there. But you can really get alot done in a work day like that! I'll let him share the nightmare stuff he did and solved. That young man worked his butt off and did some very difficult component swaps and nailed them. But as long as he was here, I figured I'd work one of my own projects.
I blasted the rifle down to bare steel. Thankfully the bubbled areas had only very tiny pits in the steel. The matte finish from blasting blended those areas in very well. I parked the rear sight. The rest of the parts were hot blued to a nice black color. A couple coats of amber shellac made the wood look better than new. I didn't care for the blonde wood and wanted a reddish tint to it. Amber shellac looks great that way if applied in very thin coats. I have a MAK90 trigger in it and polished it up nice and smooth. That has a much better feel than the stock trigger ever had. I did the assembly this morning and I'm very happy with it. I've been putting work into this rifle on and off for a few years now. It feels good to have it now look as good as it works!
It was a pleasure seeing you again Q! You're welcome here any time!
Lessons learned:
The local Domino's makes superb pizza. It'll fuel a long refinishing session well!
Watch out for the blast cabinet latch if you have a hernia. Ouch!
A GC finish is only as good as the surface you apply it over. After this project I later made my own park tanks. Fresh mag park is a terrific base for GC and moly resin. The rifles I have finished since this project all still look like new. Only this one done over a poor factory finish that was then damaged more by sloppy building at TG has shown any failure. Brownell's mag park is so easy to use that I now wish I had jumped into using it earlier!
Young men can work old men into the ground. :roll:
Old men are better at finnessing their way through problems than young'ns are. :grin:
Many pics!
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Bit by bit I was able to tackle the function issues. Much thanks to folks here who have shared their own solutions and to QGunner 2 whose ideas helped out in finally getting it to run 100%. A couple years ago I refinished it in black GC. Very first time I tried that! It looked good and I was proud of it. But recently I took it out for a cleaning and saw that the GC had bubbled in places where the original finish must have had tiny rust pits that I couldn't see at the time I applied the GC. I oiled it up and put it away figuring I'd re-finish it some time.
QG2 was over here yesterday to use my shop for a project of his own. As usual, it ran long. :roll: :grin: We wound up spending 15 hours out there. But you can really get alot done in a work day like that! I'll let him share the nightmare stuff he did and solved. That young man worked his butt off and did some very difficult component swaps and nailed them. But as long as he was here, I figured I'd work one of my own projects.
I blasted the rifle down to bare steel. Thankfully the bubbled areas had only very tiny pits in the steel. The matte finish from blasting blended those areas in very well. I parked the rear sight. The rest of the parts were hot blued to a nice black color. A couple coats of amber shellac made the wood look better than new. I didn't care for the blonde wood and wanted a reddish tint to it. Amber shellac looks great that way if applied in very thin coats. I have a MAK90 trigger in it and polished it up nice and smooth. That has a much better feel than the stock trigger ever had. I did the assembly this morning and I'm very happy with it. I've been putting work into this rifle on and off for a few years now. It feels good to have it now look as good as it works!
It was a pleasure seeing you again Q! You're welcome here any time!
Lessons learned:
The local Domino's makes superb pizza. It'll fuel a long refinishing session well!
Watch out for the blast cabinet latch if you have a hernia. Ouch!
A GC finish is only as good as the surface you apply it over. After this project I later made my own park tanks. Fresh mag park is a terrific base for GC and moly resin. The rifles I have finished since this project all still look like new. Only this one done over a poor factory finish that was then damaged more by sloppy building at TG has shown any failure. Brownell's mag park is so easy to use that I now wish I had jumped into using it earlier!
Young men can work old men into the ground. :roll:
Old men are better at finnessing their way through problems than young'ns are. :grin:
Many pics!
