If you can buy a mechanically new one for less than half what it is worth, (say a Mod 19 snub for $200) then invest $250 in refinishing it, you will have about it's current "shooter" value,cost in the gun. I only did it once, when I bought a literally brand new 19-4 that had been in a gun rug in a fire, and it got wet and forgotten about for too long. Bad finish and some pitting, it looked horrible. Sent off for a Metaloy hard chrome finish, as it would have taken too much polishing to get a blued finish, and I didn't want a bead blast finish. Back then it cost $245 since I had disassembled it myself and they didn't have to disassembe or re-assemble it. It turned out fine, but of course will never have any collector value, just shooter value.
