Baby has a new pair of shoes (before & after)

mojave30cal · #1 03-03-2015, 07:48 PM

About a year and a half ago I bought at auction a first year
factory original nickel pre-27 with a 3 1/2 inch barrel. It was
all original except for the grips. I've been looking for a period
correct set of high horn diamond magnas, and back in Decem-
ber of last year I picked up a set on Ebay for $47.00. The
price sounds too good to be true, and it was.

The grips looked like someone had spray painted a brown
color on the outsides, and an off white color on the insides.
There were several areas where chuncks of wood were missing.
The right grip panel looked like the same person sanded down
the diamond and tops of the checkered points as well.The
only good thing going for these grips were that the right
grip panel had no serial number stamped on it.

And, the
medallions were the early plastic kind too.

I contacted DWFAN on this forum and sent him some pictures.
He agreed to repair, restore and refinish them. So, I sent
them off.

The grips were returned back in February of this year. Paul
did quite a job. He said the hardest part was getting the
white paint out of the nooks and crannies of the wood. He
said he believed these grips were factory replacement grips.

I will post pictures in the next frame of this thread showing
the "after" pictures and the great work he did.

mojave30cal · #2 03-03-2015, 07:58 PM

Here are the "after" pictures of my early post war high horn
diamond magnas that DWFAN rescued from the dead for me.
He was not able to save the plastic medallions, and replaced
them with the nickeled ones. He also restored the points to
the checkered areas on the right grip panel. I think he did
a great job.

mojave30cal · #3 03-03-2015, 08:05 PM

And finally, here are the high horn diamond magnas on my
pre-27. The fit is not perfect, but close enough. Paul did a
fantastic job bringing this set of "ugly" grips back to life.

I hope you all enjoyed the "before" and "after" story.

DWFAN · #4 03-04-2015, 05:07 PM

Thanks Eric. If any of you folks have seen those three step kitchen cabinet antiquing kits from the big box stores well this had it. Spray on base, antique wipe then glaze. What a mess. Took me longer to get all the base out of the wood grain than it took to fix em. These weren't a resto as you can see some of the repairs. Man said the gun was a shooter and just wanted them nicer. Hell of a nice shooter.
Thanks again, Paul