Been searching for a 5906 w/ square trigger guard and rabbit ears adjustable rear sights. (No collection is complete without one! ) LGS had a LE trade in for $330 and I jumped on it. Couple of questions.

Is there a way to lighten the SA trigger pull? I don’t mind the take up but the SA pull seems heavy compared to my 5903TSW. I have no idea how many rounds have been fired through this gun, but I think the first option is to wait until I fire about 500 rounds through it to see if it lightens up. Next option would be to send it in to the PC for a tune up. I’ve read a lot about people replacing springs but I don’t have any experience with that.

Is there a good way to polish/clean the slide and frame? It has a few scratches here and there that I’d like to take out and generally I’d just like to spiff it up. Is Flitz a good product for this? I’ve seen some guys on here use a scotch brite pad but that method makes me nervous.

Thanks for any advice you can share.

For minimal cost and effort, you can make your slide and frame look like they just came from S&W.

Spend about $100 on a good serviceable bead blast cabinet from Harbor Freight and you can do all the professional quality surface cleanup and restoration you want, on any number of stainless or regular steel guns, for years and years. It is then simple, virtually cost free, and there is no learning curve. You can do very smooth, very rough matte, or anything in between, just by choosing the right abrasive grit or smooth glass beads.

The only other thing you need is a small portable air compressor that generates about 100 PSI and maybe 4 - 5 cubic feet per minute, to run the blast cabinet. Harbor Freight also has those, cheap.

The cost of adding gun hobby tools to your bag of tricks is almost always as cheap, or cheaper, than paying somebody to do the current job that interested you in the new tool type. Pretty soon, you have the home equipment to do just about anything in the way of gun restoration or customization.

Then the cost of this hobby starts going way down...at least in theory. What happens is that you begin to view used guns needing minor cosmetic or mechanical work in an entirely different way, vis a vis what you yourself can easily do with them. I see that all the time, in pictures often posted here...guns with minor cosmetic blemishes which have owners wringing their hands because they do not understand how easy it is to correct most of this without expensive professional help.

Forget all the Flitz, and polishes, and special recipes, and hours of fiddling and rubbing. Do a perfect job in a couple of effortless minutes in your basement or garage, and have it look like it came out of the factory. After all, that's exactly how the factory does it.

The only thing necessary for all of this is that you have to be willing to try something you have not tried before, and put forth some minimum effort, rather than simply open a wallet and buy a gun.

PhilOhio, you have given me much to think about. I didn't realize it was that cost effective to get in to the bead blasting business. Dangerous - becomes a great excuse for me to go on the hunt for ugly guns!

For less than $5 at Wal-Mart you can purchase green Scotchbrite pads. Go over the exterior evenly and without too much pressure and within 10 minutes you'll have a decent brushed look and those nicks and scuffs will be minimized greatly if not gone.

PhilOhio's idea is most interesting though considering what the variety of things that could be done.

I never had any interest in bead/sand blasting anything until a few years ago, when I was in the home shop of a fellow gun nut who is an amazing craftsman. I saw his home-made blast cabinet, and he insisted I try it.

I could not believe how easy, fast, and clean it was. Then I learned I could get a pretty nice free standing cabinet, even with internal fluorescent lighting, at Harbor Freight for $80 (about $120 now). I hauled one home about two days later.

I went to work on some basket case pistols and turned them into pretty nice guns. It was so easy it should be illegal.

I like antique stuff and all sorts of, well, junk. The blaster cleans them fast, either lightly or more aggressively. It is difficult to take off too much metal, which is the opposite of what happens when you use a wheel to buff a gun for bluing. I rehabbed a couple of rusted and torch cut ex-Marine Colt Woodsman Match Target .22 pistols (what a travesty), and bead blasting to bare metal did not even damage the very light stamped markings Colt uses, such as the rampant Colt.

When you bead blast a gun all the edges remain sharp and the markings stay pristine. Think about that.

There are various grades of abrasive available at Harbor Freight, and cheap. You can pick whether you want a matte or smooth surface, as for bluing. I like medium matte because I mostly parkerize old basket cases. They look just right. And that surface is ideal for then spraying something like Duracoat, if you are into colors, such as OD for the military guns.

Another benefit, blasting gets into all the nearly inaccessible places, effortlessly, and it removes all traces of corrosion from pitted surfaces. You do that without grinding down the good metal, level with the bottom of the pits. So you can permanently stop rust in its tracks and reblue, if you don't mind the minor cosmetic distraction of a few minor pits. On the plus side, you keep all the sharp factory markings sharp.

You won't know how you got along before discovering the ease of bead blasting. Seriously, you can give a Smith stainless gun just about any surface finish you want, in minutes, and it will be the equal of any factory job. If you accidentally scratch or damage it, just do it over; like new again. No hand polishing, bluing, painting, chemical processes. Just zip, ps-s-s-st, and it's done.

Using masking tape, you can get a combination of matte and polished surfaces.

It's all about fun.

I'll second the green scotch-brite pads.

Actually, you don't even need a cabinet. The blast cabinet contains & reuses the blast media. You can easily blast small pieces like a handgun, with just a handheld media gun, & a compressed air source. Don't get me wrong, the cabinet is nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. For a small job that you only need to do once, blast away without a cabinet if you like.

Thanks for the info, guys. Much appreciated.

Does anyone have any before and after pics with either the blasting method or the ScotchBrite method?

I'll third them, and also if so inclined use some Mothers Mag polish, a little goes a long way!!!!

I don't have a before pic, but she looks good now.

She certainly does!!!

How about the other side where the serial number is ?
What does it do to the laser etching?

I say use the green pad.I have cleaned up several SS guns with them.

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God save the SOUTH

So, when you guys use the scothbrite pad, do you use some CLP or other lubricant while you're gently rubbing in a circular motion? Or do you just go "dry" w/ the scothbrite pad?

I rub dry and keep it in the same direction.

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God save the SOUTH

LOL!!! Beaver and Bu**hole - how nice.

I prefer to use a little lube oil, like 3 In One. I suppose any light lube will work, like CLP.

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Inconsistently consistent

Forgive me for stealing the original thread, but I just tried the green Scotchbrite pad. Most turned-out ok, but I have 2 places I must have pushed too hard because it is shiny. I was going to try to touch it up with the sandpaper/hammer procedure then re-try the pads. But, is there another way?

I know the only way to do this right is to bead blast and I may do that some day. But, this is a range gun for me that I was trying to spruce-up a bit without spending too much.