HAD TO MAKE MY 629-5 PRETTIER

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sturtyboy

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I've restored classic cars for many years to original and custom original condition. I think that's why lately, I've become interested in taking a few of my Smith Wesson collection beyond original to my own satisfaction. I know...many will say ouch! But...hey... I like em. And some of these have become my top favorites.

I just purchased a 629-5, 3" "Trail Boss." It wasn't that pretty with the factory "TB" scratching on the side along with some ugly but functional Pacmayr's. There are some real nice stainless finishes that look real nice and some look ugly...even right from the factory. This 629 was one that didn't have any eye appeal whatsoever. 629 before.JPG

So, I disassembled it, cleaned and polished the stainless, glass beaded the cylinder indents, added one of my patriotic symbols to the side plate, and some beautiful Culina Combat Conversion grips in "Royal Walnut" with S&W medallions. I also lightened the SA to 3lbs. and the DA to 8lbs.

The Culina Grips are some of the finest I've enjoyed in awhile. Perfect finish, wood selection, and palm swell. Fits my large hands perfectly.IMG_1214.jpg

I know polished stainless becomes a fingerprint magnet. But so do my high polished blue guns too. Everything I have gets wiped down after handling. By the way... I use Renaissance Wax on all my stuff, wood and metal finish. It really reduces fingerprints from forming. Unless you man handle the gun after eating an order of french fries.:D
 
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I generally don't care for nickle or polished stainless guns, but I've got to say that's a big improvement.

How did you remove the Trail Boss etching and add your own? And what kind of classic cars do you restore?
 
Yes, the end result is beautiful but to be honest, I would be just as happy with it in the first photo. Beautiful work and thanks you for the post and photo's.
Frank.
 
I'm a big fan of highly polished SS and think your gun looks really great! I use a high quality wax on my polished guns and agree that it really helps the fingerprints, and makes my blued guns really shine.

As a car/motorcycle guy myself, I'm in the same boat in willing to turn and ugly duckling into a swan. What lot's of gun guys romanticize as 'patina" or "honest wear", I see simply as cosmetic degradation. It's perfectly acceptable to spend tens or hundreds of thousands to restore a collectible car to concour condition, yet in the gun world it's sacrilege to spend a few hundred dollars on a quality rebluing or polishing. Never made any sense to me.
 
16thVACav said:
I generally don't care for nickle or polished stainless guns, but I've got to say that's a big improvement.

How did you remove the Trail Boss etching and add your own? And what kind of classic cars do you restore?
Click to expand...

The factory "Trail Boss" looked hokey and not very well done. I buffed through it and lasered my replacement on the side plate. The new one has an almost hologram look to it depending on the angle it's viewed from. I like it, and I have some others I want to try too.


I vary from time to time over finish too. I like that beautiful polished blue finish just as much as nickle. And I tend to shoot stainless more often...easier to clean and more rugged finish.
I certainly don't polish all my stainless like this one.

I guess I was just getting a little bored with looking at plain old worn stainless...

I've restored and maintained several collections for individuals as well as my own. Mostly late 30's - late 50's GM. Lots of Cad's, La Salle's, Buick's with a sprinkling of high end Chrysler products in there. Town and Country, 38 Imperial, etc. Set up many customers for Concours d' Elegance shows. Lots of fun but several years ago.

I like the shine of restomod's and the original restored classic in all venues. Hence, my own little creation 629.
 
Engine49guy said:
Very nice but a 3" RB needs RB finger groove combats,
Save the SB FG combats for a 5" full underlug 629 classic....
Click to expand...

Don't worry...these grips are keepers. They fit me great. I'm waiting on some RB to be finished, Culina was all out when I was looking.
 
I have round to square Ahrend Tacticals on my 3 inch full-lugged 686 and much prefer them to the round Ahrends I had on them before. For me, anyway, heavier guns with 3 inch or longer barrels need a better grip than most rounds give me. Each to his own.

BTW, your gun/grip combo looks perfect to me. Nice work!
 
How did you go about polishing it? By hand? Power tools? What polishing compounds?
 
1badhd said:
How did you go about polishing it? By hand? Power tools? What polishing compounds?
Click to expand...

I've only polished a couple stainless models to this degree. The other one I polished was a 686 4" I have several... and was a little bored of the same ole look. So I pulled out my buffing wheel on a bench grinder with polishing rouge. Disassembled, taped the top strap beaded areas for protection, so that I wouldn't run over or polish the finish on top. I first used a Dremel with polishing bits to get the edges and crevices. A polishing wheel doesn't quite fit as tight around those hard to reach angles and crevices. With a Dremel, I could control it better and get in there.
I also used Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish by hand after the buffer wheel procedure. It spits if you use it on a power tool. But it works very well. Polishing rouge doesn't spit. You can get the buffing wheels and rouge at Harbor Freight.
I purchased and inexpensive, hand held sand blaster from Harbor Freight and a box of 80 grit glass beads to finish the cylinder indents. I wanted some contrast to the high polish work. I used 1/8" fine line vinyl tape (3M PN0604, found at body shop supply stores) to mask off around the cylinder indents, then finished taping with wider tape. This type of tape allows you to manipulate the shape around the indents. This is where taking time to do it exactly, goes a long way. If you don't get tight edges, it will cause you extra work, polishing the area you over blasted. The little hand held blaster worked great. Just do your prep work well. (I have about 24lbs out of 25lbs. of glass beads left over.) Now, on to other blasting projects. By the way...the 80 grit glass beads match the beaded finish on the top strap...so, if someone wanted to do some repair or some kind of customizing, this is a great match.

We have a Laser engraver near by and I selected a symbol I liked off of the internet . He put it on the side plate for me.
I know what I've done is a matter of taste and bothers some collectors...of which I'm a collector as well, with some terrific originals. But like I implied in previous posts, customizing a common 629 stainless finish isn't all that bad. I still have many other beautiful originals to enjoy. This ugly "Trail Boss" script on the side and the well worn finish was begging for a new look.

Have fun, Stu
 
Nice Grips...

Beauty in the eye though, eh? Shiny surface? Not carried much in the field? Had an early chromed model 19 2.5" in the mid-70s. Prefer blue or dull finish stainless. Nothing that flashes whenever it catches a glimmer of sunlight.

How does the cylinder flash clean up? Does the wax help or iron it on that much heavier?
 
QUOTE...How does the cylinder flash clean up? Does the wax help or iron it on that much heavier?

Edward, the wax is a good preservative. I have a lot of finishes I want to keep looking good and protect.

On my shooters, I don't worry much about the staining that appears on the face of the cylinder and the like. I tend to shoot stainless more often than not and I clean em and leave the stains. But on those I like to show off, the stains get removed easy enough on stainless and the wax doesn't really make any difference one way or another.
On stainless or nickel, I use Flitz or Mothers. On Blue...well they just get cleaned using Hoppe's 9 solvent and a good waxing with Renaissance.
 
Great work. It's gorgeous.

I carry my Trail Boss in a shoulder rig so would be a waste for me to do what you've done, but I can sure appreciate yours. I'm going to replace that squishy, blockish piece of rubber with a pair of Spegel combats.
 
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