Police Trade-in 640s at Centerfire

Well I couldn't resist, darn you S&W forum!
Picked mine up today, and mechanically it seems ok. A little rough on the outside and absolutely filthy. Grips (UM rubber) are trashed. Ejector rod was glued shut due to old oil all gummed up. It is now sitting in a bath of PB Blaster, side plate, cylinder, and grips off. I'll have to find some decent grips for it. And a OWB leather holster, though it will mainly be the ankle gun. Overall it's a bargain as new ones are twice the price.

josp, when you say the ejector rod was glued do you mean it wouldn't unscrew or it wouldn't push to eject casings ? Just wondering because mine is supposed to be here tomorrow and with all the stories of the lube acting like glue I am trying to figure out how I'm going to clean it.

I don't have a lot of cleaning supplies and not that skilled at cleaning and trying decide on how to approach this.

I guess I'll have to use brake cleaner since I don't have any gun scrubber or any cleaner to soak it in. Anyone else have any other poor mans ideas to cleaning ? Thanks
 
Get a quart of transmission fluid and a quart of acetone (paint dept) and a quart of kerosene (hardware store) mix it all up and store in seal-able gallon metal container. Remove grips, Lay gun in deep cake pan, pour on mixture, wait 24 hours, Remove gun, spray down with real hot water inside and out, place in oven at 300-350 for an hour. Use your favorite lube on wear points if sideplate is off, if not get some in by trigger and hammer. touch on extractor.

Pour mixture back in container using a funnel with a wadded up rag in it for a filter.
 
S&Wrevolverfan,
It wouldn't eject cartridges if there were any loaded. Took the screw out that secures the cylinder and pulled the cylinder off, then off the yoke. After that it worked. It's just gummed up cause it was not cared for in its first life. Normal for an issue gun. Any penetrating oil will clean off the old dry **** for you, just have to be patient. If you know how to take off the side plate, douse that area too and clean it out with gun scrubber or brake cleaner, then lightly oil the connections. Mine will be a carry gun so some marks on the outside are character for me. Enjoy!
 
josp, thanks. I will do that, I know their not perfect and actually want one that is kind of scratched up so I don't have to worry about it.

I have an old S&W screw driver that use to come with them years ago that I will be using. I don't have any of the gunsmithing bits or drivers. Don't really want to bugger up the screws but guess it really won't matter on this one.

I have a couple of the Buds gunshop model 10 Victoria police trade in revolvers and kind of messed their screws up using a regular screwdriver so I'll try the old S&W one. The model 10's were really clean and didn't require much cleaning like some of the 640-1's do.

Thanks again
 
S&Wrevolverfan, I think the screwdriver you speak of was used as a sight adjustment tool. You might want to just use the ATF, kerosene and acetone trick until you can get the right screwdrivers.

gman51, the gunsmith screwdrivers are parallel ground and the width matches the screw slots to preclude any marring of the screw.
 
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S&Wrevolverfan, I think the screwdriver you speak of was used as a sight adjustment tool. You might want to just use the ATF, kerosene and acetone trick until you can get the right screwdrivers.

gman51, the gunsmith screwdrivers are parallel ground and the width matches the screw slots to preclude any marring of the screw.

serger, you are right now that I look at it. It's to small for anything but adjustments. And thanks to steelslaver, josp, and yourself the cleaning suggestion.
 
The above recipe has been around a long time. Many call it Ed's Red. Works as well as Kroil. I use it for many things including loosing up stuck threads.

Many people shudder at the thought of water on their guns. While leaving water on them is not good, real hot water, warms up the gun enough that any small remainder will quickly evaporate unless some gets trapped. Hence, the oven trick it will cause any trapped moisture to steam off. 350f is well below the temperature that will effect any tempered parts. My dad was into muzzle loaders big time and taught us to clean out black powder barrels by removing from stock, take off nipple and stick breech in bucket of hot soapy water then run a patched jag down the barrel and it would work as a pump and suck the hot soapy water up and down the barrel as you swabbed and get it clean. Then a couple dry patches and then one with a bit of oil.
 
I often use the Ed's Red or sometimes just straight kerosene for cleaning up old gunked up guns, but never had a need to use water afterwards. Straight kerosene will evaporate and excess Ed's Red can be blown out or away with an air hose. The remainder won't hurt anything. I agree that the water won't hurt anything either as long as you make sure you dry it out good and lube afterwards.
 
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Steelslaver,

I saw your variant of Mr. Harris's excellent cleaner/lube and thought I should share one of the good sites that has it and other "needful" stuff for us.

My order is in town today and this afternoon once the FFL has time to enter it into his Bound Book I will be picking the order up. It shipped from Kentucky @6PM, Jan 9 2017 and I should have it @6PM, Jan 11 2017. 2 days is pretty good for the Post Office for a 1200 mile journey with the weather as it is.
 
Steelslaver,

I saw your variant of Mr. Harris's excellent cleaner/lube and thought I should share one of the good sites that has it and other "needful" stuff for us.

My order is in town today and this afternoon once the FFL has time to enter it into his Bound Book I will be picking the order up. It shipped from Kentucky @6PM, Jan 9 2017 and I should have it @6PM, Jan 11 2017. 2 days is pretty good for the Post Office for a 1200 mile journey with the weather as it is.
I'm in Dallas and the shipping pretty much mirrored yours. I am hoping to get the call today 😁

Sent from my XT1034 using Tapatalk
 
I am feeling like Centerfire dropped my order in the dirt. They finally got my FFL information yesterday morning but they still haven't shipped the gun. I don't understand why their shipping department didn't ship the gun yesterday since the FFL was completed in the morning Tuesday. Here it is Wed. and when I called it still hadn't been processed in shipping.


Well hot diggity dog! I received an email that the gun has been shipped. It shipped USPS so I don't expect any quick 2 day delivery. Strange that people can't send guns by USPS but an FFL can. I thought handguns by law had to be delivered by no more than second day delivery. I am finding that evidently isn't true. Also USPS tracking sucks rotten eggs.

Tracking says delivery is supposed to be this Friday 13th and I sure hope it arrives on time.
 
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Picked mine up at lunch. Carried a lot and barely shot. It is clean, lock up is good, trigger is good, lots of small scratches from being carried. Very pleased.

Sent from my XT1034 using Tapatalk
 
I am feeling like Centerfire dropped my order in the dirt. They finally got my FFL information yesterday morning but they still haven't shipped the gun. I don't understand why their shipping department didn't ship the gun yesterday since the FFL was completed in the morning Tuesday. Here it is Wed. and when I called it still hadn't been processed in shipping.

maybe they were busy...
 
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