Model 14 front sight & paint

[minconrevo]

I've acquired a blued Model 14 that has two issues remaining before it makes its first trip to the range.

First is the red and white "paint" that a previous owner put into the various markings. Its a mixture of red and white; really ugly on a nice old late 1960's gun that still has its original Bright Blue. I got the red and white stuff off the front and rear sights. Thus far, I've used some old formula Hoppe's solvent, acetone, LPS 1 and WD-40. The acetone seems to work best of the 4. Any suggestions for another chemical that won't mess up the nice blue?

Second is a slight felt looseness in the front sight. I don't see a through pin, so I'm wondering if its supposed to be securely silver soldered. Any suggestions? I don't want to have to re-solder it and mess up the blue.

Edit on the front sight--its held on by a pin through the barrel rib. Dang that pin is hard to see, except in light coming from a certain angle.

 

[john323]

Mineral sprits will remove the "lacquer stick" filling in the lettering. You can replace the front sight pin or leave it as is. It shouldn't make much difference in shooting.

 

[minconrevo]

Mineral sprits will remove the "lacquer stick" filling in the lettering. You can replace the front sight pin or leave it as is. It shouldn't make much difference in shooting.

Good thought on the mineral spirits. The bad news is that they didn't use "lacquer stick". Its actually some sort of undetermined paint product. I just tried mineral sprints; didn't faze the stuff. Dang it, I wish folks would not "customize" their shooting irons with paint like this.

I got the old gun out to the range a couple days ago. It shoots great! Groups the size of a quarter, standing offhand at 10 yards. Guess I'll leave the front sight alone for the time being.

 

[TSQUARED]

Try lacquer thinner or methylene chloride they should dissolve the gunk in the lettering and will not touch the blue. Any hardware store will have lacquer thinner.

Finding methylene chloride may take some time. The old GunScrubber and all the old brake cleaners were pure methyhlene chloride. Recently I see they have a combo of ethylene dichloride and methylene chloride in the brake cleaner (Halogenated versions). The newer formulation of brake cleaner have some hydrocarbons in lieu of the MeCl and EtCl2.

After you remove the gunk from within the lettering with the solvents please oil the gun as the solvents will strip all the protective oil.

 

[hotrod150]

I painted the front sight white on my old j-frames-- had to, my eyes are getting older & I couldn't see them otherwise. None of them are collector-grade though.
What would be a better solution in your opinion? ("don't shoot them" is not a viable option)

 

[minconrevo]

I painted the front sight white on my old j-frames-- had to, my eyes are getting older & I couldn't see them otherwise. None of them are collector-grade though.
What would be a better solution in your opinion? ("don't shoot them" is not a viable option)

If you want a sight nice and black, even over a red ramp or white outline, use a "Sharpie" type marker. Lasts well for quite a while. Touch up with same product if starts to get thin. Ordinary gun cleaner solvent will remove it easily.

If you want various colors, try ladies fingernail polish. About 10,000 different colors of it I guess. Its quite durable too. Can easily be removed with fingernail polish remover, which is acetone with a "smell nice" additive.

 

[S&Wman]

Try carburetor cleaner at the local auto parts store.
Just don't get it on anything else.

 

[ViperR]

Try carburetor cleaner at the local auto parts store.
Just don't get it on anything else.

Yes, remove the wood grips first, and re-lube since the cleaner will remove the oil and dry all metal parts to bare bones.

 

[minconrevo]

Yes, remove the wood grips first, and re-lube since the cleaner will remove the oil and dry all metal parts to bare bones.

I did try carb cleaner; it did not faze the paint product. The original factory grips are diamond targets that are somewhat "experienced" but otherwise okay. I may refinish them to factory standard some day. You bet I took the grips off before I squirted any carb cleaner, or any other cleaning product.

I tried wood toothpicks; too coarse. Next I tried plastic toothpicks; not stiff enough.

Today I finally got the last of the red and white paint gone. After several days of soaking with Kroil, I went after the paint with some old formula Hoppe's bore solvent and a nylon bristled G.I. weapons cleaning brush. Lots and lots of patient circular scrubbing, clockwise and counter clockwise. Lots of Hoppe's soak in between. Upshot is that the paint finally left. The original blue is undamaged. I've re-oiled the surfaces, which now look like what proper S&W roll markings on a 1960's classic revolver should resemble.