The 66-2 3-inch TrAshland Special

[PatriotX]

Hi folks,

As some of you know, I have a soft spot for orphaned stainless guns. The missus would say that soft spot is in my head, but I digress…

I came across a pitiful Ashland Distributors 66-2 3-inch (AHL4***) at auction, and was surprised that my low bid was enough to land it. When it arrived, I understood why. This thing was a mess.


While the 2 blurry pics from auction showed a scratched-up gun, the entire right side was not depicted, and it hid a horribly pitted basket-case.

Well, I buttered my bread, time to sleep in it.

 

[PatriotX]

First trip through the ultrasonic cleaner knocked the dirt and grime off, but also took the crumbling front sight insert with it.





I made a brass fence with parts from a small hinge, and mixed up some epoxy with mica powder for color, and some Europium powder for glow. I have used it on fishing lures and it is insanely bright, so we will see.

Europium UltraGlow Powder - AQUA - $9.99 : United Nuclear , Scientific Equipment & Supplies, United Nuclear , Scientific Equipment & Supplies

 

[PatriotX]

The block sanding is going slowly, but making for decent results.

I swear this gun was hit with both a wire wheel and flap disc for some reason. Some sacrificial screws were placed to secure the side plate during sanding.

Alternating between 100-120 grit, then blending with 220. Trying to keep everything square, don’t want to dish it out.

 

[PatriotX]

Reserved for finished product (hopefully)

Any comments welcome.

 

[Cotis]

Nice work, looking good! I see that the front sight has a pin securing it in place. Just a thought, if you aren't happy with the sight picture on your colored insert it appears you can remove the ramped sight. I wish a few of mine had that feature, I would replace them with a gold bead partridge sight.

 

[Telecaster]

The front sight insert looks great. The rest doesn't look all that horrible, unless the pictures just don't show it well. It sort of looks like someone actually lost it in a tragic boating accident.

 

[familyman357oh]

Love it. In to see where this goes.

 

[SmokinLoon]

Nicely done. I just did something very similar, though not nearly as roughly pitted as your 66, to a 67-1. I had it completely disassembled and down to bare bones and cleaned it thoroughly. The deep clean helped it a lot, and ended up not having to save anything like you are but it does feel good, and it is an enjoyable project, to bring a "classic" out of the rough and in to the admirable shiny world again. Kudos.

 

[Shotguncoach]

Nice work. Maybe someday we can get the Trashland Special and the Tetanus Special together for a day at the range.

I tried 80 grit paper for the first time yesterday and it made very fast work of the larger pits on my project. What sanding block are you using? The one I have works ok, but I'm always on the lookout for new tools.



Did you happen to take a measurement of the outside dimensions before you started? I didn't think of it until just now....it would be interesting to see just how much metal we're actually removing when we do this.