New Life for an Old Colt

Sometimes a customer brings in a project that takes you down memory lane. Such was the case when a customer brought me what he said was a Colt Woodsman. I picked it up and felt eight years old again. That was about my age when I followed Dad "up on the hill". We lived in rural West Virginia and our house was set on a bench just above Spring Run and Route 50 in Ritchie County.

A quarter mile up the hill was a clearing where our TV antenna managed to pick two stations out of the ether, unless something was wrong with the ladder line that ran down the hill to our house. When that occurred, Dad hung his US Army issue flap holster and knife on his belt and set out. I was just getting old enough to follow him. About half way up, he stopped to let me rest at a small bench with a clearing. There was a tree about twenty yards away, and Dad opened the holster and pulled out his Colt Woodsman.

He knelt behind me, showed me how to hold the pistol, aim, and squeeze the trigger. I don’t know if I hit the tree or not—I just knew something special had happened. Dad, however, would never have allowed his Colt to get into the condition of my customer’s pistol. The barrel and frame were pitted, the Rampant Colt Pony logo was almost obliterated by corrosion, and it seemed every part was subject to whatever moisture had attacked this pistol.

When I removed the stocks, even inside the magazine well showed ill effects. The customer wanted it painted to cover the corrosion, but initial inspection suggested that a complete tear down was the only way to rescue this patient and prevent recurring problems.

The restoration task broke down into four distinct areas: disassemble the pistol and examine every part for corrosion; clean and treat all parts according to the level of corrosion extant, if any; refinish the parts requiring such according to the customer’s desires; and reassemble and function test. Disassembly As always, remove the magazine and clear the action before doing any work on a firearm. This Targetsman was pre-1955 and had no magazine safety. This simplified disassembly.

My first step in tearing down this style of Colt was to remove the stocks for the damage survey mentioned above. This was achieved by removing one long screw. Keep this screw handy as you will need it for later disassembly steps. Pull the slide back all the way and press down on the assembly lock plunger on top of the slide, in front of the rear sight. This captures the recoil spring. In this case, the This shows some of the damage, even under the stocks. assembly lock plunger was frozen and refused to function.

Propping the slide back with a wooden dowel cut to fit, I was able to use a small C-clamp to slowly depress the plunger after applying some penetrating oil and letting sit for awhile. With the recoil spring captured, I was able to move the slide back to touch the breech face with a gentle press of the thumb. It did not move freely which caused some concern regarding the condition of the rails. Before removing the slide, first remove the mainspring housing and sear spring.

Do so by punching out the upper housing lock pin in the grip frame. Note the wooden clothespin under the frame pictured below. Often, when working on firearms for which I do not have an armorer’s block, a soft wood clothespin works very well. Placing it on its side allows driving new pins down through and they do not escape from between the legs of the clothespin. The clothespins are cheap and I keep a few in my range bag to keep firearms from lying flat on often unfriendly and hot

surfaces, one in my cleaning kit, and one in my gunsmith’s tool bin. After removing the housing, I punched out the mainspring cap pin to release the mainspring and the cap. Be careful as you do this, because the cap makes an excellent ballistic device for assaulting distant walls or windows. In this case, when I removed the mainspring cap, I found the recess and the spring both packed with debris. It was a black mess to clean out of both the spring and the recess.

I swabbed the recess out with a Q-tip and degreaser. I wanted no oils on the backstrap since I planned to refinish it. With the housing removed, you can see the sear spring and hammer assembly. Now is a good time to remove the sear spring and set it aside, and to make certain the All of the Targetsman’s action lockwork is accessed from the left side of the frame. Far Remove by punching out the upper housing lock pin in the grip frame.

The wooden clothespin under the frame serves as an armorer’s block. hammer is fully retracted. With this step complete, you can now remove the slide. At this point, you have a choice. You can disassemble the slide or the frame. The condition of this pistol made it clear that both should be done, especially since so many parts were going to have to be refinished. Since most of my work so far had been on the frame, I set the slide aside for later.

Stripping the Frame All of the Targetsman’s action lockwork is accessed from the left side of the frame, including the side plate, side plate screw, and safety catch. Removing the screw allows you to remove the side plate and the safety catch. Removing the safety catch allows the hammer and strut assembly to fall free from within the frame. Each of the parts were inspected for defects or excessive corrosion. As both the side plate and the safety catch are exposed, each was polished and degreased.

The side plate, safety, sear, and hammer were inspected to determine condition. The sear was checked for engagement, and then lightly polished as were the bearing surfaces on which it pivoted. With the removal of the side plate and safety catch, the next logical step is to move on to the trigger assembly. The trigger assembly is composed of the trigger, trigger spring, and trigger bar. Disassembly is straightforward. The trigger bar lifts

Far easily from its groove in the frame, and both ends should lift freely from their respective recesses. Do not try to pry the bar out as you can bend it, or if brittle from age, break. Once it is free, the trigger and spring are free to lift off the frame post. The spring is inside a vertical slit cut into the top of the trigger and wraps around the post. As the trigger clears the post, the spring will drop out. Watch for it as it is very small.

All three pieces of the trigger components showed wear and corrosion. The spring, being carbon steel, showed signs of surface corrosion. Gentle burnishing with very fine steel wool removed the worst of the damage. This was an important step as I did not want to change the spring geometry in any way. The intent was to make parts move more smoothly together rather than change the trigger pull. The smoothness gained by polishing and smoothing components will make the pull seem lighter.

However, if the customer chose to compete with this pistol, I did not want to lighten the pull. A light oiling provided a protective film. The trigger bar and trigger were both very rough with flaking finishes. Both were wire brushed and lightly burnished with fine steel wool. The trigger bar groove in the frame was also scrubbed out and polished smooth as was the trigger recess and pivot post in the frame. The only component left in the frame at this point was the sear.

Removal consisted of punching the pivot pin out of the frame and letting the sear drop free. The sear was in very good condition and only required a little touch of the wire brush and a light polish of the bearing surface. Since the part was not going to be coated, it was set aside. The stripped frame was wire brushed to remove all flaking particles, and the pitted areas were dressed with 200 and 400 grit emery cloth. The customer originally requested the entire pistol be finished in a satin black Duracoat.

I suggested that the sides of the slide and the areas of the flat surfaces of the frame just back of the barrel be polished and reblued as a contrast in finish and to preserve the outline of the rampant Colt logo. The customer agreed to this revision. Stripping the Slide With the frame stripped and set aside, it was time to turn attention to the slide. The adjustable rear sight is a very delicate assembly, so I removed it first. This involved removing the elevation screw and then the windage screw.

Removal of the screws releases two very small springs that you do not want to lose. You can see in the picture that somehow the windage screw was bent. I straightened it before replacing it. Once these parts were removed, all that remained of the sight in the slide were the two bosses upon which the sight assembly hinges. I decided to leave the dovetailed portion attached to the slide to be finished with it.

With the sight small parts removed, it was safe to turn the slide upside down to begin the removal of the extractor, firing pin, and recoil spring assemblies. At this point, the grip Far A composite photo of the three pieces. Sear and pin are in inset picture.

screw retained earlier becomes an important accessory in the disassembly process. Thread the grip screw into the firing pin stop. Do not try to remove the stop at this time. It is held in place by the extractor which must come out first. To be removed, the extractor must be rotated 180 degrees so that the hook moves from facing inward, to facing outward. Use caution—the extractor is highly tempered and easily damaged if you attempt to rotate it with tool steel pliers.

I found these padded jaw jeweler’s pliers at a Jo- Ann Fabric and Craft store and they serve very well for handling small, delicate parts. The cost of the pliers was significantly less than the cost of a replacement extractor. Once the extractor is removed, place your finger over the hammer end of the firing pin, remove the stop, and let the firing pin and spring emerge from their recess in the slide. These parts were in very good condition and all that was required was to wire brush them to remove any debris.

The final steps in stripping the slide are to release the recoil spring from the assembly lock, gently lift the assembly lock to disengage from the plunger, and slide it from the grooves in the slide. This is a very tight fit and you may need a drift punch and light hammer to remove the lock from the slide. In this case, as the plunger had earlier been frozen in place, once the assembly lock was removed, the plunger required a few taps with a brass drift punch and hammer to fall free from the slide.

Once these are removed, you have room to remove the recoil spring and guide. Preparing Parts The critical parts to prepare for refinishing were the frame and barrel assembly, slide, rear sight, side plate, safety catch, and mainspring housing. The slide and frame and barrel assembly would actually undergo two finish processes. The side plate would be polished and blued to blend in with the polished area of the frame under the Colt logo.

The rear sight, safety catch, and mainspring housing would all be finished in the satin black. I decided to prepare for painting first. As the biggest task would be the barrel and frame assembly, I started there. The customer had been very clear that the barrel was to be painted satin black. Given the degree of rust and pitting, it was a good choice. I’ve illustrated the barrel restoration evolution of the barrel preparation process. Even the muzzle and crown had suffered.

I wire brushed the barrel and carefully "shoe shined" with 200 grit and 400 grit emery cloth topped off with a final polish with 0000 steel wool. I worked very carefully around the front sight. Unlike later versions of the Targetsman, the

Lower left shows where even the muzzle and crown had suffered. Top shows the barrel after wire brushing and "shoe shine" polishing with 200 grit and 400 grit emery cloth. Bottom right, I recrowned the barrel with an 11-degree recessed target crown to remove all trace of rust and to true the muzzle to the bore. front sight is silver soldered in place and I had no desire to tinker with its placement. I simply wire brushed the surfaces and lightly touched up the ramp serrations with a V-shaped file.

As a final step, I recrowned the barrel with an 11-degree recessed target crown to remove all trace of rust and to true the muzzle to the bore. The rest of the frame was wire brushed and scrubbed with 0000 steel wool. The entire assembly was washed with acetone and set to dry overnight as were the slide and other parts to be painted. The next day, I masked the areas to be polished and blued on the frame and slide to prepare for painting.

As always, when painting, the area should be brightly lit, well ventilated, and you should be using a mask. Painting the slide, rear sight, and mainspring housing was very straightforward. An airbrush connected through a pressure regulator to my shop compressor made short work of the task. The barrel and frame were another matter as there were so many contours and difficult to reach places. A very useful fixture in this situation is the Pana Vise 396 wide opening head and C-clamp base.

The flat jaws with removable rubber sleeves for flat and round surfaces allow you to find a convenient clamping surface, and the jaw rails make a handy method of checking every surface without having to touch the frame. Since I masked part of the frame for polishing and bluing, I had a convenient gripping surface. After all parts were coated, I set them aside to cure for a week. always, surface preparation is key to a pleasing finish.

It was my intent to be very protective of existing surfaces and finishes in the portion to remain blued. To this end, the most violent abrasive I used was 0000 steel wool. I also used jewelers’ rouge on a linen buffing wheel. This imparted a high shine to the blued portions of the frame and slide. I decided several coats of Birchwood Casey Perma Blue would be all that was needed to touch up the original finish and provide a pleasing contrast to the satin black finish on the rest of the Colt. As

Far Reassembly For the most part, reassembly was simply the reverse of the disassembly process. While I tried to avoid overspray in any critical areas, there was some. I polished the boltface of the slide before reinstalling the extractor. I also made certain the breech face of the barrel was free of any overspray. I had plugged the barrel before painting but decided to lap the bore anyhow. One tricky assembly was the rear sight. The elevation spring was easy to install. The windage spring was another matter.

With the dovetail base already on the slide, insert the windage screw through the first, threaded boss on the dovetail base, then the first segment of rear sight. Since there is a small space for the elevation spring under the sight, now is the best time to set it in place. It did not pose any problem. The problem is the windage spring. It must be compressed between the second dovetail boss and the narrow ear on the base.

I did this by bending one end of a very small paperclip into an L-shape and using it as a holder to compress the spring and run the windage screw through. As the minor leg of the screw was very small, I was able to work it out before threading the windage screw all the way through. All that remained for the sight was to insert the elevation screw. Assembled, the satin black finish of the top of the slide and the rear sight made a very attractive, glare free sight plane.

The rest of the slide assembly was a reversal of the disassembly. All channels in the slide were polished to ensure no paint overspray or other obstructions were present. Parts were dried using air from the compressor. Moving parts received a very light touch of a high-quality light oil before assembly. The second ticklish assembly task was inserting the trigger group into the frame and onto the trigger pin.

To simplify the process, I assembled the trigger, trigger spring, and trigger bar on an appropriately sized punch. With a little care the trigger and spring slid over the pin without any trouble. The trigger bar dropped into its frame groove. With the trigger bar in place, I installed the sear and sear pin. Inserting the hammer assembly into the frame, I inserted the safety catch and checked for smooth movement.

The side plate and screw serve to hold all in place, and the safety catch interacts with the spring steel side plate to lock in the desired position. I polished the rails of both the frame and the slide. When I started the slide onto the frame rails it slid forward freely and smoothly, unlike the hesitant movement before. Having been careful to polish, rather than remove metal from the rails, there was no excess play in the slide.

Once the slide was in place, the sear spring, and reassembled mainspring housing could be reinstalled in the frame. I checked the function of all the parts before reinstalling the grips. Conclusion Test firing the pistol was a guilty delight. The trigger broke smoothly at four pounds. The action cycled quickly and smoothly, with the empty cases ejecting cleanly from the pistol. After a final cleaning, I reluctantly returned the pistol to the customer. AG