Help with fixing the finish on this M1 Garand.......

[Mikej]

I'll start with the pictures....














It was recommended that I use mineral spirits and 4/0 steel wool. I did that but it didn't do much. The was some yellow/brown that came off on the clean-up towel but it didn't affect the hazing/whitish coloring on the butt and other places. It really looks like water damage to me. I feel like I want to clean some more with denatured alcohol and then use a little BLO. But I DO NOT want to put something on it that will lock that whiting stuff under it and make it even harder to bring back. The wood is extremely smooth. To the point it seems like it was sanded at some point. But I don't think it would have been with the rack numbers on there. What am I to do?

The two hand guards look to be just grungy. Something like my Lee Enfield was. Some light rubbing with denatured and fine steel wool got that Lee Enfield to even out and look nice. I also put the lightest touch of BLO on the Enfield.

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[Nosferatu]

Have you tried a wood furniture cleaner, such as Pledge?

 

[Mikej]

Have you tried a wood furniture cleaner, such as Pledge?

Actually, I said "Screw It", and gently rubbed it with a paper towel and denatured alcohol! It worked just as good as it did on the Swede Mauser and Lee Enfield. The big issue, for me, was the whitish hazing. The alcohol eliminated that, and special work with the DA on the steel wool followed with paper towel took off all kinds of yellow/brown. Also evened out the finish color where the the extra oils were from the rifle and hands. Working on the hand guards and can see their finish getting to match the rest of the stock. I may set the wood near the wood stove to see how oily it is. And after a little more touching up with the DA I'll apply a little BLO and let it sit around the wood stove to soak in.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Subscribed. If I really wanted to keep this gun I would send it down to bare wood and start from there.
Basically I like to look at it as car finish (although it is apples to oranges) whether you want it to be a 20 footer or a showgirl…
Good luck with your project.

AHHHHH, I see that you have what your looking for. Righto Ole chap.

 

[Mikej]

At this point I prefer to not sand it. I want to keep it as natural as possible. A portion of these service grades were coming with new wood. I was hoping for original GI wood, and that's what I've got. I may try my hand at steaming out some of the dents though.












I did lose the remnants of the rack numbers though. Considering they weren't legible, that's okay by me. there's some vertical stripes that I hope will come out more after a little oil rub down.

 

[DirectDrive]

Looks great !

 

[Caveman Jim]

At this point I prefer to not sand it. I want to keep it as natural as possible. A portion of these service grades were coming with new wood. I was hoping for original GI wood, and that's what I've got. I may try my hand at steaming out some of the dents though.

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I did lose the remnants of the rack numbers though. Considering they weren't legible, that's okay by me. there's some vertical stripes that I hope will come out more after a little oil rub down.

Nice job Mike!!!

 

[Mikej]

Nice job Mike!!!

I'm pretty happy with it. See...

 

[DirectDrive]

If you want to put the rack number back on it, there is enough information in that one pic for a sign company to cut you a stencil.
Then hit it with a flat white paint, then make it "battle-worn" with a few strokes of 4/0 steel wool.

 

[Member 34319]

If you do try ironing out the dents. You can also iron out any ugly spots in its finish.

 

[Nibbs]

Looks good.
What you have is a NICE HRA stock w/ a CRISP Firing Proof.
Is your rifle HRA?
If so is the Bbl HRA?

As a word of caution several years ago I was doing a lot of Stock work &
had several glass jars w/ various liquids/ solvents in them.
Being too lame to label them I simply relied on an easy sniff test.
One was Denatured Alcohol and ever since I can't smell shyte.. LITTERALLY..


a Good product for using on Firearms is INOX.
[https://www.inoxmx.com/]

0000 or finer steel wool will not hurt metal or wood.

Howard 'Restore a Finish' is also good & works well for touch up & cleaning.

Odorless mineral spirits also.

Any alcohol, lacquer thinner, acetone, etc will dissolve the finish & remove any stain including original.

For what you have I would avoid Any sanding or Steaming out dents.
They almost always show since the dent crushed the cellular structure of the wood &
That is reflected in the steaming repair attempt.

If you want something really nice & shiny you can get the 1939 "Slimline" contour from Jim Yokum at Dupage Trading.

They are not as bulky as the final contour used for battle rifles.

Repeated coats of Howard's will improve the look & develop a shine, as will BLO.
I found that thinning the BLO w/ some Turpentine helped it penetrate cleaned or unfinished wood.

And whatever you use, multiple THIN Coats Always work better than thicker ones.

Just my Opinion..

 

[Labradorian]

Yours is sweet compared to the battered blue sky tent peg that I ended up. I just sanded it down and started over.

 

[TNThomas]

Looking good. Are you guys getting these from the CMP?

 

[Ura-Ki]

Hey @Mikej if you really want to bring back that rack number, I can make you up a frisket right quick and easy and even air brush it nice for ya!

 

[ron]

Nice job Mike looks great. How does she shoot? Let's go shooting. I am signed up for Dec. 11
shoot at DRRC. See you there???

Douglas Ridge Rifle Club - Service Rifle Program

 

[Mikej]

Looks good.
What you have is a NICE HRA stock w/ a CRISP Firing Proof.
Is your rifle HRA?
If so is the Bbl HRA?

As a word of caution several years ago I was doing a lot of Stock work &
had several glass jars w/ various liquids/ solvents in them.
Being too lame to label them I simply relied on an easy sniff test.
One was Denatured Alcohol and ever since I can't smell shyte.. LITTERALLY..


a Good product for using on Firearms is INOX.
[https://www.inoxmx.com/]

0000 or finer steel wool will not hurt metal or wood.

Howard 'Restore a Finish' is also good & works well for touch up & cleaning.

Odorless mineral spirits also.

Any alcohol, lacquer thinner, acetone, etc will dissolve the finish & remove any stain including original.

For what you have I would avoid Any sanding or Steaming out dents.
They almost always show since the dent crushed the cellular structure of the wood &
That is reflected in the steaming repair attempt.

If you want something really nice & shiny you can get the 1939 "Slimline" contour from Jim Yokum at Dupage Trading.

They are not as bulky as the final contour used for battle rifles.

Repeated coats of Howard's will improve the look & develop a shine, as will BLO.
I found that thinning the BLO w/ some Turpentine helped it penetrate cleaned or unfinished wood.

And whatever you use, multiple THIN Coats Always work better than thicker ones.

Just my Opinion..

This is some real helpful stuff here ^^. Just what I was looking for.

The receiver in this group of CMP M1s is a "Service Grade" that was guaranteed only to have Springfield Armory receivers. Muzzle/throat measurements are 1+/2+ respectively. Serial dates this SA receiver to late 1952, 4,271,***. As best as I could find in a quick look. Barrel is SA 5-44. I have IHC and HRA trigger group parts. I haven't taken the trigger group apart yet. I may not. Op-rod is also SA.

HRA Stock huh? How does one know that?

I think I'm done with cleaning the stock. No need/desire to remove any more stain.
On your word, no steaming. I'd rather have the story in the dents than weird things where dents were.
No shiny! My thought, "Battle rifle"= matte finish, like John Garand, and most other battle rifle designers, made them. This will get some BLO, because that's what I have.
Denature alcohol....Interesting. I used to use my sense of smell quite well for many things. About a year ago smell and taste started to leave me, gone completely now. It wasn't from DA though.

I'd ask though, about diluting the BLO. Has to be turpentine? Not mineral spirits? And is there any reason I shouldn't put some BLO under the butt plate and inside the stock? Thinking a little on the butt plate screws too. It seemed really dry when taking the screws out. To me they came out, maybe, too easy.

Yours is sweet compared to the battered blue sky tent peg that I ended up. I just sanded it down and started over.

Curious, CMP rifle? What were the specs/grade on yours? Tell me more. My rifle has some minor rust spots here and there. But no pitting. Was it the "Rack" and "Field" grades that were maybe coming with the Blue Sky barrels? I believe some of the lesser grades came with new Criterion barrels? I've heard/read those were the shizz (Good Stuff)

Looking good. Are you guys getting these from the CMP?

Yes. BUT, Service grade are no longer allowed to be ordered. Speculation has it that sometime in the future they may open it up for service grades again. They shut it down on May 6th/21 because of an overwhelming number of orders. I sent my paperwork in on April 20th. I was afraid I was SOL. It took 4 months for them to acknowledge my order was received on April 26th.
"Field Grade" M1s are still going out, as far as I know. Those come to buyers much quicker. They did, in the last month or so, increase the price for the field grades to $700.00 from $650.00.

Good reading... https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/m1-garand/

Hey @Mikej if you really want to bring back that rack number, I can make you up a frisket right quick and easy and even air brush it nice for ya!

Hey man! Thanks for that offer! I'm not keen on the rifles with the rack numbers on them. It sorta takes something away from the "Wood" in my mind. I would like to know the whys and where froms' those ugly painted rack numbers are there?
Hey, maybe if I can't get used to that line on the stock where the numbers were? Ya' never know.

Nice job Mike looks great. How does she shoot? Let's go shooting. I am signed up for Dec. 11
shoot at DRRC. See you there???

Douglas Ridge Rifle Club - Service Rifle Program

Haven't shot it yet Ron. The thing came dry as a bone! If I'm going to have it completely down I'm going to treat what little rust there is in places. And make the stock look/feel better.

Do they just let the public in to watch those games at DRRC?

I would ask about treating what rust I have. There's rust, looks more like tarnishing, in the op-rod channel. and just under that channel on the outside. Seems like a tough place to get in to it. And some just below the wood. None of it is pitting. Totally smooth. Op rod, out of view, has it too. For the most part the rust is going to be out of site. Even in the op-rod because of grease. But a guy has to tweek on his rifle I suppose.

Thanks all of you for taking the time to give me your input.

 

[Labradorian]

Curious, CMP rifle? What were the specs/grade on yours? Tell me more. My rifle has some minor rust spots here and there. But no pitting. Was it the "Rack" and "Field" grades that were maybe coming with the Blue Sky barrels? I believe some of the lesser grades came with new Criterion barrels? I've heard/read those were the shizz (Good Stuff)

Back in the '90's, a guy give it to me cause he owed me a Franklin for his part of the rent. From what I found out years back, Garand's marked Blue Sky were foreign, most likely Korean, take backs. I don't think CMP handled any of those. I could be wrong though, just ask my wife.

It shoots ok*, I've actually used it for elk hunting (I've made a couple modified 4 shot enbloc clips) but its no beauty by a long shot.

*Just use standard M2 loaded ammo and not commercial 30-06.

 

[DirectDrive]

I like the rack numbers.
Shows a rifle has been there, done that.

Rack numbers: Whys and wherefores?

www.gunboards.com

 

[Nibbs]

LUCKEEEE...
IIRC Your rcvr fits in a SN block w/in which SA built Production Line M1 Ds in 1952.
It's Kool that yours came w/ a WWII Bbl. Those have $ value, & could be swapped for a 1952 bbl "Parts Correct" for your rifle, should you choose to do so.

Which begs the question of;
I'm happy w/ what I have, or
I wanna restore it to some degree....

Just a IMHO Note:

There is Huge Merit in having such a great piece of history in it's "As In Service Condition",
but they all went thru various inspections and repairs, hence "How can one ever know!!?"

If you found a Model A Ford barn find where that Ole John Deere crunched a fender it's a no brainer to replace that fender. Maybe even fix other parts & eventually paint it...
Just sayin....

Should you decide to restore it to "PARTS CORRECT, BELIEVABLE" Condition then here is some relative info...
The most difficult is the stock, Cartouched SA/J.L.G. $$$$$$
[SA/JLG Col. James L. Guion
S/N 4,200,000-4,350,000 July 1950- September 1953]

Correct Bbl for an M1 D is different & Pricey for a Real one:
CORRECT "D" Bbl; Drawing No D7312555.... $$$$$$

The rest can be easy & fun depending on how much time & effort you can afford as well...

But CAVEAT EMPTOR.... IT IS ADDICTIVE...

 

[Bon Sauvage]

It's pretty tough to improve upon the great job that you have already done but perhaps you might find something here:

Wood Cleaning Article - Civilian Marksmanship Program

USGI Rifle Stocks and Hand Guards: Walnut and Birch Entry Level Care and Preservation Tips and Considerations for CMP Wood (August 2005 Revision: Sections 6.1 and 6.7 have additions and Sections 6.4a and 6.4b are new.) CMP surplus rifles such as the M1 Garand, M1903 Springfield, and the various...

thecmp.org