My 1994 Semi-compact restoration/chop diary - Finished

[Underwhere]

Trigger guard looks great. I only see one small pinhole in the pics, did it come out? That's always the most nerve wracking part for me, worrying about exposing a pinhole/pit when rounding the trigger guard.

There is one very tiny one. If it stays that small when I show shine it, I may leave it. I would probably wreak more havoc trying to weld it

[Underwhere]

Apparently I'm very motivated now.

I flush cut and crowned the barrel into the bushing.

I also marked the slide stop lever and guide rod for shortening.

[Underwhere]

Recessed the slide stop lever and the guide rod.

[double-d]

Keep up the great work and stages pics, awesome thread!

I'd love to do this to my 75B compact, only I would elect to go the hard-chrome route like 80% of my other pistols have.

Twelve likes and two thumbs up.

[Underwhere]

Keep up the great work and stages pics, awesome thread!

I'd love to do this to my 75B compact, only I would elect to go the hard-chrome route like 80% of my other pistols have.

Twelve likes and two thumbs up.

I did a compact in hard chrome a while back. Similar mods to this one. Came out awesome. (actual professionals did the hard chrome)

https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=97795.0

[double-d]

Keep up the great work and stages pics, awesome thread!

I'd love to do this to my 75B compact, only I would elect to go the hard-chrome route like 80% of my other pistols have.

Twelve likes and two thumbs up.

I did a compact in hard chrome a while back. Came out awesome.

Yep, to say the least.

[Underwhere]

Looks like I spoke too soon. I thought I had gotten lucky and CZ didn't have a pocket of air in the casting.

Nope! It's in the exact same place as all the others I've done.

This is why I hesitate to round off a stainless CZ frame. Not sure I want to test out matching the finish on stainless filler.

I shoe shined the trigger guard today and it was perfect... All except for this one place that just wouldn't polish up right.

So I took my fingernail and pushed into it. Yep. Cavity. I pushed harder. It went deeper.

So I pushed on it with a punch to see how deep it went and dremeled it out. It looks pretty deep.

Not sure of my welding approach on this one. I may lay some filler metal in the channel created by the dremel bit and the try and create a speed bump with it.

I also noticed a very tiny pinhole. I'm going to ignore it.

 

[Earl Keese]

Aww man, that sucks. 

[Underwhere]

Aww man, that sucks. 

It's just more fun to have.

[Underwhere]

OK I'm sitting at my welding table posting  between quick bursts of welding to give the trigger guard time to cool.

I cleaned up the channel with a carbide bit, acetoned it, the filler metal and the Tungsten rod.

I put some copper pipe under it as a heat sink to minimize the heat through the back side.

[Underwhere]

I think I'm done with it.
Not too bad. I forgot to take pics of it completed. You can't tell there was a cavity there at all.

Very little burn through the other side. I took care of it with some 400 grit.

I found some other spots inside the trigger guard but I'll leave them as-is.

[Underwhere]

I removed the Cajun 10X bushing tonight and made a few quick passes on the slide rails with some 800 grit.

Then I did the slide and frame with 400 grit.

I definitely see some imperfections. Not sure how many I will try and fix. It may not be worth it.

I still have a tiny bit of frame work and polishing and then I may be ready for Bluing.

[Underwhere]

As a reminder to myself here is a list of things I'll be bluing:) Excuse the imprecise terminology.

1. Slide stop lever
2. Safety
3. Sear cage (you can see it from the back of the gun)
4. Hammer retaining pin
5. Main spring plug
6. Barrel bushing
7. Hammer
8. Slide stop spring pin
9. Mag release
10. Extractor
11. Grip screws

My assumption is that the guide rod is stainless and won't take a bluing. Can anyone confirm that? Seems obvious as it's silver in color.

[Underwhere]

I'm considering putting my parts into a tumbler (separately) to see what happens...whether I can "polish" them somehow.

Thoughts?

[Tok36]

I believe it would depend on what media you run in the tumbler.