Took a few more guns to the engraver this evening, including the Watergun:
Well…just because.
Tag Archives: watergun
Watergun: The triumphant return of the Watergun
Ok, for those of you who missed the backstory, you can do a quick trip down memory lane.
The short version is this: a P35 from the bottom of Lake Michigan came into my hands. It was a shoebox full of parts, and although there was severe pitting everything seemed functional. I replaced three or four small parts and, surprise, the thing ran just fine. Only trouble was, the finish, such as it was, looked ‘like a topographical map of Utah’. At the gun show a couple weeks ago I met some folks who were local, had some very impressive samples of their coating work, and seemed to have some very good prices. So…why not? To recap:
And, as you’ve been waiting for:
And for full effect:
Work was done by these guys:
Now, let’s address an elephant in the room…yes, you can still see the deep pitting under the coating. Well duh. I didnt expect the coating to fill in potholes like those. Much like how there isn’t enough Bondo and tequila to make Hilllary Clinton look like Jennifer Lawrence, it would take a 50# bag of ceramic mix (or whatever they use) to smooth out this P35. But I wasn’t after ‘make it look like new’..I was after ‘make it look nice and protect the bare metal’. And…seems legit. Price? Well, the gave me a nice discount which I very much appreciated. You can see their prices on the website. I’ve no complaints.
I’ll be sending a couple guns out for coating, I think. Most notably an AR and PTR to get bit of Danish M84 on ’em.
So there you have it, gang. The Watergun is now pretty much done. Since it is in no way a ‘safe queen’ candidate, it is pretty much a ‘truck gun’ in terms of being babied. Can’t really ruin any value on it since my basis is darn near zero and any collector value sailed about the same time the gun did.No, this might just get tucked into my Avenger holster and start carrying the P35 again.
Teaser: Return of the Watergun
Tomorrow.
Watergun: coating
You guys remember the Watergun?
Found some folks at the gun show who do cerroko…cerok..cerrocoa..cer…screw it….they ceramic coat firearms. Their prices were very reasonable and the examples of their work looked pretty good. So…I left the Watergun with them and in a few weeks we will see what it looks like. For those who don’t recall, the Watergun is a HiPower brought up from the bottom of Lake Michigan. I purchased it as a box of parts and was surprised to find 90% of the parts were present and usable. Shoots fine, looks hideous. SO…in a couple weeks, we’ll do a grand unveiling. Stay tuned.
Watergun: Penultimate step
I was rummaging through some junk last night and, to my surprise, found a plastic bag full of assorted P35 parts:
Thats a lot of mainsprings. But…there are also two complete Type-A sights. As I mentioned, the Watergun needs a sight spring and screw. Well, not anymore, it doesn’t.
So that’s really about it for parts replacement. All thats really left is to get it coated with something. Since I had the parts on hand, my basis remains unchanged.
I’m thinking either a light shade of OD green or ‘coyote’ (which we used to just call ‘desert’ back in the day). And then maybe some nice laminate grips.
While I’ve established that the gun functions, I need to shoot it and see how accurate it is.
Watergun: grips
Set of grip screws arrived today. Had some cheesey plastic P35 grips laying around, so no extra cost there. Also had a couple crappy USA Brand P35 mags sitting around that I never got around to throwing out. (USA mags are unbelievably worthless.) Took the followers out and put them into he mags that rose form the depths with the Watergun. Result: functioning magazines.So, all thats left is replace the parts for the rear sight and get the gun coated with something.
Still have ten fingers
Watergun: parts arrival
As best I can tell, the missing parts to get the gun ‘shootable’ were a sear, sear pin, and firing pin retaining plate. In other words, these:
I am not a gunsmith by any stretch of the imagination…thats one of the reasons I shoot Glocks – you don’t ‘smith them, you just swap parts. At this point it looks like nothing needs fitting, which is good. But..the proof is in the function. We’ll get to that later. Alright…lets grab a punch, YouTube some disassembly/assembly videos, and get crackin’.
And once thats done…lets hand-cycle it, check the safety and trigger, and just generally play with it. It may look like the slide is a bit stiff but whats actually happening is that I’m trying to rack the slide without moving the gun or my hands out of the frame. Think its easy? Try it sometime.
Yeah, that rear sight is flopping around like Obama on a foreign policy question….but that’s a low priority at the moment. Next step is to take it to the range, tie it down, put a string to the trigger, and shoot the bloody thing.
And the sharp eyed viewer will notice that someone took the magazine safety out. Well, not really….it appears someone welded it to the trigger to deactivate it. :::SMH::: Whatever. Shooting this weekend. Hopefully the slide won’t go sailing through my brainpan.
For those keeping track:
Assuming everything works, and nothing cracks/breaks/explodes/flies off, I’ll send it down the valley for a coating of some kind and then, as the years go by, slowly start replacing parts with premium parts. Kinda make a sweet custom gun with a crappy, but interesting, finish. I’m pleased with how quickly this is coming together. :::Knocksonwood:::
Watergun update
Needs sear, sear pin, firing pin retaining plate, grips screw, rear sight spring, rear sight elevation screw.
That looks like about it. However, that does not mean some of the extant parts shouldn’t be replaced. The ejector should probably get replaced, and I should play it safe and replace all springs. Let’s see if we can just get the bloody thing assembled first. Interestingly, I can buy entire complete top ends for this thing for about $200 and just use the frame. But…I rather like the Been There Done That look.
So far I’ve got the plate, sear, and sear pin on the way for about $67 total so far.
In the meantime, the recoil assembly works, the magazine release works, the slide stop works, and the mainspring/hammer assembly work. Still looks like The Last Browning Out Of Pompeii though.
Codename: Watergun
A friend came by today to show me something interesting and slightly upsetting:
Ooohhh, thats not right! Nooo…..
It’s a Belgian P35 (or ‘Hipower’ to you), circa 1971, that was retrieved from the waters of Lake Michigan. The lake it is said, never gives up her dead….but guns are a totally different matter. Anyway..it’s mine now.
Condition is about what you’d expect but…the internal surfaces are surprisingly good. Barrel isn’t bad, and the deep pitting is mostly on non-critical surfaces. I think…I might try getting the missing the parts and getting this thing up and running. (And shooting it from a tire with a long string.)
First thing I need to do is make up a spreadhseet of all the parts necessary to make a P35 and then see what I have and what I’m going to have to find. Once thats done, if it proves safe to shoot, I’ll send it off and cerakote the holy crap out of it.
The story, I am told fourth-hand, is that this gun and the mags came out of a diving episode in Lake Michigan a few years ago. The gun ‘had the rust removed’ which, judging by the lack of wire brush marks and the thoroughness, must have been done using electrolysis. The gun was disassembled, apparently, for the process and some parts are clearly missing. I managed to put the recoil assembly together, get it into the slide and , after applying a tablespoon of CLP to the whole mess, got it sliding on to the frame, and then it seemed to cycle by hand just fine. Promising.
It also came with three what-used-to-be magazines. Now, thats a bit odd. See, if someone dropped this thing over the side off the boat doesn’t it seem a bit odd that there’s two spare magazines that fell over with it and made it all the way to the bottom lying next to it? Way I see it, the mags come with the gun for only two reasons: they were all in the same backpack/duffel when it was lost/tossed over the side or it was all on the same Sam Browne of whatever poor schmuck decided to breathe water. The mags will, I think, with new springs and some beadblast be just fine.
So….interesting project that I anticipate will take a year or two to wrap up since I’m going to try and do this with used parts inexpensively sourced off GunBroker and eBay. If it works out, it’ll be a gun with a great story.
