In general, I like old, blued guns with wooden grips, the way God intended guns to be made, and I even like a degree of wear. (Soul, you know.)

So here's the question: I came across a Colt 1903 "Pocket Pistol" in .32 auto that was for sale for $100. The price reflected the fact that the whole right side of the slide was not only missing all its bluing but was corroded to the point where some metal was gone. The rest of the bluing was gone, needless to say. It was missing the safety, and the owner had plugged the hole with a length of wood screw. It was not in tip-top shape, in other words.

I didn't buy it because (A) I don't want to add yet another caliber to the five I already reload for, and (B) I don't have the skills to refinish something like that, especially if its going to take major filing or whatever. Or is there a way to add metal?

My question -- is it even possible to restore something like that? And it just occured to me now that the serial number may have been completely eroded away, which could raise legal issues, too, I suppose.

My firearm painting business might be anathama to your type of firearm appreciation. (Although I love vintage firearms with slow rust blueing, case hardened colors, nitre blueing, engraving, etc.) Having said that, I've put gun parts, (that have parallel dimensions, like a slide) on a surface grinder and whittled away the pits. You have to be sure you have enough metal to play with. This works well on some of the old single shot boys rifles, gives you crisp, clean metal with which to start the restoration process. Adding metal is possible to some small parts but would be quite difficult on a slide, ugh, welding and filing that and trying to make it look like something is certainly not economically viable. The gun probably does not have enough collectible value to warrant spending a lot of money on. The fine restoration of firearms is starting to catch on a bit though since the efforts of people like Doug Turnbull.

I love the old, turn-of-the-century Colt bluing. I also have a fondness for the 1903/1908 Pocket pistol. My primary CCW is a 1930's vintage 1903 Colt with most of the original bluing intact.

If you're looking for a display weapon and only one side of the gun is pitted just clean it up and reblue. If you want a gun to shoot then a little character isn't going to hurt. These guns point very well for me and I just like the lines.

Parts are not common but a safety lever is only going to run about $3. Depending on the vintage of the gun it may have the serial # stamped inside the slide behind the firing pin housing as well as on the left side of the slide.

In a strange sort of coincidence I just finished applying several coats of Lauer Durabake to a 1903 Colt this week. Covering up a serious case of nickel mange and some pitting. If you want a blued gun in the same style, I'd suggest looking around for a Colt 1905. The little .25cal Vest-Pocket models are a lot easier to find and usually in better condition.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'm glad I didn't buy that one, but now I see that at some point in the future I might pick up a 1903/1908/Model M hammerless in somewhat poor shape, as long asit's mechanically sound, knowing it's possible to restore it.

I do have a 1908 in .380 that's in about 80 percent shape that I have carried on rare occasions.

As a response to the first question about welding up the pits, yes, its easy and done all the time. I have done it with a Tig welder that is very easy to control the amount of heat that is put into the part. I recently TIG'ed up a 99 savage that had about 3 sets of mount holes on it. I used some high nickel rod that fills easy and is very tough. Flat filing down the beads and then some work with the graver to clean up the letters. I did a Colt prewar slide that I guessed had laid in blood as the one side was completely pitted and the other perfect, about 25 or so pits were deep enough to require a dab of metal. I then did most of the prep work and then sent it to Ahlmans to finish up.