I have a Winchester 94 with an aluminum receiver and some of the black finish is pitted. I tried Birchwood Casey aluminum black and it just made a real mess. I talked to the local gunsmith and he said nothing could be done. Would any of you have any ideas on how to restore it?

winchester m94's never had aluminum receivers. what it sounds like is one of the post 64 models made in the 60's that had i don't know what for a finish but my understanding is they don't blue well. but aluminum black won't do a thing.

I've been wrong before.....and might be again.....but I didn't know that the '94 was ever built of an aluminum receiver.

See if a magnet sticks to it.....any bets?

Winchester has done some funky things, but I agree with the no Aluminum receiver theory.

As I understand it Winchester used powdered metal technology to make some M94's in the 60's/70's.
These never did finish well. If you aren't too attached to the gun, you may want to let someone
else have the joy of owning that M94.

Right, it's not aluminum, a magnet will stick to it.

Do ya'll think it would rust blue?

Shawn

You might try searching the archives here. I vaguely remmeber Jack Belk commenting on this issue several years back.

You might see about having it plated. If I recall, these had to be coated with an iron oxide type finish and then they would take a blue. Spray paint is another option, though I believe it is a waste of time and money on these particular actions.

after thinking on this, i have a vague recollection that agrees w/ the post abt the powder metallurgy. not sure if was precisely that but they were doing something weird to make the frames more economically and there were finish issues. the factory developed a finish that worked and sort of looked right. this was also the era in which winnie made most of the commemoratives and those were black chromed or otherwise plated. i don't think any from that period were "blued" strictly speaking.

i've had similar problems w/ 94's from that era and they seem to get to looking bad fast, in particular as to rust. i recall working one over once and doing the receiver in brownells oxpho blue and it just did not take well at all.

have not tried rust bluing and if you can get it to rust it should develope at least some color. if the finish tho is some form of black chrome plating you'd have to get all that off completely first and that's the hard part. i think is also why the cold blue was near useless.

You guys are right, Winchester used a powdered metal for their cheap 94 receivers, I think the official term was sintered metal. It all started with serial number 2,700,000 range. As Malm mentioned they then electroplated the receiver with a form of iron which would take hot bluing. The problem is once the thin coating of iron is rusted or worn the sintered metal is exposed. They come out of the caustic bluing tanks looking relatively good and as they 'age' they develop some awful green and red streaks.

I heard rumors that they would rust blue also but never tried it.

The only practical way to refinish them is to use something like KG Gunkote on the receiver and blue everything else. Suprisingly it doesn't look that bad, just sort of utilitarian.

I always inform the customer before refinishing what his options are. Usually they want it refinished anyway and when they see the finished product they like the results.

If I can locate a photo I will try to post it.

Yeah, I found a Gunsmith silly enough to try to hot blue one of mine, came out a lovely brown. I ended up just cutting it back to bare metal and kept the G96 up to it. Looked OK as an "antique silver finish".
Another one had a colour case hardened finish and it didn't go the distance either. It's turning into another antique finish all by its self. Just keep the oil coatings up to them is the easyest.

Cast iron receivers.

Winchester will never admit to having produced them.

Bluing tanks will turn them bright red.. what about one of those bake-on coatings?

I agree with Shopcartracing this sounds like a candidate for a Teflon bake on finish. You probaly won't end up with a shiny finish, and a matt black is what it would end up ( you do have color choices, grey etc.). Brownells sells it and if you can get it to fit into your oven you can do it yourself.

If you would like to have a good, durable Blue/Black finish, check this place out;

http://www.arizonaresponsesystems.com/

I had them do a SIG P220 European version and itcame out beautiful.

Sand it down to 320 finish and flame it will look nice when done

Vague recollection that in Brownells 'Gunsmith Kinks' there was a fix for these. You may want to take a look.
C.G.B.

I solved this problem by stripping the action and removing the barrel. I then had the bare reciever bead blasted and then nickel plated. The bbl. and all other parts (screws, bolt, hammer, loading gate, mag tube, etc.) hot-blued. Refinished the wood w/oil finish. The result is (IMO) a very handsome rifle. This was done 20 years ago and the plating looks as good now as then. Rather like an "electroless nickel finish." Made sure a layer of copper went on first to ensure good adhesion.

quote:

Originally posted by cgbach:
Vague recollection that in Brownells 'Gunsmith Kinks' there was a fix for these. You may want to take a look.
C.G.B.

The first volume of Gunsmith Kinks has two entries on the subject. The first advise was to send them back to Winchester for rebluing. The second article said they could be hot blued, but it took about two hours. The trick was to take it out every half hour and cool it down with cold water. Says it will eventually turn black. No info on how long it lasts, though.