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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - GEW 88 Project (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 10/2/2006 1:39:17 AM EDT
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I bought a few of those Centerfire Systems GEW 88 rifles as a fun project. I bought six, hoping to get a few wall hangers and one shooter. The guys over at Surplusrifle.com have a lot of tips and pointers on restoring and shooting these old war relics. Knowing that given a good barrel with passing headspace, I could shoot commercial ammo in one of these rifles. When the truck arrived, I was greeted by the sight of the gnarliest bunch of wood and rust I had ever seen. You see, these have been in storage in Equador for who knows how long. The bad news on that is the humidity and improper storage techniques have not been kind to these rifles. Some people have referred to these old rifles as "tomato stakes". On the other hand, many of them have new Czech barrels in great condition, and additionally, these rifles have never been to Turkey, so they are devoid of the Turkish markings. Here's a few pictures of before restoring:         Quite an undertaking. Getting the rusted screws out has been the worst task so far. I had to soak them with penetrating oil and then use a drill press to back them out. Once the screws were out, getting the stock off was a little difficult. I had to again use some penetrating solvent (PB Blaster this time) and them whack the receiver out from below. So far, I have removed three barrel shrouds, and underneath I have found three new Czech barrels. This is good for my plans on shooting them. I have refinished one stock so far. It is a beautiful walnut with some interesting patterns in the buttstock. Notice from the above pics that most of the stocks appear black. It took a lot to get them cleaned up. I started with Easy-Off oven cleaner and 0000 steel wool. Due to the darkening of the wood, I soaked it with household bleach to lighten it. On this particular stock, I sanded-in tung oil, and then applied several coats on top. I carefully avoided ruining the ghost of a cartouche on the stock. With the stock cleaned, lightened, and treated with oil, the original German cartouche now stands out much better. Here is the stock refinished:   I am currently working on stripping the other stocks (only four out of six are usable), and will begin cleaning the metal parts soon. I will post more pics as I progress with this interesting project. Disclaimer: These rifles had been stored in a humid South American warehouse for 50+ years and allowed to rust and rot. They probably should have been burned at some point. I paid less than $30 for each of these. To those of you who might think that refinishing the stocks or bluing the metal is going to ruin the value of the rifle, I ask you: How much more value can they lose? Are they now going to be worth $5.00 when I have restored them? Am I eventually going to have to pay someone to take them off my hands? If ever a rifle was begging for restoration, these are the ones. So lighten up! |
I agree on the major improvement of the stock. The tube over the barrel is a heat shield/barrel shroud. Smart idea, but bad execution because most ended up with water, bugs, and whatever else between barrel and shroud, causing some nasty corrosion. Look forward to seeing the progress on these guys. |
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Christ on a bike, that looks amazing. The stocks on those really do clean up like the girl next door, don't they? If you're worried about moisture between the shroud and the barrel itself, you can always throw a mixture of gun lube and silicone grease in there. I don't know if there's any kind of liquid silica or some other non-WD40 moisture-displacer, but a good chunk of that in there would also help. Of course, it'll smoke like George Burns when you shoot it and the barrel heats up. |
| The barrel on mine looked bran new under the shroud. This one worked well. I dont see how anything can get between them unless you put a hole in it. As for the rifling in mine, the best way to put it is it reminds me of a channel running through a man made lake, it is there and you can see it but it really isn't. I think I might re strip my stock and bleach it this time. Only problem I have now is what to use to fill the nicks and gouges with. |
WOW!!  Great job on the stock!If you look towards the end of the last post of the original thread you can see my 'carnage' pics of the Gew 88's i have. I never thought of using oven cleaner to get the heavy crud off..The first thing i did was per DM1975's advice was to bring them to the carwash for a high pressure water cleaning followed by a generous amout of WD-40 to displace the moisture(the wd-40 was my idea, not his) Did you decrease the value of the rifles in question? - Hell no! They couldn't possibly get in any worse condition! There are some good links for parts in the original thread as well. Out of the three Gew 88's i have, two have badly broken stocks and lots of corrosion on the *exposed* metal and a few broken/stripped out screws. One barrel jacket was so corroded into the receiver i actually unscrewed the entire barrel assy from it! This new thread will be a motivation for me to finish my one good stock and try to salvage one decent rifle from the sordid mess. I'm gonna have to check out Surplusrifles.com for more info. How did you determine some of the barrels were Czech? PS- CFS has announced on the webpage that they're all out of bolts for these great job on the restoration 
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The bleach really seems to help. Some of these stocks are so dark, that when refinished, you can't see the patterns in the wood. I used bleach when I refinished furniture, so I figured it would work fine for these stocks. I have had zero luck with filling gouges in the wood. The sanding-in technique with the tung oil is great for small cracks and nicks. For larger gouges, however, anything I put in there stands out as a difference in color, that I actually prefer the original nick or gouge. Kinda like a battle scar. If you have any tricks for filling in areas, let me know - wood filler just hasn't worked for me. |
Here's a pic of where these came from. This is a pile of GEW88s in an Equadoran warehouse: You can get more info at:Texas Trading Post As far as the Czech barrels go, many of the Equadoran rifles were given new Czech barrels. There is a way to tell, but I have lost the link detailing what markings to look for. Given the "new" condition of the barrels on my old rifles, I assumed that these must be re-barrel jobs. |
I have tried stainable wood filler before. For me, it always turned out a much different color than the stock after staining. Probably user error and lack of experience, but any time I have used it in the past, I just got frustrated. |
Shoot Old_Painless a PM about that .. He's really good with these milsurp stocks from what i've seen. That warehouse pic with all the rifles stacked-up like cord wood brings a tear to my eye 
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I will probably wash the metal in phosphoric acid to remove the rust and scale, buff with steel wool, and then re-blue. Except the receiver, of course, which should be kept in the white (that's how the Germans did it apparently). Next step is finding some complete bolt heads.... |
that is a lot of rifles! |
| Wipe on with rag. Let sit for a while. Longer wait, more bleaching. You CAN bleach it too much, so be careful. Also- don't sand after bleaching - the color is often just under the first layer of wood. If you bleach it too much, you can always stain it to the color you want. I reserve bleaching for those stocks that are so dark you can't see the wood patterns. I actually prefer the natural wood look with tung oil, but sometimes you have to make concessions. |
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The stocks are progressing nicely. Two are cracked and unsafe, and I will put together as wall hangers. I am working on three others right now - I will post pics when done. I am starting on the metal parts now. Tonight I started dis-assembling the trigger guard/magazine assembly. Here are pics of the progress: These are the six trigger guard assemblies:  I am using phosporic acid as the rust/scale remover. You can see it in the next pic.   Keep in mind that I'm not an expert at these rifles (far from it). I'm not a Bubba either. I am a proud member of the WECSOG club. These pics are for your entertainment, but are for me to use as a guide to put the damn things back together! First, I removed the rear screw:    Then I removed the front screws. I had to punch them through after unscrewing them a bit:   The frontmost screw I had to back out with a drill press. I had done this for the first time on this project, and my father showed me the correct technique. Having never done this, I assumed that you used the power of the drill press to force the screw out. This is NOT the correct way to do it, and I am glad that he showed me before I attempted it. You are supposed to use the press to force the bit into the groove on the screw, and then untighten the screw by hand. This is so much easier than using a hand screwdriver, and causes less buggering of the screws. Here are pics:   The floorplate then can be tapped out from above. The completed disassembly:  I will post pics of the rust removal and rebluing process next time. |
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being a live WECSOG graduate i'm sure you knew, but Gew 88s use 7.92x57J and NOT 7.92x57JS. shooting eastern surplus 8mm could kaboom the Gew 88. here is a good write up on 8x57. webs.lanset.com/backplan/guncab/8x57/8mmMauser.htm and the wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.92_x_57_mm |
Lowe's should have it - many different brand names. Hardware stores and paint stores should have some kind of phosphoric acid rust remover. It does remove all of the bluing, and will need immediate re-blue. There are other products for rust removal - naval jelly is one I have heard of. I have never used it. Phosphoric acid is the only one I have used, and it has worked well for me. I will post pics of how it goes. |
Thank you for the info. I will probably handload. Some of the guys over at Surplusrifle.com are bold and use the commecial Remington 8mm. It is supposed to be loaded at lower pressures. I *may* try this at some point, but I most certainly will NOT be using surplus JS ammo! Oh, and I also plan on slugging the bore to find the true diameter. |
Standing by. My project is following yours, a step behind. |
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i live over at surplus rifle half the time. my nick is "spam can". they don't have a GD like ARF.COM, so my post count is way low since the "new" forum made everyone noobs. i just can't help but get entangled with the tards in GD. US commercial 8mm is weak. i believe SAAMI set the pressure limit low enough so that a .323 bullet in a SAAMI spec cartridge can be shot down a .318 bore without kabooming. i would not fear it so long as long as it was loaded with .318 bullets. if i had a set of calipers i could tell you what winchester and remington use... i don't worry about it usually, as my Gew 98 can shoot anything out there. |
Thanks for the info! I also spend a lot of time over at Surplusrifle.com. That's what turned me on to this great project. |
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Ok, here's some preliminary reblue pics. I have 8 week old twin boys, and they keep me really busy, so this project is likely to take a while, with infrequent updates. Here's the trigger guard after the phosphoric acid treatment. I scrubbed it in with 0000 steel wool, and removed all of the rust and scale. Notice how dull the metal is right now.  With the rust removed, you can really see some of the marking show up. These rifles are covered with markings!   Next, I attacked the metal with a dremel with a steel wire wheel to polish up the metal. It really starts to shine now. (No project is complete without using a dremel)   For the bluing, I used the Birchwood Casey "Super Blue". I applied it three times, rinsing and polishing after each application. Notice that it is not a deep black as you see with hot bluing. If that is what you are after, you may have to hot blue or apply many more applications of the cold blue. Personally, on these antique rifles I prefer a "gunmetal grey" finish.    I will try to get more pics up by the end of the week. I have one interesting stock to show you.... |
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That trigger guard looks real good. Very nice work, can't wait for the next update. For filling gouges in stocks, I have had good luck with Tru-oil. It may take some time though. With a clean stock, I try to steam out as many dints and dings as possible. I use an iron on top of a wet cloth over the wood. Keep steaming until the grain is raised. I have never gotten one completely out but have come close. After steaming, I let the stock dry for at least a day. Next I mix up some Tru-oil and mineral spirits. I start with 300 grit paper, dip it in the oil and sand with the grain. It will create a "mud" on the stock. Don't let it get too dry, keep it wet. You aren't taking very much wood off if you keep that layer of oil/spirits on the stock. When the stock is covered in mud, let it dry. No need to wipe down. Let dry a day. Repeat by wet sanding (oil/spirits) the old coat off, sanding the mud into the gouges and dents. After 3-4 times (moving up to 600 and then 800 grit wet/dry paper) the holes should be filled in. Before final coat, I use 0000 steel wool to knock the dried mud off, down to the finish. Grain will be very sharp and deep. Final coat should be Tru-oil only, rubbed in by hand. Let dry overnight, and rub w/ 0000 wool again and buff w/ a cotton towel to bring sheen up. I repaired a heel in a curly maple shotgun stock that is damn near invisible, also glass smooth as it fills the wood pores as well. The fill material is wood dust from the stock itself and should match up very well. Note: BLO can be used as well but dry times are increased Mark |
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How have I missed this thread? What a wealth of info. I might have to start breaking down the beautiful one I recieved. It would look amazing acid stripped and re-blued. That's about the only thing I know how to do. (Summer job making motorcycles) So, consider this a tag until I have some time to get messy. |
I ordered 6 bolts with the rifles. Centerfire is out of bolts now, however. Numrich has stripped bolts still in stock, along with many of the parts needed. The sticking point is the lack of bolt heads. Numrich is out - I bought three before they ran out. They may get more, but nobody else has any. Last one I saw sold on ebay for over $100. I bet there is a warehouse somewhere with buckets of bolt heads sitting around. 
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Thanks for the input! This is a great technique. I have done something similar with Tung oil, with very good results. I have a Yugo 24/47 mauser that had the worst stock I had ever seen, until I refinished it this way. Now it is as smooth as glass. I did not try this on some of these stocks to avoid filling in the cartouches. I could do better with the steaming of dents and dings. |
I had some time to finish up the first trigger guard/magazine housing. Once again, I treated the metal with phosphoric acid, scrubbed with steel wool, and then applied the Super Blue three times. Here's some pics:    Notice that every small part that can be stamped, is stamped:  Note: contrast these parts to the before pic: I have chosen to do one rifle first, to get the feel of assembly/disassembly, as I have no guide to show me how to put these back together. After that, I will probably take them all apart, clean, and reblue; then assemble the rifles out of the best of the remaining parts. Next up, I will clean up the receivers. Here's what they look like now:  Here is an example of the new barrel on the old rifle. These barrels are really pretty good!  Here are the three receivers I have selected. Provided that they headspace ok, these are the best three with the best markings. They are a Spandau 1889, a Steyr 1894, and A Loewe Berlin 1890:     I still currently adding additional coats of Tung oil to the stocks. I will post pics when done. |
Yes, I was lucky enough to get in on the bolts before they sold out. Unfortunately, they are incomplete - no bolt head. I did get three bolt heads from Numrich before they sold out. I still need three ejectors, however. So it goes. |
The barrel jacket was a little difficult. I heated the metal with a torch, then soaked with penetrating oil for a while. Then, I put the receiver in a vise, and used a cloth-wrapped wrench to unscrew the jacket. Fortunately, the jacket has a stud that the magazine housing screws into. This made a great leverage point for the wrench. Don't get discouraged when the rifles arrive. They are impressively bad! |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - GEW 88 Project (Page 1 of 2)
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