Printable View
My friend was on a trip to FLA and went to a large gun show, at one of the dealers tables, he found this revision 1 operating rod. It was uncut ! until he decided to clean it off with some Hoppes #9 which removed the small amount of black paint covering the stainless weld in the relief cut area. The faker even stamped another D in the stainless to match the drawing number. He is going to attempt to return this op rod on his next trip to FLA but there is not much of a chance to recover his money
The sad thing is, even though it's a modified op rod it's still worth good money. Now, it's worth nothing but shooter. And I'm not sure about that!
Collectors will pay anywhere from $350 and up for a nice rev 1 operating rod that is in nice condition, the rev 1 op rods with the relief cut might bring $150 to $200 depending on condition.
The operating rod in my photos was made-up to fool somebody into thinking they were buying an original un-cut revision 1 op rod. This rev 1 op rod with the stainless weld could still be used on a restoration until a better replacement is found.
I wouldn't feel too safe with that either. How jacked up! I hope your buddy is able to get a full refund.
A fellow in this area was doing them on rare rods... I even thought about it for a welded seam rod I have. It's kind of useless as is -- very rare, but modified. There's a line in here somewhere... the car restorers will sometimes have an impossible part made from scratch for that rare Bugatti, and I watch the pros on TV all the time replace a rusted-out quarter panel with new sheet metal on a rare muscle car.
Bob, is that kind of like using the $4000 kits to rebuild a gas trap even though it's a new kit? In my case that's as close to a gas trap as I'll get.
When you gas weld or Tig weld the relief cut, most of the time you will get a halo around the area refilled. This will show the discoloration even more when refinished. Kind of like the guys that removed the 7th round welding correction in the early receivers, the circle of discoloration still shows up !
I've seen that after we reblued something that we had filled screw holes in.
Bob, you make a good point but how safe would this be if it were not done right? How would we know it was right? I rather feel as though it is deceptive selling to weld, paint and not at least mention it has been repaired. Then again, did the seller know that? Hum, somebody did somewhere along the line.
Which would also be a sign that the part received no post-weld heat treat. That halo (or adjacent) is likely glass hard and brittle. Not too good for durability in a stressed area...Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS