Remington Rand mixmaster refinish help

[limaxray]

Picked this up a couple of months ago for just $600. Appears to be (though I look forward to any corrections y'all may have!) a 1945 Remington Rand frame with an Ithaca slide that had gone through at least one rebuild at Ogden. All the major parts on the frame appear to be correct except for the slide stop and the right grip, and the slide seems to be the same. I replaced all the springs, and needed a guide rod plug and a new mag catch to make the pistol functional again.

Here's my question--as you can see, the finish is ROUGH. The parkerizing is gone off most of the slide and frame, especially the front strap. The grip safety is bare metal with a very few flecks of something left. Lots of surface rust, but surprisingly little pitting.

I want to refinish it, but I'm having trouble figuring out which parts get what finish. Frame and slide obviously parked, but I've also read that "other parts" were blued, not parked. Barrel blued is also easy for chemical reasons, and internals were blued because that was cheap, but the parts I'm having problems with is things like the mainspring housing and the safety. Are those blued, or parked? What about the barrel bushing and guide rod plug?

Any help y'all can provide would be greatly appreciated!

(And yes, I did notice the upside-down ordnance wheel on the right side of the frame. Must have been done on a Monday after a GREAT weekend. )

Information

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[Johnny Peppers]

Barrels and magazines blued, everything else phosphate.

[Neal Myers]

I have a similar gun. I swapped the slide for an R-R, & had it reparked. Chuckindenver, who posts here, does even better work. Contact him at molinenorski@msn.com .

[browningautorifle]

That one's looking very good Neal...

[DaveN]

I think It looks great the way it is. Clean it up rub some oil on it and you got a good blue collar workers gun(you know a "Soldiers Pistol")Just the way I like em. Most likely a well used historical war gun.
But if you want to learn it some manors and dress it in a tux? That's ok too.

[limaxray]

I think It looks great the way it is. Clean it up rub some oil on it and you got a good blue collar workers gun(you know a "Soldiers Pistol")Just the way I like em. Most likely a well used historical war gun.
But if you want to learn it some manors and dress it in a tux? That's ok too.

The pictures do the gun too much justice. In person and natural light it looks ROUGH. And it's bare metal in too many spots--I'm in the South, and I have to go back every couple of weeks and scrub some surface rust off. Nio, this baby needs to be protected.

[DaveN]

The pictures do the gun too much justice. In person and natural light it looks ROUGH. And it's bare metal in too many spots--I'm in the South, and I have to go back every couple of weeks and scrub some surface rust off. Nio, this baby needs to be protected.

I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

[Johnny Peppers]

Looks like it has either been dip blued or cold blued to cover up the wear. A good candidate for a refinish, as no old soldier would want to look like that.

[DaveN]

Looks like it has either been dip blued or cold blued to cover up the wear. A good candidate for a refinish, as no old soldier would want to look like that.

I only looked at the pics on my iPhone and just took a look on my sons iPad and I agree with you it certainly doesn't look to be original worn finish. Go for it!