Ecuador 88 Commission Rifle Carbine Conversion

[Aragorn243]

Great news. I got it apart. Photos probably tomorrow on interior and the state of the barrel shroud. There were three casualties, one fatal. The screw in the nose cap would not move, screwdriver, vise grips, etc so drilled it out. In the process the nose cap suffered some minor damage. The stock has some dry rot and the end cap area was very weak, a third of it had already rotted away and when I pulled the barrel out, it snapped off. Barrel shroud was indeed cut under the barrel band. It looks like they installed a smaller tube inside the two sections. Not sure how it is held together, rust may be hiding spot welds. The rust underneath is pretty bad on the shroud but doesn't appear to have gone through or weakened it significantly. I did not try taking the shroud off. Will wait until after electrolysis to attempt that. There is actually a 1 inch square of good bluing under there. The rest is orange. Receiver is pretty good, only one small area of significant pitting that I saw. Didn't mess with it much it was covered with liquid wrench and I was doing my best to not get filthy. Wife says I failed anyway.

Tomorrow I'm going to set up my electrolysis bath and get it cooking.

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[mrclark303]

Great news. I got it apart. Photos probably tomorrow on interior and the state of the barrel shroud. There were three casualties, one fatal. The screw in the nose cap would not move, screwdriver, vise grips, etc so drilled it out. In the process the nose cap suffered some minor damage. The stock has some dry rot and the end cap area was very weak, a third of it had already rotted away and when I pulled the barrel out, it snapped off. Barrel shroud was indeed cut under the barrel band. It looks like they installed a smaller tube inside the two sections. Not sure how it is held together, rust may be hiding spot welds. The rust underneath is pretty bad on the shroud but doesn't appear to have gone through or weakened it significantly. I did not try taking the shroud off. Will wait until after electrolysis to attempt that. There is actually a 1 inch square of good bluing under there. The rest is orange. Receiver is pretty good, only one small area of significant pitting that I saw. Didn't mess with it much it was covered with liquid wrench and I was doing my best to not get filthy. Wife says I failed anyway.

Tomorrow I'm going to set up my electrolysis bath and get it cooking.

Well done on taking this rifle on, all credit to you. The wood damage is unfortunate, but when it's reached this point of decay and become one with the corrosion, it's beyond saving.

Had you not taken this rifle on, it would have gone on someone's wall as a relic and carried on towards oblivion.

I look forward to your restoration updates...

Are replacement parts easy enough to locate?