Molly the MLE Restoration

[nijalninja]

G'day there. About two weeks ago I decided on my next restoration project: A 1902 I* Long Lee Enfield that has been christened Molly.

I bought the rifle complete with sporterised stock, bent butt-stock bolt, non-matching Lithgow Heavy Barrel, plenty of rust, and enough old grease to stop the action from being worked without spraining something.

I meant to start this at the beginning of the undertaking, but have been more concerned with actually doing it than documenting it, so for now I'll get everyone up to speed if you are interested:...

... So far I have stripped it almost entirely, cleaned, removed rust, and polished almost every component ready for re-assembly. I had a lot of fun stuck in a little room full of turps fumes when I first started. I also tracked down a few of the parts I was missing, namely an MLE Nosecap, and dial sight dial and arm 'thing' (I don't know what else to call it) but I am missing the rear flip up peep to go with it. The only other thing I am really missing is a Long Tom barrel and re-fitting a piece of suitable wood to replace what has been cut off at the front of the fore-end and to 'freshen-up' the draws which are non-existent.

Currently I'm cleaning up the wooden furniture and getting ready to repair it. Unfortunately the stock seems to have been refinished at some point in time a long time ago which has now mostly flaked off but left an uncomfortable few shiny spots here and there.

Next step is finding that barrel, rear dial sight peep, and fixing up the stock. I should have gotten pictures of it as I go but I've been distracted. I'll try my best from here on out to keep things updated.

Cheers if anyone wants to follow the ordeal.

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[nijalninja]

Alright so keeping with what I said above here is an update:

Today I finished cleaning the rear sights and managed to rub away some of the stains on the butt-stock (They were pretty well stuck there) and de-grease the stock in general. Looks a bit cleaner now and ready for oil.

And also a massive thanks to Kiwi for sending me out an MLE Butt-stock bolt (The one the rifle came with was bent in the thread). Thank you so much for your generosity Kiwi. You helped me get another inch closer to finishing this old piece.
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[nijalninja]

Wasn't planning on it, but finished polishing little bits like sear bent surfaces, mag release, mag cut-off, bolt and dust cover. Everything is pretty clean looking now and ready to go back together when I get the stock ready. Seems that everything is hinging on this stock repair that I am rather anxious about.

[nijalninja]

Alright so I managed to work up the guts to try this stock repair and get the first and most stressful part out of the way. I have limited chisel experience and only two chisels/gouges that worked in this small area. Took me a bit over an hour to get everything to fit as good as I could, but I realised towards the end that my edges had rounded over to an extent that the wooden block would not be perfect, but considering this is a DP I* that I would never trust with full blown rounds having a perfectly smooth bedding area is not that important. I have no plans to go target shooting with it. I'll probably knock up some super slow 150 gr loads to plink with it. If I can hit a can at 50 yards I'll be over the moon.

Anyway here are some pictures of it so far. I need to get our old drill press out, prep it, and then find a suitable piece of doweling to peg the repair. Then it looks like its get in there and make everything good. Been a long time since an update here but there is not much to do with this gun apart from stock repairs I am hesitant about or parts that seem near impossible to find.

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[nijalninja]

Had a spare few hours which I decided to use to peg my block for the draws and glue it all in.

The old drill press I have is a bit rough and no matter what I couldn't get it to to track straight, and I had no idea how to true everything up, and measuring where the block was and where to drill hurt my head since everything is curved. In the end I went by eye and it wasn't terrible.

The hole from the LHS was pretty good, but from the RHS I was a tad off so it was a tight fit for my dowelling, but after I test fitted it dry I was happy enough. So then I put heaps of glue and started tapping it through.
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Looked pretty good honestly, except:
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Ding and I made two jobs out of one to patch. I know the holes weren't perfect but that is why I dry tested it and had no problems. I hate screwing this kind of thing up. The chips that came out also refuse to go back in the way they came out even after I shaved bits off every which way I thought might help, and even then it wouldn't be real pretty.

So the way I see it I'll have to chisel out a rectangular area around the chips to make a nice bed and then glue in a suitable block then make it all good. I'll just have to drill a hole in the repair block to fit the dowel so I don't have it looking asymmetrical.

[nijalninja]

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Pictures didn't want to work yesterday but I got this one today.

[nijalninja]

Update: Had a bit of time up my hands this arvo to keep going with my repair.

Managed to gouge out the bed for my repair and also began fitting up a block to suit. Considering that the dowelling is still in place I had to drill out the block in roughly the right spot and that also served to locate the block each and every time to the same spot. Since then I rasped the block down bit by bit and kept test fitting it, and as of now its taper fits into the bed area pretty tightly (too tight) and with a bit more rasping it should fit up alright. That being said it will still be a very obvious repair considering my chisel/gouge skills.

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[nijalninja]

Sorry for spamming the Restorer's Corner with this thread but of late i've had plenty of time and the right mindset to get this particular bit done. Yesterday I finished fitting the block and eventually took the plunge and glued and clamped it all together to be left alone for the night.

This arvo I got it out and everything seems alright, just gonna leave it one more day without the clamps to be sure and then make it all good some other day.

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[henry r]

keep 'em coming, i for one am enjoying it.

[nijalninja]

Glad to hear that henry. I'm not the fastest nor the cleanest when it comes to this stuff haha. Got another update here too:

So yeah today I had the arvo to finish up the outside patch job. Started off by sawing off as much as I comfortable with.
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Then got my chisel and took a few shaves off of it before I decided that the rasp might be the best go. Used that until I felt I was cutting it close (I touched the stock around the patch a few times grrr). Next came some heavy grit sandpaper where I again touched the areas around the patch, and then just used finer grit papers and eventually touched up the area around the patch to try and level everything out and flatten out the marks from the rasp. Finally got some 1200 grit and just took a lap over the whole area and it came out pretty smooth.
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In the pictures and even in person it looks decently flush with the rest of the stock but your hands can feel what your eyes don't see and its not perfect. Also, where the edges of the bed split in a few places the glue had to take up and you can see them very easily. That and the wood being completely different in the patch compared to the stock really stands out, but considering what has already been done and what still needs to be done to get this sporter stock up to MLE standards makes it more than tolerable.

After all my chiselling, rasping, and sawing the patch didn't budge so I will assume it that means it is a successful patch job. Now I just need to make good the actual draws like I first intended, except I might wait until I have a complete length fore-end rather than this hacked down thing in case the barrel bedding affects the bedding and the draws seating at the back.

So yeah next is fore-end extension and find that mysterious MLE barrel.