Front Pad

[vintage hunter]

I have an ex-Indian no. 4 Mk1/2 T and the thought has crossed my mind to have Brian refinish it but I can't quite bring myself to do it. The way I see it refinishing would lower the collector value and destroy the rifles history at the same time. I have no plans to sell it any time soon but as every Tom,Dick and Harry the world over knows the current U.S. economy sucks hard enough to create a vacuum on a shrimp net so I may have to part with it in the future to survive. The question is: how much of it's value would be removed with the old finish?

[Brian Dick]

I need to tell everyone that since original Suncorite 259 is no longer available, I'll be picking and choosing what jobs I take from here on in because I only have a small supply left. I've refinished almost every British/Commonwealth weapon worth mentioning; from Browning pistols to Bren guns, all manner of Lee's and L1A1's to L7A2 GPMG's in the past 18 or so years. It's been a good run.

[Peter Laidler]

And Sten guns too Brian...........

Good point Vintage Hunter but to be honest and fair, you don't find tooooo many specialist ex Indian Army rifle collectors that go ape over poorly finished, rounded corner woodwork and metalwork painted with multiple coats of Valspar super-gloss yacht paint - although there might be one or two in the world. Indeed, gloss black paint and snipers aren't two words that you'd generally associate together

A good, well finished rifle will always out-sell for speed and value a poor badly finished rifle in my opinion. If sunkorite is as rare as the US dollar, I'd be beating a path to his door to get it done properly

[Brian Dick]

Oops, lets not forget the Stens and Sterlings!

I actually have a really nice No.4Mk.1T out of Indian service. It was a gun show purchase from Deland, Florida many, many years ago. It obviously didn't see much use or a rebuild in Indian service but they still had to modify it by floating the muzzle and center bedding it like so many I've seen from India. To it's credit, I have to admit that it shoots well.

[vintage hunter]

I've often wondered about that too, Peter. Why go to the trouble to rough sand the wood to reduce glare then coat the metal with some shiney paint you can most see your reflection in... appearently with a mop and without disassembling the rifle. Looks like the oil in the stocks prevented the paint from bonding however as most all of it came off when I gave it a good gleaning. All in all it's not as bad as some I've seen, they did'nt sand it enough to remove the ser. # and other markings from the stock.

[Roger Payne]

Well, VH., I think you probably answered your own question.....if the paint is falling off then I suspect you could only improve the rifle by refinishing it......??

To be honset, I don't generally like refinishing kit, but sometimes a rifle or scope, scope tin (or whatever), whilst fundamentally sound, has been made such a mess of cosmetically, it can only be improved by a judicious refinish. When I do it I always do so to the original military specs., wherever possible. Just MHO.

ATB

[jmoore]

But isn't glossy black paint slobbered all over the metal a correct Indian military finish? It's likely contemporary to the front pad rework, so...

Some luverly black painted 2a1s:

[Surpmil]

The finish on the end face of the spigot looks like a rusty piece of plate that's been cleaned off. The lip sticking up on that face where the tap was run through is rather odd to say the least.

The screws have a hardware store made-in-China look about them (funny flat "areolas" in the centre of the heads)

The mating face looks rough as hell as well.

Find another I'd say.