1962 BSA L1A1 rebuild

[mrclark303]

Morning all,

I thought a little L1A1 goodness would lift a very dull grey Autumn morning (here in the UK anyway).

Some before and after comparison shots of a cosmetic rebuild (old spec deactivated rifle) I carried out for the rifles owner a couple of years ago.

This rifle was unusual in the fact that it still retained its full set of matching numbered parts it left service with (including BSA 1961 woodwork), very rare for a British L1A1, as they tended to be stripped, deactivated and re-assembled with whatever parts came out of the pile first by most deactivation companies!

She was very well used to say the least, but a complete strip (some replaced non restricted parts) and cosmetic rebuild later, she looked the part, add the SUIT, bayonet, sling and cleaning kit and was ready for museum display.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Very, very nice looking rifle.

[mrclark303]

Cheers Jim, all there just a mess, very well used and thoroughly abused! Interestingly, the hammer had a crack running laterally right through it, a few more dry fires and it would have sheared.

The action springs were rusted and binding too, so I replaced them, the hammer, hammer spring and top cover, as it was just beyond saving due to the usual cracks and dings...

[browningautorifle]

Well it now resembles the rifle so many of us carried for some time during our life. Very clean and looking like it's ready to "March on the Colors"...

[nzl1a1collector]

Nice looking rifle, yours started out like mine is...... must of had the same original paint job.

[mrclark303]

Cheers Kevin,

That's a really nice late 60's/early 70's spec example you have there, UK L1's are seldom encountered with the laminate forend here (usually all wood or all plastic).
Most of the wood stocked Lithgows we see however, do have the laminate forend fitted, the coachwood two slot forends are very rarely seen, when you do encounter them, they are usually in very poor condition.

I have a number of Lithgow coachwood forends in my workshop that were taken from Malay contract rifles, all in poor, split and badly bruised condition, not surprising considering how those rifles were stored though!

Still searching for a nice crisp SLAZ marked example...

[Peter Laidler]

All or certainly most of those poor, split and badly bruised handguards - same as similar butts - are easily repairable and capable of being brought back into use. Our big workshops only binned woodwork that was beyond any hope of repair. Even longitudinal splits at the rear end were strengthened internally, made good and sent out again.

[mrclark303]

Afternoon Peter,

All reparable in a fashion, one day I will get round to repairing and refinishing them, plus the small mountain of Lithgow butts I have been left with!

[nzl1a1collector]

Those are British made laminated handguards, in fact it was the British that came up with the laminated handguards and forwarded the design to the Australians, who originally utilised British metalwork until they could produce their own.

[Peter Laidler]

The original idea to replace wood was with handguards made from paxolin. Not heard of it? It's the same linen impregnated bauxite smelling plastic(?) material used to make No7 bayonet grips.

The first laminated handguards I saw were in late 67 or early 68 in Malaya. Do those dates fit in with Australian issue?