Refinishing my Ruger air hawk

[Schmidty25]

I am starting today refinishing my ruger air hawk, I bought it refurbished and the stock was pretty dinged up when I got it. I plan on giving it a light walnut stain and finishing it with pure tung oil. this is my first time working on a gun stock. so we'll se how it goes. I will continue to post uup pics, I have a question for the experienced techs who rebuild/ service the mechanical aspects of springers. the spring is visible when I take the stock off. Should/Can? I lube that if so what should I use. thanx

[bcshooter]

Have you chrony it yet to see if you are losing any velocity? Do you own or plan to build a spring compressor? If you answer yes to both of these questions than you can take yournext steps. Tar needs to be wiped sparingly on the OD of the spring, all the way around the entire spring. Top to bottom to be effective. There are other steps you need to do but if you want it I can detail more info, just PM me........Bill

[jake]

good luck! cant wait to see her alldone!

[Schmidty25]

bcshooter.  I haven't chrony'd the gun and it shoots great just wondering if u could lube it without disassembling it.  

So I coated the gun with citristrip and stripped all the old finish off, but the stain is still hangin on there.  I tried to get it off with steel wool and it worked but is pretty tough to get off.  The stock is dried.  I am wondering  Think I should re-apply the stripper and scrub the stock with steel wool again?  any Suggestions

[Bentong]

You should be able to take it all off with a 200 or 220 sandpaper. I just did 3 of my stocks and used Minwax stain and wipe on poly. I picked wipe on poly because you won't have any brush stroke or striking when done.

[joeblow]

one part bleach to 8 parts zip strip works great lighting up that stain.

[Schmidty25]

thanx for the advice guys, i'll be working on it tonight and tomorrow,   supposed to be getting a snow storm here in DE

[Gene_SC]

If you canfigure out how to lube tune and de burr a springerproperly,without taking it apart, I will close my shop...:) By the way nice sanding job on the stock.

[ezman604]

Gene_SC - 2/24/2010 7:23 PM If you canfigure out how to lube tune and de burr a springerproperly,without taking it apart, I will close my shop...:)

HeeHee....dream on Gene. LOL

We can't let you close.

And yep, looking good so far.

Dave

[SirNomad]

Keep us updated man!   REMEMBER

[Schmidty25]

?

[Schmidty25]

well guys I wasn't happy with the stain left over on the stock so I went ahead and put citris on it again.  I then let it sit for 40 minutes.   After that I scrubbed the whole stock with steel wool.  So there was still cleaner on the stock.  So I used steel wool and water and just started scrubbing/ washing the cleaner off and you could see the stain coming off in the water.  Soaking the stock did raise the grain but it also removed the dings in the stock.   I then let it sit over night.  I am going to sand then heat treat some spots.  and we'll see how the weather is might end up staining it tomorrow morning.

[longislandhunter]

Looks like you did a great job. Congratulations..  looking forward to seeing it all stained.....

Jeff

[renowntwo]

great looking stock, what color stain are you going to use?

[Schmidty25]

I plan on mixing a walnut with golden oak.  going to experiment with it a little bit.  I want to do a light stain.  BTW on another note I have been using an iron to try and help get the old stain out of the stock.  been sanding for a while to get all the remaining stain off.  But what a PITA  been sanding and trying not to ruin any of the natural lines of the stock.  It'll be nice.  I don't think I'll sand above 150 I might used 220 but we'll see