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May 28, 2010
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Hey everyone, my first post was on the "What model do I have?" thread and I got some great response from you guys as what I should do with this gun. Here's the story:
My grandfather died about 25 years ago, and he was a gun man. He had a Dan Wesson 15-2 that was clearly taken care of and probably not shot much. It had a blued barrel and I loved the gun. My grandmother let me and my brothers have the pick of the guns before selling them. Although I wanted the DW, my brother called dibbs. My brother is the type that seems to forget the personal value of things and ended up selling the gun for some cash. He never properly had the registration tranfered (probably because it was still in my grandma's name and she wouldn't be happy about him selling it). About a year after he sold it, my grandma received a call from the police that her revolver was found on a dead guy. The gun had nothing to do with a crime or anything, but the guy was dead and he was carrying it. I have to wonder if he was drown or something as you will see in the pics. My grandma received the gun back and the wife of the dead guy wanted the gun and my grandma said she'll have to meet at the police station to transfer registration. Unfortunately for the lady, she was moving to Alaska the next day and there was no time to go to the police station. The gun was in terrible shape and some think it was in a fire, but I think it was just underwater. The original wood grip is in excellent shape aside from a little roughing at the butt. The rest was corroded and rusted with some green "gunk" that could only be removed with a razor blade. I asked my grandma if I could have the gun and try to get it back into shape. She gave it to me and I was fretting over who I could take it to. Most people aren't fond of the smiths in Las Vegas, and the costs to ship to other smiths was annoying. Thankfully I found this forum and the wonderful article by Shootist357: https://www.danwessonforum.com/?page_id=3/reloading/tuning-up-your-15-2-the-average-joe-method/
I'm good with my hands but have never messed with a gun. I was so pleased to find out that with Shootists357 instructions and the right tools, it was way easier than working on my car.
Here are the before pics:
Note the green "gunk" on the barrel:
I soaked it in ATF for a couple days as suggested to try and get it working properly again. After receiving the tools to disassemble it, I found the inside was worse.
So I went at the thing with gun cleaning spray, a dremel with wire brushes and polishing bits, #00 Steel Wool, followed by #0000 Steel Wool, followed by metal polish. I didn't time it but over a couple weeks I probably spent 7-8 hrs on it. It's gorgeous now. I don't want to blue it, I always wanted a shiny revolver and I was so lucky that this was was the Stainless Steel model. It's not perfect as I only have so much patience and the metal has been corroded in spots. I really love it now and it works perfectly. The original problem it had was just the trigger return spring being displaced. I replaced all springs since they were slightly rusted and opted for the Wolff spring kit for lighter action.
Polished the barrel first….
And of course nothing like a shiny gun with a black grip!
May 17, 2010
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Holy crap that doesn't look like that same gun!! thats fantastic!
Soap Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box
in that order.
4 Monson Model 15's
1 Palmer FB 15
1 Rossi 357 Model 92 (lever)
1 CZ 75B
February 11, 2010
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Nice save !
-Blacktop
Range Officer
Range Officers
Dans Club
February 9, 2009
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Talk about your makeovers! 
That is a fantastic salvage of an abused Dan. Thanks for sharing what can really happen to a has been..
A man cannot have too many SuperMags
Range Officer
Range Officers
Dans Club
February 28, 2009
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Beautiful restoration. However, if you want to keep it that shiny, you may want to consider nickle plating. Just a thought.
-Mike
Dans Club
May 17, 2009
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DenialS,
Can I send you one of mine? You did a beautiful job on the 715, WOW! Great pics also!
Ed
DWF Supporters
Dans Club
Moderators
November 17, 2008
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I love a happy ending. Great job and great story!
LB
Wisdom is merely the realization of how little one knows, therefore I am wise.
Supporter
Range Officer
Range Officers
May 2, 2009
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Nice work ! My guess is that gun did go through a fire, but wasn't in a hot area--that looks like your typical house fire smoke damaged gun. the smoke particles as well as the fumes generated in the fire do the discoloration and rusting. So is that originally a blued gun you polished back to bare metal, or is it a stainless steel one? Serial number puts it in the blued category. If that is bare metal you'll need to get it plated or blued to keep it looking good.
SHOOT
January 22, 2008
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Great before and after shots!
Dans Club
March 2, 2008
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SHOOTIST357 said:
Nice work ! My guess is that gun did go through a fire, but wasn't in a hot area--that looks like your typical house fire smoke damaged gun. the smoke particles as well as the fumes generated in the fire do the discoloration and rusting. So is that originally a blued gun you polished back to bare metal, or is it a stainless steel one? Serial number puts it in the blued category. If that is bare metal you'll need to get it plated or blued to keep it looking good.
SHOOT
First off, that is really beautiful work, you should be proud of restoring a classic. I agree that this was almost certainly a blued 15-2, not stainless. Serial number-wise it falls into a date range prior to SS/715 production. Also, most 715's seem to have S/N's that lead with "S" or "357S". If this is the case, you have a bare, unprotected steel finish that may need lots of attention to resist corrosion.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Were is the Self Help Section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
George Carlin
May 28, 2010
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Thanks for the praise, I'm really proud of it.
Shootist357 and SteveCT, I may be wrong but you guys seem to know quite a bit around here and I appreciate your input. I understand the serial number doesn't fit an SS gun, and as I said it seemed to be in mint condition before….blued. I doubt my grandfather would have blued an SS gun. I just assumed it was SS because it was fairly easy to bring out this finish, I figured the bare metal of a blued gun would be much more dull even when polished. With that, I can already see keeping the finish bright will be a pain. The good thing is I live in the desert and corrosion is hard to come by (I would assume as it goes for the aluminum rims on my car and the airplanes I'm around.).
So in regard to plating, is nickle ever mirror finish or is it always flat? What about chrome plating? How would that go? Send off the parts to a gun plating service or take it to the local shine shop I have down the street. They seem to do anything. I would assume plating would only go on the frame, sideplate, cylinder assembly and barrel but not the sights, hammer, trigger or internals?
Typical pricing anyone?
I'm really happy with the gun and plan to take it out to the range tomorrow. I'll buy some new rounds, but my grandma still has some Federal 357 mag bullets with a receipt from 1981!! Safe, unsafe, or just a bunch of duds?
May 17, 2010
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Aluminum, does not corrode like steal ( but can still dertiorate), so not a good comparison. On all the DW revolvers I have seen the Nickle finish was mirror.
Don't know about the plating.
The ammo should be fine. I have some my dad loaded himself in ~ 1973!
Soap Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box
in that order.
4 Monson Model 15's
1 Palmer FB 15
1 Rossi 357 Model 92 (lever)
1 CZ 75B
Range Officer
Range Officers
Dans Club
February 28, 2009
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May 17, 2009
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DenialS said:
my grandma still has some Federal 357 mag bullets with a receipt from 1981!! Safe, unsafe, or just a bunch of duds?
Hmmm, I might keep those for the Dan Wesson museum some day. The boxes might be pretty neat to have in a collection.
Could you post a pic of the box? PM me if you want to put them in the museum.
Ed
Dans Club
March 2, 2008
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Having done a nickel project, I can offer some enlightenment, but first:
It can be shiny! This was a perfectly good 15-2, I just felt "the need". My gunsmith broke it down, did the polishing needed, and sent it out to the plater. My gunny then reassembled with new springs and an action smoothing, cost me about $350 (maybe a little more), and I spec'd leaving the trigger, hammer, sights blue.
I was told that garden variety chrome can be a thicker plating, and cause a lot of refitting problems. Much of the cost came in with stripping off the bluing and high polishing. A high gloss finish requires a mirror polish to begin with, and I had the top rib left more of a matte finish for a contrast. I recently had a 4 VH shroud done for this one, and it cost $80.
Just a reminder-on bright nickel you can damage the finish with strong ammonia based cleaners.
Not inexpensive, between the purchase price of the revolver and the refinishing it ran about $700, worth every penny but it's the only one I'll ever have done like this.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Were is the Self Help Section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
George Carlin
April 25, 2008
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Great story! You did a fine job on that, sure looks new! I agree that Ford's does an excellent job. I would get it nickel-finished if it were mine. Here's my factory nickeled SuperMag.
The Savantist
May 28, 2010
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Shot this gun today, turned out great. After about 40 rounds the trigger spring wasn't seated right and stopped returning the trigger. It was simply because one of the sideplate backed out and allowed the spring to unseat. I got it about 80% sighted in but ran out of time.
After it was done, it was a little bit of a pain to clean. Would it be better with some actual plating?
Dans Club
March 2, 2008
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In the long run, yes. If you want to re-blue, consider this:
https://www.danwessonforum.com/?page_id=3/parts-and-service/hot-bluing-service/
I think he would be the most highly qualified, and you might get a pretty good price considering all the work you've done (and he doesn't have to do).
Ford's has a great reputation as well.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Were is the Self Help Section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
George Carlin
July 23, 2010
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Joe S.
central MS
Range Officers
February 25, 2009
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Great clean up!!!!
Metalifa hard chrome is another finish option. I belive that's who JD jones uses for his barrels. Good stuff.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
~Thomas Jefferson~
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