First tri-color

Or should I say quad-color (check out the brown/black grips). Just picked this up, my first lightweight, first tri-color, first flatgate, all-in-1.

It was converted, with walnut grips added at that time.. Not the original box, but had the conversion box, original parts and conversion receipt. I put back the original parts and grips. I'm a happy camper...

Check out the hammer. Any idea why someone would file the corner like that? Would you leave it or replace it? I'm thinking of looking for another hammer, if there's any around.

Also, what's something like this worth? Has a couple small scratches on the left side of the barrel, that don't show up in the pics.

Gary

Maybe it poked the guys side when carrying?

easier to slide his right thumb over it...nice gun, love the 'chocolate' colored hard rubbers........yes, hammers are out there to be had

That is one nice Lightweight. Look at the cylinder, it is in great shape, That is the first thing to go as the hard coat starts to chip almost from the first. Yours is in great shape, not mint but very nice. For some reason the blueing on the Lightweight barrels are very weak, even the mint ones the blueing is weak, your still looks good. The first thing I would do is try to find a hammer to put it back right. Again a very nice Lightweight. To find one that is better is going to be hard to do and It will cost you a lot of "Bucks" A great find :lol: :lol: :wink:

Street "hit the nail on the head". That is indeed a really nice LWAC!

Congratulations on the acquisition!

flatgate

I love the BROWN grips 8) fine lightweight----- I would leave the hammer alone just the way it was as found 8)

Thanks guys. I like the 1 brown and 1 black grip. With the grips off, you can see the brown only goes halfway thru, the inside of the brown grip is black...

No drag line on the cyliinder, just a small mark at the beginning of each notch. And like I mentioned, a small scratch on the barrel.

I got it for $350, I think I did good...

Gary

you did well for the price, very nice. Whats the serial number and I'll add it to the Lightweight serial number list.

zonk said:

Thanks guys. I like the 1 brown and 1 black grip. With the grips off, you can see the brown only goes halfway thru, the inside of the brown grip is black...

No drag line on the cyliinder, just a small mark at the beginning of each notch. And like I mentioned, a small scratch on the barrel.

I got it for $350, I think I did good...

Gary

Click to expand...

That was the going price for a Lightweight back in the 1980s. :shock: You did very well with the price. :lol:

Great find, congrats.

That is a very nice Tri-Color....I'd say you got it a about 50% off!! I probably have a nice hammer for it, if interested contact me off-line and we can talk about it.
FT44/aka Bill

Great snag! Would you like to double your money???
Terry

You can restore the grip panels should you want to anyway, by giving them a good cleaning with household cleaner like Formula 409 and a toothbrush, rinse with warm water, and when dry use some black shoe dye. Note that I said DYE and not shoe polish. Wipe on, let soak in a little and wipe off excess with a piece of gauze, terry cloth towel or scrap of microfiber towel. And don't spill any of that dye or get it on your hands ! Gloves are a good idea.

Nice Gun & I Love the Brown Grips! J/S

hey skip the dye...just soakem with gun oil.....I use clenzoil and they will blacken up again....or just leavem brown as lots of people likem that way.....RR.

Ohhh, don't spoil those nice old chocolate grips!! Guess I just like to keep 'em the way they really are! :wink:
Ft44

I experimented with a pair of "less than perfect" black plastic grips. These even had a couple of chips out of them and the "checkering" was somewhat flattened. No "collector quality" panels were compromised in this project.

Following the info offered here quite a long time ago, I purchased a package of RIT black dye powder. I dumped the entire package into a half-pound coffee can of rapidly-boiling water. After cleaning the grips with dishwashing liquid and a scrub brush, I dropped them into the boiling cauldron. I stirred them with a wooden dowel for about ten minutes, then took the can out the back door with a pair of pliers and carefully dumped out all the boiling blackness and refilled the can immediately with more boiling water I had brought along for the purpose.

I stirred the panels around in the hot rinse water for a few minutes and then carefully dumped them out and let them dry in the sun on the deck rail. Since they wee pretty hot, this did not take long.

After they were dry, I wiped them off with a soft cloth, and got quite a bit of black on the cloth in the process. I then wiped them down with a liberal dose of Hoppe's gun oil and wrapped them up in a cloth for the rest of the day. Next day I again wiped them down and got a little more black on the cloth, but the panels were nice and black . . . like new, as far as color went. The medallions, which I had left in place, showed no change whatsoever.

These panels are usually attached to my "experienced" .357 Flattop, and suit the application perfectly. They have shed a little black on the cloth the gun is wrapped in when stored, but still look quite nice. I do not notice any black on my hands when shooting or cleaning the gun.

Not saying you should do this to yours, just relating a personal experience. I kinda like the look of a nicely-browned set myself, particularly if the gun they are on has a little "age" showing.



PS Do not get any of that boiling black stuff on ANYTHING else. Trust me on this.

:roll:

Thanks for the tips, but I'm leaving the grips as is. Other than the 1 brown and 1 black, I can't find a scratch or nick on them. I think the 2 colors adds 'character'.

I do have a hammer coming from FT44. I think the gun deserves that.

So Ale, was it the dye or the oil that made them black :?: :?: :?: RR

Well, Rod, in this case it was surely the dye. I had attempted the oil treatment with essentially no results. They came out a little shinier and with a more uniform appearance than the dull, oxidized appearance before being oiled, but after the "black boil" they were definitely BLACK . . . deep, dark, uniform BLACK, although with no gloss to speak of. The post-boil oiling improved that considerably.

I'll agree that I've used oil, or WD-40 as well, on some panels that weren't too nice and it did improve them somewhat. At least it made them shiny. I truly believe that a lot of the shabby appearance of "brown" panels is that in addition to being faded they are dreadfully dull, a "flat" appearance if you will. Oil kills that.

A good scrubbing and "black boiling" followed up with a light oiling works wonders.

YMMV, JMHO, I ain't no expert, but this has worked to my complete satisfaction.