Tom's MGC DL44

I should also mention I completely field stripped this to sand it. Didnt lost any parts though, its like the mechanism isnt locking into place.. but it is, i can cock and pull the trigger
 
Okay folks i think i have some answers.

1) the bolt spring. That big long one
Basically the bolt pulls back and bumps on its underside push down on the hammer mechanism. This process was not functioning properly, and really the bolt was the problem, not the hammer mechanism. It was getting stuck on its own. I stripped it again, and flipped the bolt spring around. Put it back together and it worked better. I think after 40 years the spring has a flexible end and a stiff end, making it twist instead of compress normally if the wrong end is pushed. Old springs have memory.

2) grease. It was still a little rough and I realized the action had grease all over it when I got it. After handling i don't feel much left. I have some gun grease coming to me to lubricate the insides like before, that should do the trick.

I also sanded it very well but couldn't get the chrome out of some corners and copper off of some places. Blueing didnt seem like a good option now. So i did the next best thing: a steel wool rubdown. First step is a good coating of black paint, and second is attacking it with steel wool or something. I basically want to blend the layers and get the finish down. Then i am starting with a black MGC and can dust paint over the greeblies like they did.

I did the black coat today, and noticed in my carelessness some tiny flecks of zinc had chipped away probably when i was field stripping it and it hit the table or something (pin head size pieces maybe im over reacting) but i used Halliwaxes favorite black professional enamel as the new coat (and also to help protect it)
 
Here is step 1
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Buffing down the paint will come next :)
 
Thanks!

Still waiting for steel wool - but i did have a stainless scrubby pad and couldn't help myself, thought id try it out. Were in the right direction! The steel wool will totally even out the finish more, and take it down to a thin layer
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Guess what I got today?

This grease was suggested to me by a friend and it's like a gel. Not the paste grease that was in the gun originally, and I much prefer it. However it's blood red and makes any clean-up look like an ER scene

I put it on every surface inside, including the bolt and the sidewall, mechanism, springs, in the lever sockets, etc. though lightly. I didn't swab it on because it's new to me. if I need more I guess I can repeat this. I remember distinctly the spring loaded metal block had a lot of grease on it, so I focused on that.

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I didn't take any pictures inside because I had gloves on unfortunately, ask me about any details you'd like!
 
Looking good, buddy! This is actually very similar to what I do with most of my paint jobs. It seems pretty basic, especially when you try to explain it to someone, but the results are always really nice!
 
Ok folks

I don't have photoshop, or whatever people use to measure distances between items up-close (I've seen Dustin do this for the Fett rifle) but I do have the updated apple photos on my laptop, which lets me draw straight lines, shapes and transfer shapes to other items.

SO

I had this realization today that seems a little dumb typing it out. Circles... the horizontal diameter is the same as the vertical diameter because... it's a circle. I thought this might be a good avenue to explore how big things are in relation to eachother. Basically, photos aren't comparable to each other because of angles and lighting and distance... but proportionally and generally within each photo you can probably draw some conclusions. I have to say none of this is exact, and I can't claim this to be uber accurate. I just wanted to see where things line up, if they do at all.

If this has been done before, I apologize.

I first took some photos from the ESB thread and just blocked out the mount for myself, to see silhouettes of the mysterious parts around the bracket. I posted them to the thread too.
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That showed me
1) The mystery knob is bigger than I thought, but I don't really know how big

2) There is more weight to the idea that the mystery knob might be sitting on TOP of the current disc (ex-Thorens) There is no paint damage around the disc on the bracket, no flat area outside the screw heads to cover them on the disc - screws sit on the edge of the disc - and finally that the glue area in-between is too small to match the photos we have of the disc. These 3 ideas are important and left me in a quandary designing my blaster.

If you're still with me, thanks. So I started drawing lines. I measured distances between items on the gun. I did not transfer exact measurements from one photo to another, but the relationship of parts. Like doing proportional fractions. For example: the lower edge of the front disc screw is centered on the lower piston screw. That's the purple line below. I angled all the lines to be parallel to the M19 side of the bracket, which is a good horizontal marker. At least, it's a good marker for another photo from a similar angle!

I took the straight-on magazine photo and measured the lower edge of the disc to be a little more than 1 screw head beneath the edge of the screw. Then, it's 4 1/2 of those screw heads to the top edge of the disc, so.. the diameter. I used this to get the edges of the disc drawn out, especially when we can't see it.

Here, the Purple line is the lower edge of the front screw. Green lines are the edge of the disc: I started with the screw head, measured down, and then 4 1/2 up from the bottom. Boom, edges of the disc.
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The red lines I took from the "top-hat" photo, or #2. That's the observable edge of the mystery knob. Turns out it's a specific distance from the green lines on both sides. I then transferred that to picture #1 with Al Roker, proportionally.

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So, I tried other parts of the gun and failed, but this seemed to do it. Random things were lining up, like relationships to the pistons and the edge of the bracket, etc. so I felt confident enough to start with the screw heads on the Magazine photo, and walk through measuring that one. The red lines are really half-way from the purple to the green. So it did it to the bottom of the disc, and copied that distance to the top of the disc like before. And then drew a perfect circle using the M19 socket, and shift-transferred it to the red lines.

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The mystery knob definitely has cut-outs for the screw heads, and covers half of the heads. There's black paint residue on most of the disc, so it had to have been painted before the knob was glued in place.


Phew...
 
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I should add, I found Red/Green on the Top-Hat photo, and found Purple/Green on the Al Roker photo, and was able to apply everything together.
 
Can someone tell me if this is an optical illusion? It may mean something if it's not.

Looks like the lower screw on the bracket is in the same place this whole time...
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but look at those yellow and orange lines - the spacer and bracket edge. Much more space at the bottom than on screen..
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If it's an optical illusion, then we can use the most recent photos as a guide. If not, the spacer is able to move?! May not be solid if that's true. I just don't see how it's put together without a solid spacer though.
 
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It seems like the spacer has slid upwards recently. It shouldn't nearly line up with the smaller plate on the bottom and be higher than the plate on top. Measuring today's blaster for the bottom of the spacer:
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Higher
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Lower
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It's not much but if you zoom in really close, you can bluntly see the bracket sits squarely outside the holster. No wonder the knob came off.

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ok, im a bit confused now, i thought all mgc mausers were not pfg but just replica's. ive got one (not gold painted) and i was told not to use plug fire cartridges in it because it wouldnt take the bang?
 
ok, im a bit confused now, i thought all mgc mausers were not pfg but just replica's. ive got one (not gold painted) and i was told not to use plug fire cartridges in it because it wouldnt take the bang?
I can't vouch that the instructions printed on the box of cartridges by MGC were the best for the gun. I mean, here in the US I can expect that instructions wouldn't break the toy, but I'm not sure how it works in Japan. They're high quality replicas, with a massive attention to detail - but I'm not sure how many gunpowder pops Zinc cast metal can take

I also want to say, for anyone following the thread, my current estimate is as follows:

A cylinder of metal (or a found part spacer) held onto the gun with screws from the piston side. They sliced the screw heads off and instead used nuts against the gun. Bracket held on with 3 screws from the plate, also tapped into the solid spacer from the other side. Plastic cap glued over the screw heads I guess.

I can't say why the spacer was moved, or if that's just an illusion. I also can't explain why the eff they would do this. I mean, I think the key is figuring out if the spacer is solid, because if it isn't, the 3 screws lock the bracket to the gun, and the nuts on the other side are a mystery again.
 
OR there are 2 countersunk bolts in the bracket, and the disc with 3 screws is just decoration covering those bolts.
 
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