Surplus CZ75 Adventure

[Mr. Greene]

Saw that one, it just doesn't have the look without the rounded guard and old style grips.

[26 Inf]

UPDATE: Well, got pretty busy with household chores and some training and consulting stuff - which was a pleasant surprize since I wasn't marketing myself in that respect since retirement. Any of you other retired guys notice your working harder/longersince you've retired?

Anyways I bead blasted the frame - it was quite the adventure. After the first 3 seconds I realized the media I was using was too big, so off to the Farm supply to get some Garnet - 35.00 for 50 pounds versus 7.00 for 50 pounds with the Black Diamond. Got it blasted, wasn't able to get rid of the deeper rust areas completely w/o grinding, but I think it will look OK.

Then on to applying the Norrell's Moly-Resin. The guy is a genius. I've never airbrushed anything before, so I sand blasted some square tubing I had and gave it a shot. Seemed to do okay. So I reread the instructions/tips from Norrell one last time. This is where the genius part comes in, I read this snippet and took it to heart:

After you have coated your parts adequately, they parts should be cured in an oven. Inspect your parts carefully before curing to make sure you sprayed them to your standards before final curing. Moly Resin can be removed with Acetone or MEK before curing. After curing you can’t remove it with a chemical so you will need to re-blast.

I immediately went to the hardware store and bought a gallon of MEK, a friendly little chemical I'm familiar with from our go-kart racing days. So far I've painted it 3 times. I think the MEK has actually penetrated my chem gloves I think Norrell has a deal with Kleen Strip and Ace Hardware.

I didn't think to take any pictures of it painted, but here it is after my last strip job:

Attachment 40646

I'll get back on it today or tomorrow, I think I'm going to try to find a cheap single action airbrush.

[26 Inf]

Okay, here the frame is with the slide. I had to order some pins and spring from CZ so it took a backseat to other projects for a while.

The slide is pretty representative of the whole weapon when I got it. Notice the rust pits on the hammer and the general poor finish. This pistol had been rode hard and put away wet.

The grips were caked with old grease and crud on the underside, I wanted to put them on for the picture so I brushed them with a stiff nylon brush, then shot on some gun scrubber to clean them further - big mistake, they got sticky and soft. Let them set in the sun for a while, then washed with soap and water. After they dried I shot them with some paint I had left over from painting mags. They dried okay so I put them on. I have some some G10 LOKGrips inbound in the golfball texture.

Next week I'm going to strip the finish from the slide as much as possible, bead blast it and shoot it with the same color Norrell's Moly Resin. I've never used an airbrush before (you can probably tell) but BudsGunShop still has these in stock,so I'll see if I can get better - two sons and two daughters to potentially get them for.

Attachment 40962

Attachment 40961

[daniel87]

she reminds me of a workhorse.

she aint pretty like a custom 1911, but she will work.


goodluck with the rest

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[nova3930]

26 inf, look at cdisales on gunbroker. they've got a lot of surplus cz75s and they're fantastic to deal with. Probably save a few $ over buds too. every gun I've gotten from them was in better than described condition.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[26 Inf]

Thanks for the tip Nova!

[26 Inf]

I just painted and cured the slide today. I'm getting the hang of it a little better, you can see on the frame the small triangle and semi circle where I knocked it over putting it in the oven. I let the slide dry completely outdoors before I brought it in and put it in the oven.

I have sights on the way from Dawson Precision so didn't bother assembling it until they are installed on the slide.

Attachment 41198

Next project is a used 870 Express I picked up at the LGS to practice shaping the loading port and more Moly Resin application.

[williejc]

Some of the older CZ's lack the firing pin block safety and may be capable of a lighter trigger pull. The CZ Custom shop sometimes will have dirt cheap take off parts like hammers. I forget what else. The owner/big boss man is a famous CZ competitor and gun smith and has the reputation of being a nice, helpful guy. The same is true for the owner of Cajun Gun Works. He too is a famous CZ gun smith. I have corresponded with both. CGW is in Louisiana and has a deal or two occasionally on take off parts. The CZ is over engineered for sure with many heavy duty parts. This trait allows it to be rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt. I bought a factory armorer's manual on two of the 75 series from CZ Custom.

I'm ignorant of sand blasting and best keep my mouth shut. Many use glass beads for blasting, and some use the very gentle soda in a special blaster.

[26 Inf]

Kind of bringing this to a close. After I got the sights from Dawson, I found they did not fit. I filed the base on the front sight, applied some cold blue and installed it, no problemo.

The rear sight was a different matter. The bottom of the sight 'overhang' rubbed on the slide behind the dovetail and wouldn't allow me to start the sight into the dovetail. This perplexed me because as far as I could tell I have what is essentially a 75B slide without a firing pin safety. I put the sight in the vice and begin slicing away with the Dremel. Here is a picture. Notice that the padded jaws are not on the vise and that a strip of lathe is cushioning the sight on the top side. It got hot enough to start to melt the rubber.

Attachment 42720

So after that was done I cold blued the rear sight and began to install, had to do a couple stokes with the file to get it to fit the dovetail. Another go round with the cold blue and ready to go.

First trip to the range was a major bummer. Sights were off on elevation, which I expected, but the dang thing grouped dinner plate size at 25 off the bench.

Trudged back to the house and ordered a bushing from Cajun Gun works. Wasn't sure it would fit, so emailed Cajun's Customer Service late Friday or Saturday evening. Lo and behold I had an answer the next morning and ordered the correct bushing and a couple of front sight roll pins as well as a new Cajun Floating Trigger Pin. Shipping was as quick as the response to my email. Getting the old bushing out was not that difficult and the new one installed easily - the dovetail for the sight pin matched up correctly first time.

Back to the range, grouped substantially tighter, but still about 4 inches off the bench. I used PMC and Blazer 115gr FMJ both times, did not try any other weights. At this point I'm going to get some 124grainers and see how it shoots before I get a new barrel.

Here is how she looks at this point. This was my first attempt at both airbrushing and applying Norrel's Moly Coat, every mistake I made is highly visible. Next one will be better, waiting for AIM to get another batch.

Attachment 42721

[williejc]

David Milam is the gunsmith/owner at Cajun and goes by the username Schmeky on The Original CZ Forum. He stated that these barrels are fitted from the breech in with little or no attention elsewhere. I've seen "take off" 75 barrels for sale cheap on the CZ Custom site and Cajun may have them occasionally. Before buying another barrel, have you considered having the original's muzzle recrowned? Another possibility is building up the barrel hood at the breech end and then filing it to ft. This technique was common with .45 pistol smiths trying to produce target pistols. Midway is currently stocking these barrels. I'd bet, though, that you can build up the original barrel and refit to produce your desired accuracy level.