My stolen Wilson Combat came back...RUSTED! (cue "love shack")

Some of you may remember that I had my custom Wilson CQB stolen in a burglary 3 years ago. I figured it would come back eventually and it has. I believe this may be a cursed item. The kid whole stole it was caught almost immediately, and later committed suicide. The guy who had it got in a horrible car wreck and they found my gun. I think I am going to call this gun Christine

Well, it is a rusty mess. I do not think this gun was in the care of a gun afficinado, and the original two magazines were still with it (humorously the cops tried to give me a 40 cal high capacity pro-mag along with it, and I was like...I don't do promag ma'am. LOL). It was filthy on the inside and rusty all over. Not DEEP nasty rust, but it was clear it had been allowed to dry out and later the humidity got to it. There was rust , especially around the bushing oddly. But I Brought home and gave it a general cleaning and fired the 16 rounds that came with it (random ball) and 50 rounds of Blazer Brass and it seems as good as ever. Now I need to figure out if I can get rid of all this rust with steel wool, if so, I will just chalk it up to character wear....

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7808/...aa4c5de3_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7808/...5033aa8b_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/...6ef41f0a_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7869/...af56081e_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7897/...5ca7638a_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7858/...5cee4aab_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7896/...e99b9380_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7888/...9dbe7935_b.jpgRusty 1911 by stoiclawyer, on Flickr

I've seen rust like that respond to a good, long soaking in Break Free, preferably the foaming type in the aerosol cans. The firearms I've used this method with eventually, and I emphasize "eventually" shed the rust and leave bare metal if you leave the parts in the Break Free soak long enough.

IIRC I filled a plastic container with the firearm parts, doused them with Break Free from the aerosol can, sealed the container, and left it for several weeks.

It's been about 15 years since I treated lightly rusted parts this way so I don't remember how long it took to do its magic. Right now I've got a Colt AR with some rust between the flash hider and the crush washer and I just go back and coat the joint with Break Free every few days. I can see it's having an effect, but oh-so-slowly.

It's tedious and I'm not saying it works in every case, but man you're sure happy when you go back and the rust is gone leaving shiny metal.

Good Luck.

That sounds like a plan. A fair amount wiped away, but I am concerned about the stuff under the sights where I can't get to it.

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Originally Posted by Greg Bell

That sounds like a plan. A fair amount wiped away, but I am concerned about the stuff under the sights where I can't get to it.

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I'd strip it ALL the way down.

Your WC is not a cast iron pan, but...

Vinegar is very effective on rust in cast iron pans. Not saying that's what you should do, but if the break free doesn't work... maybe it'll be worth looking at.

Why couldn't it be a Kimber? :(

Did you see if Wilson would help you out?

I'd consider media/bead blast and Hard Chrome that one.

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Originally Posted by CFII

Did you see if Wilson would help you out?

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x2. I’d tell them your story and see if they can do a full cleaning, inspection overhaul.

My uncle restored an old 1911 he found at my paps after he passed. He used this and said it worked well to remove rust. It is not harsh and pretty cheap

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Soaking it in white vinegar for a few weeks sound take some off as well

You could also look into electrolysis rust removal. It is fairly easy to set up from the looks of it and the pics/videos I have seen show it to be very effective

https://www.wwgoa.com/article/removi...-electrolysis/