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

[Sam]

Was the gun recovered in Bibb County? Houston County?

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

Macon county...Marshallville

[Sam]

Gotcha, it didn't go too far.

[tn1911]

Gotcha, it didn't go too far.

Ask'em about the body count on that gun...

[Iraqgunz]

If you don't give a shit about it, let the local hack do it and take your chances. Otherwise 290.00 plus shipping seems reasonable to have it done by professionals who actually built the gun after all.

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

My local guy is excellent. But since there is a bit of rust on the trigger surfaces and I am thinking about swapping the front sight to a gold bead I might send it in to Wilson to keep it all factory

[hk_shootr]

One thing to keep in mind is product support from Wilson.
Have someone else work on it and that may be out the window.
I think Wilson would enjoy the story.

[Diesel79]

I’d definitely send it back to Wilson.

[rocketman]

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.

I restore cast iron pans now and then. We use a 50/50 vinegar/water solution to take rust off and it works extremely well. I can't speak to gun parts but with cast iron you have to be careful and not soak it too long as it WILL eventually pit the metal. The rule of thumb I use on pans is soak no longer than 30 min at a time then take it out rinse it well with cold water, scrub it a bit, rinse and repeat. Not sure it is ideal for guns as there are more aggressive methods/solvents available that you wouldn't want to use on a cooking pan.

[Doc Safari]

I would stick with the Break Free soak before I'd try vinegar. The Break Free method always seemed to work for me unless there was definite pitting and then it removes all but the deepest little pin-prick rust spots. I'm not sure anything but drastic refinishing gets rid of those.