I also used to restore old cars, namely Packards.  It has always been acceptable to rebuild cars to the former glory.  Often, they were restored well beyond the configuration with which they came from the factory.  I have seem many a sedan or even a limo made into and open car by collectors because they either wanted and open car or the monitary incentive to do this was to great.  I fear that many a gun could be done the same way.  My new 22 Lord pistol is a good potiential gun for an over restoration.  It could be made to look like the one Buffalo Bill owned.  I will not do this sort of thing but I fear that its done a bunch by some collectors.  However, I see nothing wrong with restoring a gun back to what it was originally or even reworking it to be what the owner wants so long as its properly represented.  I think its important to do something to a gun that has been made into a rare model form so that its easy for others to tell that its not how the factory made it.  The guy who reworks it may be totally honest if he sells it but after 3 or more changes in ownership these guns can suddenly become something they are not.  This leads to fraud and very hard lessons for some buyers.  It would sure be nice if we could trust everyone but let the buyer beware is a very important motto to go by in the old gun business.   
Red

I seem to recall one of Doug Turnbill's restorations showing up as a mint original a while back and being recognized. I have more than one realy old gun that by now is hard to tell who did what to over the years. That is part of what makes the hobby interesting. I would like to see the face of the poor guy who lifts up the trunk mat on my '57 T-Bird many years after I am gone, and finds a part of a Ford fender with the Fairlaine emblem still on it that somone used to patch the floor before I bought it in 1965!

Wow I want that table worth $500 and if it were not refinished $5000.  Where can I "find" that guy.
Big difference between refinished and restored.
   Don   rustyrelx

slumlord44 wrote on Jul 6^th, 2009 at 9:20pm:


Yep! Doug was at one of James Julia's auctions where a "mint, and possibly unfired 1893 Marlin" was being previewed. Reserve was $10,000, and Doug thought it looked familiar, so he called his shop and had them look up his records for that serial number. Turned out he had completely rebuilt and restored the gun 20 years earlier.
I know the seller and the gun had changed hands numerous times, and somewhere along the way it became a mint original, instead of a Turnbull restoration.
Now here's the funny part! When the gun was auctioned, it was announced that it was indeed a Turnbull restoration, and that the reserve was dropped. End result was the gun went for the reserve price anyway, even after the announcement. So will we see it again in 20 yrs. as a unfired mint gun?

You may be able to get it to shoot to point of aim at 25 yards by playing with the sights. Had a tip up rifle relined and had to install a taller rear sight to get it to shoot to point of aim. Liners sometimes do this no matter how good the installer is. Group size will be good but it is possible for the point of aim to be somewhat off.