I just purchased another Lord but this one in 22.  No more 25 rf for me after $70 a box for ammo.  This one is worn and needs a reline job as well as refinishing and fresh out the checkering.  Below is a link to the photos.  Would you refinish or leave as is.  Just for your knowledge I paid a very small price for it and have plenty of room to spend on refinishing etc...  I want to shoot this gun as I shot my 25 rf Lord today and its a joy to shoot.  I fired 5 rounds at 25 yards putting all 5 holes in a quarter sized group- my eyes were the limiting factor and someone with good young eyes may do even better.  I now want to get the 22 to shoot like this.  The bore has no rifling left.  Also, it was drilled and tapped for a tang sight and this could have been done at the factory.  Sure would like to find and original Stevens tang sight for it but that will probably never happen, to rare or expensive.
What do you all think?  Given the photos would your restore on not.   
Red
link to photos( green background is the 22 lord):

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Red just to help you out. and save you some money you could send me that 25rf. I would give it a good home. Whitey

Thanks everyone for the advice!  I will start with the reline and blue job.  I am still trying to find the Flitz polish to no avail.  I will get some Flitz online since I cannot seem to find an auto parts dealer who has it over the counter here.  After reading the how to rust blue on this forum I think I will do it myself.  I was considering buying the drill, reamer, and liner to line it myself as well.  I have some 22 pumps that need relining and could use the tools several times thus making it cost effective.  I am very capable as a handy man with tools and feel this job is within my ability.  I have never done one before but I see that Brownells provides an instruction set and I have read some about the process online and on this forum.  Of course, John Taylor comes very very highly recommended and I may relent and just pay to have him do his magic since it really is important to me to have this Lord shoot well.   
Thanks for the offer Whitey but I am very much in love with that 25 Lord after shooting it.  When I found the 22 Lord I had considered selling the 25 until I shot it.  It will go nowhere but in my safe and on to my son many years from now.  I will replace the Remington 121  pump rear sight with one reproduced like the windage adjustable original that it should have.
I will take all your advice and should I decide I cannot live with the flaking nickle I can have it done at any time in the future.  Going slow makes good sense.

Red

About the tang sight, I believe they were an option. Going to be tough to find. Saw one for some kind of Stevens pistol either on Ebay or Gunbroker a while back. Do not rember if it sold or not. Keep looking. You may find one somewhere.

Slumlord44
The tang sight would be a great find especially if it were priced reasonably.  I saw the same one on ebay but I did not have the pistol at the time so I did not know I might need it.  Another option is the scope made by Stevens especially for this pistol.  The scope has long eye relief for shooting at arms length.  Its is Stevens number 570 and is pictured on page 92 of the Kenneth Cope book "Stevens Pistols and Pocket Rifles".  My 22 Lord pistol has the correct dovetails cut in the barrel for this scope unlike my 25 Lord which has the 2 screw rear sight attachment and no dovetails.  Both of these options are only a dream and I probably will never have an opportunity or resources to buy either one.  Although, I thought I would never own a Lord and now I have two of them.   It may be possible to make a tang sight copy that would work but I will worry about all of this once I get the pistol redone to suit me.  When I winter in Arizona I have access to a complete metal working shop with plasma cutters and CAD mills and lathes so making the sight could happen if I could get measurements from someone with and original.  I think it would be the same sight that is on the Vernier model Hunters Pet #34 1/2 Pocket Rifle.  I assume this is different than the sight on the 40 1/2 Vernier Pocket Rifle.   
Marlinguy, I had the same thought about how much it would cost to have the pistol lined and hoped it would be reasonable due to its small size and relative ease to do the work.  Maybe I will email John Taylor about this project to see what he has to say.  This is the first thing I want to get done.  I will visit Fred Meyer and get some Metal Glow.
Thanks for the suggestions again.   
Red

Question about tip-ups: I have a homemade copy of a Stevens tip-up pistol. Shoots very well for several hundred shots, then hinge joint gets loose and and accuracy degrades. The receiver is made of mild steel so I just give it a little squeeze in the vice to tighten it and it is good for several hundred more. Is this a problem with the tip-up origionals?  The side locking lug does not tighten the hinge like a rear locking lug would.

I have real mixed emotions about restoring antique/curio and relic firearms.  About the most I will do to mine is to rub a little linseed oil in a dry stock, or add a re manufactured part to an incomplete gun.  Unless it's a rare example of something, I will pass on a gun that's been relined or reblued.  However, this is only my ethics and I don't judge others who want to restore an old gun to shoot.  I guess I had this reinforced by watching "Antiques Roadshow"  where the guy says,  "that table is worth 500$, but if you hadn't refinished it it would be worth 5,000$."      

As an old car nut also I can relate. Years back a modified or hot rod wasn't worth near as much as an original or restored car. Today a collectable car with great red paint, when the car was originaly green, will bring more. Good hot rods are worth more than restored originals. Go figure. When it comes to guns, if the gun is in decent shape or extremely rare, all I will do is carefuly clean it and preserve it. Bringing a rusted or broken hulk back into shooting condition and making it look presentable, or even totaly restoring it is acceptable to me. This is an individual choice and the owner has to live with it

Wish there was some way to mark or ensure a restored gun would never be sold as an original, but not sure it's possible. Especially if the restoration is well done!
I mark the ones I've done in a hidden spot with a date and intials, but what will that mean to someone decades down the road? I sometimes think a crook will turn anything into what he wants when he goes to sell it. He might easily make up a story to go with the markings I left, and make a little extra on it, just because he can.
Still I don't feel bad restoring a hulk, or building up a gun from just a bare action. If somebody down the road owns it, and wants to do something crooked with it, I guess he'll have to live with that, or answer for it eventually.

My Lord 22 arrived yesterday afternoon and was not mechanically as good as I hoped it would be.  I am keeping it but will need to have John Taylor do more work than I had expected.  It will need hammer and trigger work and maybe the barrel latch tightened a little.  The finish cleaned up some and the grips are better than the photos showed.  I may leave it cosmetically alone.
Red

I received my Lord pistol back from John Taylor yesterday afternoon and John has done his usual outstanding job rebuilding it.  He had to weld the hammer and recut the sear and half cock notch and then heat treat it,  lengthen the trigger sear and heat treat it, rework the latch by welding and refitting to the frame slot, and reline the barrel.  All this work is first class.  You cannot see any line at the muzzle to indicate the liner has been installed.  The trigger pull is outsandingly smooth and about 2 pounds with excellent crisp break.  I have not had a chance to shoot a group with it yet but expect it to shoot great.  I will post the shooting results after I get to the range in the next week.
Red

I finally took the Lord to the range today.  I shot 3 ten shot groups from rest with it.  Every round fired with no missfires or ejection issues.  The groups were fired at 25 yards and measured about 1.25 inches, 1.00 inch, and 1.25 inches with the fixed sights on the gun.  My eyes are the limiting factor and I am sure its capable of much better groups if someone with good eyesight were pulling the trigger.  The gun shoots about 10 inches high at 25 yards and probably would shoot point of aim at 100 yards.  I did not try it a 100 yards which seems like a very long shot to me with this gun.  I am very happy with it and now must decide how to deal with the cosmetics.  I am still undecided as to what to do about the bluing, nickel, and wood.   
Thanks to John Taylor for his fine work as this pistol is fun now that he has made it shoot.
Red