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Good thinking on the grips, Darren. I agree.
I know lots of folks would not refinish. But let's see...I've seen "mint" Colt 1903s for a couple grand. It's only original once, and that's great if it's in fine or good condition appearance-wise. if it's in the condition mine is in, you start to consider that time is only going to make it worse and worse
Quick anecdote- I'm an ex-muscle car restoration hobbyist. A couple grand is nothing in that arena, and "original unrestored" is very apparent when put against "restored" at a show, because most "restored" cars get over-restored. In other words, care is taken during restoration that the factory never did, for the sake of protecting the investment, or making the car superior in fit and finish
I'm a Buick guy, put my '70 Skylark Custom convertible in a coupe shows. I eventually cloned it to a GS455 convertible as I decided that it was about what I wanted to do and not a bunch of rules. Anyway.
At one show, a guy with an original, unrestored 1970 Buick GSX Stage 1 parks next to my '70. How do I know it was unrestored? It was a rust bucket. I could have put an Xmas ham through one of the rear quarters. The owner was talking about "original paint". Yeah. Lots of classics in the junkyard have original paint, too. It was a shame, but his devotion to "originality" probably meant that rare classic car rusted to nothing and was scrapped. There's a point at which "original GM sheet metal and paint" must lose out to "preserve the car before it is ruined"
In the case of the pistol, it's an easy choice to preserve the pistol before time makes it un-saveable. Right now it's possible to refinish and have a good job of it, so to my mind, it's not really a hard decision
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