refinishing a 870 express?

[Willie Lowman]

My wife gave me a 20 gauge 870 express that had belonged to her uncle. It was kept in a soft case that drew moisture and the gun rusted. Is it worth it to refinish an Express? I don't know how much it would cost but this is a 200 to 300 dollar gun at best.



Most of the rust is on the barrel. There is one bad spot on the magazine tube. and the mag cap.

[Double K]

You could replace the barrel and magazine cap, probably cheaper than having it bead blasted and reblued.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/887364811

[Bill DeShivs]

Scrub those parts gently with 0000 steel wool, frequently wiping the dust away. Then give it a squirt of WD 40. Let it sit for a day, and wipe the WD 40 off. Repeat as necessary.
Only use mild pressure with the steel wool.
You will be amazed how much better the gun will look.

[jmr40]

I'd camo paint the gun with 2-3 cans of Krylon in colors I liked. With a little thought the end results don't look bad. Some ideas.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...mageBasicHover


Or clean it up as best as I could and live with it. Not worth the expense of doing anything else. It will still make for a very functional gun, the design is solid.

[Pahoo]

It is what it is super options from jmr40
This condition and other problems, is typical for the Expresses. It could be worse and thank your lucky stars that it wasn't a WingMaster. .......

Be Safe !!!

[Bill DeShivs]

You won't know how deep the pitting is until you remove the rust.
Use the steel wool. oil it and show us a picture.

[mehavey]

As suggested above, fine (0000) steel wool/gun oil and wipe the rusted area with just enough
gentle pressure to remove the rust/imbed the oil. Lightly wipe the rest of the gun down.
Walk away.

Guns are tools whose primary attributes are fit & function.
Looks (within reason) are secondary.

The 870 is the ultimate "Fit & Function First" tool.

[Willie Lowman]

The barrel cleaned up pretty well. There are still some small spots left.

[Willie Lowman]

The bad spot on the magazine tube...

[ammo.crafter]

Excellent shotgun and worth the effort needed to clean it up yourself.

Love the 0000 steel wool and oil combo.

If this is to be used as a hunting gun, do your best re the rust and get into the field and enjoy.

[stinkeypete]

Question for Bill- once a fella got to the stage as shown, what would you think about carefully attacking some of the corroded areas with 400 wet paper to smooth clean steel and spot-cold bluing?

I have heard the 870 express is very prone to rusting. Don’t confuse an 870 Express with the fine quality of a 870 Wingmaster, but with Remington out of business, even budget pump guns have jumped in value and a 20 gauge pump is light and handy to carry while modern 3” pheasant loads deliver the same amount of shot as 12 gauges did until recently.

Not worth paying to refinish but far too good a tool to sell cheap. It’s the sort of thing I might take on as a project gun as with a lot of hobby time preparing the metal, it might be fun to learn how to rust blue it- itself a many step process. Or is that crazy?

[Bill DeShivs]

No. leave the sandpaper alone. It will look like sh-t if you do that.
Scrape the heavily rusted areas with a copper penny or a sharp piece of brass. You can remove the majority of the rust that way.
Then steel wool again, then WD 40.

[krunchnik]

I have that same Remington 870 Express and they are no longer cheap by any means-the last price I saw for the same model I have was near $800.00 on gun broker-possibly because of the availability.
I have the Defense model with the 18 inch barrel and purchased the 26 inch vent rib barrel and parts to use for hunting and trap.
Parts including a new Remington brand barrel were North of $200.00.

[RickB]

Boil it for an hour, to convert the red rust to black rust, then card off the residue with 0000.
Watch some videos on youtube by Anvil Gunsmithing/Mark Novak.

[Double K]

I've seen WD-40 take-off blueing when used repeatedly over time.
Take the the gun duck hunting in a salt marsh or a john boat a couple of seasons, you won't notice the rust or dings, the old rust and dings anyway!
870 expresses were made for people that love to hunt and aren't focused so much on the looks of them, half the people that own them probably can't tell you off the top of their head who made their 870.
I opted for the exclusive laminated model myself ha ha, it has couple of pretty bad dings in it from coyote and turkey hunting. Shown here with the 26" rem choke barrel, 23" rifled slug and 21" home defense barrels.

[Bill DeShivs]

WD 40 will not take off bluing! People make ridiculous statements.

WD 40 contains mineral oil-the same mineral oil that is in "gun oils." I have used it extensively for over 50 years, and I haven't seen it remove bluing yet!

[Double K]

You know Bill I'm guilty of repeating what both my brother and cousin have both told me for years that they've had WD-40 remove bluing on their guns, and they're guns look poor in general. I've personally not seen it happen other than on fresh cold bluing where probably any penetrating oil would do the same.
I'm in the anti WD-40 camp so that influences my opinion on it being used on anything for certain. I buy a can when it's on sale to clean off small engine linkages and other things, it's not a very good lubricant in spite of what most people think. It's a cleaner and okay in that regard, Sea Foam beats it everytime as a penetrating oil.
Ford vs. Chevy ha ha

[Virginian]

A girl in my daughter's class in grammar school years ago did a science experiment on corrosion resistance of different oils/coatings. Took a piece of plywood and drove at least 80 common uncoated nails thru it. Sprayed the nails with different stuff, and once a day for six weeks dunked it in salt water and then let it sit on the pier.
WD-40 and G-66 (the fore runner of G-96) beat everything else BY A MILE.
WD-40 was all I used for most everything, but then I learned it is far from the best lubricant and switched.
Kroil is the best penetrating oil on Earth.

[Double K]

You can spray Sea Foam directly in a carburetor or dump it in the gas tank, it'll clean everything, don't think you can do that with Kroil although I like it. If you mix it half and half with GM upper valve cleaner it makes a great bore cleaner.

[mehavey]

...WD-40 and G-66 (the fore runner of G-96) beat everything else BY A MILE.

See http://www.dayattherange.com/?page_id=3667

I didn't believe the result, so I took a couple of wire-brushed/acetoned/steel squares
and sprayed them w/ Hornady One-Shot Gun Cleaner & Lube... then left then outside
last Fall/Winter/Spring (9 months)

Nothing touched them.

[GeauxTide]

Cerakote

[Double K]

Thanks for posting that link Mehavey, very informative.
I use Hornady one shot exclusively when sizing cases but have never thought it was a very good lubricant, I've stuck several cases in dies using it. It seems to work great to lubricate the linkages on my reloading machines. It's a waxed based lubricant?

[mehavey]

Hornday has two "One-Shots"
They are not [] the same.

The BLACK can is what you want to both spray clean fouling (hexane solvent) and residual drylube/protectant.
"Gun Cleaner, Lube, One Shot®"... Magic stuff for gas shotguns.

Don't mistake Case Lube [RED Can] as they are totally different.




postscript: I am not a fan the Hornady Case lube at all.
Stick with RCBS case lube as failsafe

[Terrierman]

What you've done is good to go in my opinion. Keep it oiled or waxed (paste floor wax works great) and use it up is my suggestion. Probably going to take a grandson or two to take care of the use it up part though.

Love an 870. I have a 12 Gauge Wingmaster and an inherited and surely loved and used 12 Gauge Express.

Nice gun, use it in good health!

[4V50 Gary]

Surface rust.

Hit w/coconut oil and a nickel.

I don't use WD-40 on guns. Why? It leaves a film that can build up and attract dust. That same film if left unattended can also disable the firearm. Rem got sued by a fellow who practiced poor muzzle control and shot himself in his foot while climbing into the truck. Turns out that he used WD-40 to spray down his 700 after cleaning it. He never took the 700 to a smith for a thorough cleaning and inspection. The WD-40 built up a film that allowed the striker to slip and the gun to discharge.