Third Party Press

My K43 Walther ac45 3760d WaA359

Hello,

As a new member in this interesting forum I want to present my own K43 Walther ac45 3760d WaA359 manufactured approximately mid/end of March 1945.
Recently my private gunsmith (a retired "Polizei Waffenmeister") was able to perform this careful and perfect restoration to "out of factory" condition.
- mint bore, unstamped clean wooden stock without dents and scratches
- rare "dual lug" version, milled bolt housing, inner-sliding (early type 1) dust cover
- original ZF4 scope (Fkz "dow") refurbished and maintained by professional optician
- "Apfeltor Shooter's Kit" properly installed in order to reduce gas pressure
 

Attachments

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It's beautiful but sure would like to see the "before" pics. Are you going to shoot it? I put the same shooter's kit in one of my
K43 rifles along with a repro scope and it is a lot of fun, shoots great.
 
I’d like to see before pics as well plus some better pics of the details in general. I have an ac45 d block in the low 4000 serial range. My stock has no stain/color whatsoever and I suppose some would refer to it as being a “blonde” stock. Yes, lightly sanded but chatter is still quite noticeable. Shown zf4 rig is original.
993d5914923e46a819c0e251480d2338.jpg




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ac45d block

Congratulations! Very nicely done ! I assume the Rifle had issues is the reason you chose to refurbish it ? I also have 2 ac45d block Rifles in unmolested condition that were likely captured at the Walther Plant at the end of the war, and you can see one above in a Sticky under ac45d block Sooo Cool !
I
 
Based on your pictures (of which the restored-result is very small as well) I am unable to tell what exactly your private gunsmith did with the rifle. Could you possibly mention what exactly was done by him?
 
Based on your pictures (of which the restored-result is very small as well) I am unable to tell what exactly your private gunsmith did with the rifle. Could you possibly mention what exactly was done by him?

Well, fortunately the "basic substance" was in pretty good shape without damages or severe wear and so the restoration process just consisted of:

# complete disassembly
# metal parts checked for functionality, degreased, chemically stripped in 10% citric acid during a couple of hours, professionally (hot) reblued and preserved with high quality gun oil
# wood cleaned with a bit of white spirit, some small dents damped/ironed out, gently polished with soft cloth and "SCHAFTOL" gun stock oil
# careful reassembly and installation of Mr. Applegate's "Shooter's Kit"
 
From what I do see, assuming matching numbers, here in the us, before your restoration work that rifle would be worth about $3500-4000. After the restoration, you may sell it for $1800-2500. So you lost roughly half of the value by restoration. The rifle should not be blue, it should be phosphate which is a form of parkerize. I can see the original was good condition, it’s no longer a collectible but just a shooter. Pretty sad to me.


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From what I do see, assuming matching numbers, here in the us, before your restoration work that rifle would be worth about $3500-4000. After the restoration, you may sell it for $1800-2500. So you lost roughly half of the value by restoration. The rifle should not be blue, it should be phosphate which is a form of parkerize. I can see the original was good condition, it’s no longer a collectible but just a shooter. Pretty sad to me.

It is indeed sad, Farb. It might've been different if the thing was a total roach to start with, but I'd be willing to bet that it was in decent shape. Perhaps REALLY good shape, but now that's up the smoke pipe.
 
Thank You all for Your comments!
Here I got the pictures to compare between before and after restoration.
86d365e5d46d4bf9a961d26243560f8f.jpg



View attachment 259395

View attachment 259394

Surely this is all a very bad joke if not a nightmare. Based on the single before image and the single after image this particular rifle has been completely ruined by a “restoration”. The before image looks like a very nice example and the second, well, it’s not a rifle that would fit in at all with my very modest grouping. That poor rifle [emoji22].


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Well, fortunately the "basic substance" was in pretty good shape without damages or severe wear and so the restoration process just consisted of:

# complete disassembly
# metal parts checked for functionality, degreased, chemically stripped in 10% citric acid during a couple of hours, professionally (hot) reblued and preserved with high quality gun oil
# wood cleaned with a bit of white spirit, some small dents damped/ironed out, gently polished with soft cloth and "SCHAFTOL" gun stock oil
# careful reassembly and installation of Mr. Applegate's "Shooter's Kit"

Thank you for getting into detail.

Are you aware that most parts of this rifle left factory with a phosphate finish? The fact that the whole rifle is now blued is not original and therefore the rifle is far away from as it left factory.

Most stocks this late also have "chattering mark", meaning the stocks never got smooth surfaces and have a very rough surface. By "gently polished" of the stock I assume your gunsmith lightly sanded the stock? If he performed this, he removed material and turned the surface in a way it had never left the factory.

It could very well be I understood anything wrong - maybe your rifle was already altered and you simply tried to "undo" (or improve) the condition of the rifle. If the rifle however still had the original phosphate finish and the stock had the chattering marks... well, then you clearly destroyed a collectible piece to turn it into a shooting rifle that no collector will ever want to have again, except if it is cheap, and therefore lost a lot of money by doing this.
 
Just looked at the "before" photo above, Attachment 259395.

Unbelievable. That piece was beautiful.

Equally unbelievable is that the "gunsmith" who performed this work either had no idea what he was destroying, or knew what he was destroying and did so anyway.

Richie
 
From what I do see, assuming matching numbers, here in the us, before your restoration work that rifle would be worth about $3500-4000. After the restoration, you may sell it for $1800-2500. So you lost roughly half of the value by restoration. The rifle should not be blue, it should be phosphate which is a form of parkerize. I can see the original was good condition, it’s no longer a collectible but just a shooter. Pretty sad to me.


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I'm afraid it will still achieve top dollar bids on Gunporker from members of the "it's soooo purdy" deep pocket low information crowd.
 
The before photo look like it has one of the bolt carriers without the hold open AND without the rib. These are interesting to me and have only noted a very few others all seem to be in the last of them made.
 
Ohhh damn! :facepalm:

I’ve been told that in Europe they really like restorations and will restore/refinish guns at will. So, for the OP, it’s probably a normal thing and something totally accepted there. But here, that is butchery and the death of a historical artifact. One of the last ones too.
 
Meh. It's his gun. If that's what makes him happy, who are any of us to fault him for it?

Your standards for desirability may not be his.

Look at it this way. In 20 years, these things will all be banned anyway. Ammunition, and reloading components, are likely to become unavailable, illegal, or regulated to the point where most people just give up. Own them, use them, enjoy them, regret nothing, and never look back.

I'm having a 55 year old car restored. Should I have kept the original rust? (And yes, there are people who complain about "over-restored" cars -- "The paint was never this perfect when they were new!") The way things are going right now in the PRK (People's Republik of Kalifornia), we'll be banned from driving internal combustion engined vehicles as of 2035 anyway, and the gasoline delivery infrastructure will be much thinner and the fuel prohibitively expensive. At that point this car will be worthless except as a museum piece and there are way more of these in existence than there are museums to take them. It will be as worthless as a fancy horse-drawn carriage was a hundred years ago.

Besides, there may be a new business model for the authenticity crowd -- unrestoring a restored gun. And so the money goes round and round...
 
Wait, wait, I have a NEW new business model!

  • Buy beat-up but otherwise collectible guns.
  • Threaten to restore them unless somebody rescues them by buying at an inflated price
  • PROFIT!
 
You’re a real card. I guess living in the land of fruits and nuts is showing.


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