Changing out Colt Detective Spl Cylinder

A

AMT8951

New member
I have a "old style" detectives special made in 1961. It appears to be in pretty good shape except for some serious wear on the Cylinder an the side plate. I'm thinking that it might be eaiser to chang those part out , And rerplace them with newer parts from From numreich arms. On the other hand, I could send the gun somewhere to be reblued by a pro.

The only concerns i have are:
1) How hard is the procedure to perform:confused: Ive done some work on guns before but i'm no gunsmith!

2) Will it be financially pracxtical to replace the parts , as compared to just getting the whole gun blued. The side plate cost $40.00, The cylinder costs $26.00.
 
Don't even consider doing it yourself on a Colt. Send it out for a re-blue and call it good.

Installation of the cylinder and side plate will cost at least what a good blue job will cost and then it will still need to be blued to get the colors to match well.
 
Like all revolvers, Colt cylinders are NOT "Drop-in".
They MUST be individually hand fitted by a Master fitter.

If the cylinder you get is used, it often can't be used at all since it was already fitted to another revolver.

New cylinder and ejector assemblies require a milling machine or a precision surface grinder and a special jig to fit it for head space.

After installing the cylinder assembly, it may need to have the cylinder collar stretched or trimmed to correct end-shake of the cylinder.

Then barrel/cylinder gap may need to be refitted, and this often requires setting the barrel back one thread.
This needs a lathe, a set of expensive action wrenches and a barrel vise, and special cutting tools that work down the bore.

WARNING: Attempting revolver cylinder work or barrel work without the special tooling and knowledge of what needs to be done and how to do it, is the classic method of destroying a good gun.

The "smart move" would be to have the gun refinished.

This would be significantly cheaper, and would not risk the gun.

Here's a top quality re-finisher service:
http://www.fordsguns.com/index1.htm

Although the cylinder can be refinished separate from the gun, the side plate is better polished while on the gun.
This keeps the parts level and properly mated, and makes sure the color and level of polish matches.
 
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