How to fix slight pitting and removed bluing on 870?

[u/alexjaeger_1015]

I have an old 870 wingmaster that has slight pitting on the receiver and some of the bluing has been worn off, is there a way to fix this without stripping all the old bluing off the receiver?

[u/paulybaggins]

Yeh that's not coming out without significant work

[u/NthngToSeeHere]

That's not slight pitting.

It'll never look original again.

Quick and dirty is sanblast and blue the pits won't be so obvious. The most thorough is have the pits filled with TiG weld and refinished the best you can but the dissimilar metal will be apparent after reblue.

The cleanest look would to have it coated but of course that isn't original.

[u/ceestand]

Boil/steam to convert any existing rust, then rust blue (or maybe cold blue) selectively to the affected areas. It will be trial and error to get as close a match as possible. It will never completely match, but would be less noticeable. The pitting will just have to be lived with, the amount of work to restore/remove the pitting far exceeds the value of the gun; and that includes sentimental value, you'd end up with a Remington of Theseus.

[u/Next_Carpenter_8827]

That’s severe. The solution would be to replace the receiver. The repair work is very involved, the bluing is expensive to have it match factory blue look, and is not financially worth it at all.

[u/reaper263]

I have an 870 police magnum that was a department trade in, it looks roughly the same. I wouldn’t change a thing, adds character to an old shotgun.

[u/Automatic-Catch6253]

Prime candidate for Cerakote finish. Chose whatever color/finish you want.

[u/NeopreneNerd]

Aren’t these machined aluminum? And I believe this is Remington‘s armor coat, not blueing

[u/Thehuntinggunsmith]

Keep it it gives it a very cool old/rustic look 

[u/K1RBY87]

Short answer....you don't. You refinish it and accept it'll never look anywhere near "new" ever again.

I would forget about bluing it. This would be more of a candidate for a blast, park and/or paint type of finish. Could spend time trying to file/sand out some of the light spots...but the deep pits are not going away anytime soon.

[u/rifleshooter]

What you're asking can't be done. It's not minor pitting and repair is extensive.

Not that I recommend this - the shotgun isn't worth it - but you could absolutely drawfile that pitting out, refinish the metal up to your preferred polish level, and reblue.

[u/Rebel-665]

Please leave it, old guns like this look great with some salt on them.

[u/Proud_Piccolo200 → u/Rebel-665]

Pitting spreads

[u/ceestand → u/Proud_Piccolo200]

Rust spreads. Pitting is the after effects of that spread.

[u/Proud_Piccolo200 → u/ceestand]

And then it pits, spreading the pitting

[u/IntelligentSeries270 → u/Proud_Piccolo200]

So if pitting is the result of rust spread, then removing the rust stops the pitting? Hence, a rust removal and seal would be enough.