Type 53 U-Fix-Ums Project

[Rongo]

This is a start to finish presentation of de-boxing, first inspection, general assessment, cleaning, inspection & final showing of a trio of Type 53's I purchased. Eventually a range trip & assessment as well. I hope you find it both informative and entertaining.

Enjoy.

Century had Type 53 U-Fix-Ums for $59.87 per rifle & since I missed out on those ratty ones from Omega a few years ago I decided to order 3 of these just for the fun of it. Now when I say "Project" I mean that I will be; Assessing the condition of each rifle, adding whatever part is missing outright, fully dis-assembling & inspecting, cleaning all parts, repairing any cracks in stocks to prevent further damage & testing for headspace... And that's it. My hope was to have some ratty looking T-53 rifles that could be shooters & good representatives of what a beat up old rifle looks like. In other words... I wanted some rifles with real character. If I get a shooter or wallhanger it matters not.

And So we Begin!

The Brown Truck stopped by & this is what he dropped off.

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Nothing is more fun than the initial de-boxing. Starting with the rifles top to bottom as they came out of the box on the table.

1. 1955.2 date, missing the smaller action screw, #'s matching except bolt. A little rust here & there & upon removing the bolt no light through the bore!
2. 1953.12 date, cracked hand guard, otherwise complete. Hairy bore but I can see light... Should clean up. Blue is more worn than the first... maybe 35% left. Matching #'s on all parts but the bolt.
3. 1953.11 date, Chunk of handguard missing outright, no extractor, good blue & numbers match only on the buttplate. Bore is not as hairy but looks smoother than the second one.

Overall I'm fairly pleased... Buttstocks aren't busted off & that funky white film is missing on all 3. Actually I'm pretty happy so far!

The trio...

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Top to Bottom; 1955.2, 1953.12 & 1953.11

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Left to Right; 1955.2, 1953.12 & 1953.11

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Top to Bottom; 1953.11, 1953.12 & 1955.2

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Top to Bottom; 1953.11, 1953.12 & 1955.2

More on these will come as I go through each one more thoroughly. I Hope you all will enjoy following along on these.

[Rongo]

Rifle #1. 1953.11

7-16
Got started on this day before yesterday with foaming bore cleaner. Cleaned the bore last night after work & it doesn't look too bad... Some frost & wear on the lands with light pitting near the chamber. I've seen worse. Did a Full disassembly & gave the stock a liberal lemon oil bath.

A shot of foaming bore cleaner. This stuff works great.

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When you clean a lot of guns it pays to be organized. One of the best things I ever put on the bench.

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This was the one with the broken extractor. Placed it in the vise & the remnants of the old extractor tapped right out. I have a spare in the parts bin awaiting installation.

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Dis-assembly begins

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Scraping gunk from the screw slot to gain better purchase on the screw.

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Cake anyone? Lots of dried grease under the wood

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Stock getting a "Lemon oil" wash... It cleans off old grease & grime very well.

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7-17 Next day.

Stock sat overnight & most of the lemon oil soaked in & or evaporated. Gave the metal parts a good wipedown with a papertowel to remove the worst of the grease & next will be the hot water bath & boil.

Stock the next morning

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Wiping down the metal with a paper towel to remove the majority of the grease.

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Next is to the Kitchen for a hot water bath. I find it works great to really clear up any residual crud. A Reminder!!! Wear Heavy Gloves for this process... It gets awfully hot.


Rinsing the action with straight hot tap water waiting for the pot to come to a boil... Notice the steam.

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Paper towel in the drain with the Muzzle placed "Gently" into it

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Boiling water sitting in the bore & chamber building heat... Once hot, I lift the muzzle & pour the rest of the boiling water down to thoroughly rinse.

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Out of the Bath... Still very hot. I wipe off what little moisture is left, run a patch down the bore to dry, then an oil patch after. I then lightly patch the chamber with a .410 jag. Wipe down everything well with a silicone rag & liberal amounts of CLP. when I'm satisfied all the water is totally gone I wipe off any excess oil.

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Re-assembly

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Replacement Extractor installed.

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Headspace check time with my trusty OKIE No-Go!

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A PASS!

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And here it is all re-assembled, inspected & cleaner than it's been in many years. Minus replacing the extractor I did nothing but a good cleaning. Now it's all ready to display, enjoy & take to the range.

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Broken Handguard Still Functional

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10-21-2014

I finally got around to getting one of these out for range time. This turned out to be quite the good shooter! Very crisp trigger, pretty acurate & a smooth feeding action. I did a few 5 round rapid fire salvos & it ran without a hitch. Very pleased.
A few pictures of myself & fellow forum member entropy blasting a few rounds.

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Also shot a few rounds out of my 41 SAKO M39 straight stock.

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[Rongo]

Rifle #2. 1953.12

7-16

Soaked the bore with foaming bore cleaner along with the first rifle. After a long soak, brush & patchout it came very clean. Rifling is more pronounced than on the first one with some pitting near the chamber area. Got the stock off & repaired the cracks in the handguard & stock. This one is downright gooey & the stock was held very securely to the action as a result. Took a lot of careful prodding & pulling to get it apart. Very messy & more to come...

Well it's apart at this point. Woof! I'll let the pictures say it all!

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Looks like some heavy rust under there...

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Nice long crack on the handguard... Glued up very well along with the crack in the stock

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7-17

Gave everything a good scrub down & there was some rust under all the GOOOO. Went over it with CLP & Brass Brush but the damage was done, Luckily not too deep. The one over the chamber concerns me just a little.

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Got it all back together & tested it for Headspace. A Pass.

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And here it is all back together again. Overall it cleaned up well, some rust on the chamber & receiver but it doesn't look too deep. Bore is pretty good on this, the stock is now sound & overall another winner if you ask me. Decided to get some outdoor shots of this one... Enjoy.

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[Rongo]

Rifle #3. 1955.2

7-14

Upon removing from the shipping box the bore was plugged solid. I took it down into the workshop & ran a patch & jag through & luckily it was just a gob of grease in there. Soaked it in foaming bore cleaner.

7-15

Cleaned out the bore cleaner... Bore looks good save for a few pillows of rust in the grooves near the chamber. I proceeded to plug the muzzle with a cleaning patch, filled the bore with CLP & plugged the chamber end. I'll let it soak for a few days to help loosen up the rust.

I also tested the headspace & it passed No-Go with my Trusty OKIE Gauge.

I'm hoping to find time to work on this Friday night? More to come...

7-18

Found a few minutes to putz on this tonight... It's relaxing to sit at the bench, taking something nasty & dirty apart, inspecting, cleaning, & putting it all back together. One of the reasons I bought these in the first place; The perfect excuse to waste a few hours in my work room.

This one came apart easy, greasy of course but everything has a nice blue underneath. The stock on this one is really pretty rough overall. A very porous wood that has all kinds of fine sliverish wood fibers that stand proud & gives it a gritty feel. No worries... I have no plans to ever let sandpaper anywhere near this. It will remain as is.

I did Lemon oil the stock tonight along with wiped off the worst of the grease on the action. I'll let it sit on the bench overnight, Maybe I'll find time in the next day or so.

Some "BEFORE" Pictures...

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Barrel Bands came off rather easily..

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Only crack in the stock... Still pretty solid. may just leave it be.

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Lemon Oil wash to get the grime off

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7-27

This has been sitting on the workbench with the bore soaking. Took time today to finish cleaning out the plugs & oil from the bore. Then I ran a new .338 brush & Hoppe's #9 through the bore many times to try to loosen the crud. Ran some patches down the bore & it's a vast improvement! Rust is pretty much gone with just some light pitting in those spots remaining. Finished scrubbing the parts & put it all back together. I have yet to replace the action screw that was originally missing... I thought I had one on hand, but I was mistaken. I'll hold off for now & maybe pick one up at the Fall Gunshow.

Here are some pictures of the last one all cleaned up. Enjoy.

All ready to get put back into the stock.

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Outside Pictures today.

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That's it for now.... I'll update this thread with range reports when I find the time. I hope you enjoyed following along... More to come later.

[BubbaDX]

Wow, those look great for $60 each.

[Celt]

Wow! Nice!

[Rongo]

Wow, those look great for $60 each.

They are what they are & a bit rough. I did get the bore cleared on the plugged one... Just a big grease booger in there. Some poofy rust in the grooves that should hopefully clean out with some work.

Hey, if I wanted a nice & clean Type 53 I would order one from Chris at Trinity Arms in a heartbeat. No, I wanted surprises in a brown box to spend some quality time with.

[mogunner]

I sure hope my two continue the trend of decent "deals" on these, the wife was looking at me a bit sideways when I told her I ordered them... she just knows how bad I got burned on the sewer pipe that I bought for $90 from Omega a couple years ago.

[Brian the Brit]

I will give you $100 for one

[etprescottazusa91]

My wife gave me a similar look several years ago when I bought a last ditch Type 99 She seemed puzzled and said "that looks like a piece of junk" I told her the beauty was in it's crudeness.

You definitely have some rifles with real character there, they look pretty cool all beat up like that, I wonder where those have been?

[Junk Yard Dog]

[desdem12]

[Rongo]

soaking the bores overnight on the other two with foaming bore cleaner. Was going to start in on one but this heat was a real bear to work in today. I'm fried.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I had some things to do outside so I did them at 4am, even then it was warm and humid.

[Rongo]

I had some things to do outside so I did them at 4am, even then it was warm and humid.

Off work today & it should reach 95 outside with 75% humidity... Downright tropical! I plan on staying inside & getting some of these done. Started on the first one, updates will be posted above.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[ponycarman]

Looking good!

[warhawk77]

Looks like you got three nice looking rifles there.

I hope mine look that good when they get here. And I will be stealing your tray organizer idea. I have a tool box on my bench and it always gets filled with junnk.

[Rongo]

1953.11 is all done. I must say this one cleaned up rather well. Whole project is listed above with the other two yet to come. I just glued the stock cracks on the 2nd one & it's drying right now... There is way more goo on that one than the first. The action was literally seized to the stock! I hope you all enjoy this thread... When it's done all three rifles will be at the top from start to finish. All comments as well as critiques are more than welcome.

[Junk Yard Dog]