Straightening a Steel Frame
- Thread starter MI.264
- Start date
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Wow... that's really FUBAR'D. As a riflesmith I can't answer with certainty, but given the very tight tolerances between the slide and frame I suspect not- at least within any reasonable cost based on the time I expect it would take. Hopefully there's a pistol smith here that can comment.
Because it's a 1942 Original, and the fact of what I paid for it, I don't mind spending the money if I can find a smith to straighten the frame. To have this all operational to me would be to have a bice piece of history.
I have since in my research come across the American Pistolsmiths Guild: https://americanpistolsmithsguild.com, So I hope to find someone who can do this. either here, or from their list of Smiths.
What I had to do to fix this Walther P-38: The Safety Hammer Lowering lever was not the right part that was in there, and was pretty chewed up.
So I bought and installed the correct part.
The Sear had a chip out of it, which come to find out is a norm for these.
So a New Sear in as well, allowing it to cock fully back.
The bend in the frame I was able to get a lot of it out by running the magazine
catch between the inside of the frame handle, as it's the same size, and lightly tapped it with a soft dead blow hammer up the handle little by little.
Everything functions as it should.
Took it in the back yard 1 round in the first Mag, to make sure there were no issues, 2nd mag 4 rounds shot one after the other, all went great.
For a little over $215.00 total cost of gun and parts I have a fully operational Walther P-38 AC1942 Matched # Pistol. This is a wonderful piece, has a bit of a bark to her. But Wow.
So I bought and installed the correct part.
The Sear had a chip out of it, which come to find out is a norm for these.
So a New Sear in as well, allowing it to cock fully back.
The bend in the frame I was able to get a lot of it out by running the magazine
catch between the inside of the frame handle, as it's the same size, and lightly tapped it with a soft dead blow hammer up the handle little by little.
Everything functions as it should.
Took it in the back yard 1 round in the first Mag, to make sure there were no issues, 2nd mag 4 rounds shot one after the other, all went great.
For a little over $215.00 total cost of gun and parts I have a fully operational Walther P-38 AC1942 Matched # Pistol. This is a wonderful piece, has a bit of a bark to her. But Wow.
