Restoring a plastic/bakelite buttplate

1fisher

January 02, 2010 06:37

I recently bought a neat little Winchester Thumb Trigger .22 rifle that is in good shooting condition. The metal is in very good condition (nice overall patina, few dings) and the wood has lots of small dents, but is solid.

The buttplate is cracked across the bottom screw hole,(kind of hard to see in the photo) but it is complete - no chips or pieces missing.

I have been looking for a replacement with no luck so far, so I would like to repair this one. Should I just use a tiny bit of epoxy, or something else?

I seem to remember reading a magazine article a few years ago about a company that did beautiful resorations of buttplates. They could fill in missing pieces and even renew the checkering to almost original condition. It is probably not worth the cost for this rifle, but does anybody here know if this service is still available?
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Thanks!

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  Bill DeShivs

  January 02, 2010 09:19

  Clean the crack well, and flow Super Glue into it.

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  rhmc24

  January 02, 2010 12:04

  Bill D is right about cleaning. I would also suggest wax (paste floor wax) a piece of foil and place it between the butt cap before you put it on, wax side next to the job. That will keep from gluing the butt cap to the gunstock. Wax will keep it from sticking and it will peel off afterward.

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  OleDuk

  January 03, 2010 09:51

  As super as "super" glues are, my favorite these days is a Loctite super glue that has the tube of glue (cyanoacrylate(sp)) and a tubular container of heptane to use as a primer. It will stick plastics that the regular super glue will not. I believe that it will make an almost invisible repair on that plate. If you haven't used it before give it a try. Lowe's carries it. Says on the blister-pak, "glues all plastics". I haven't tried it on Teflon=:) though.
  
  Good luck,
  
  OleDuk[:)][:)]

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