Thread: Restoration - 70's Laurona Eibar (picture moderately heavy)

It was about 6 months ago that @Happy called me into his workshop and said I have a few rifles recently given to me and wondered if you'd be keen to take a look.

Having had a real burning desire to add a U/O Trap or Skeet gun to my collection I settled on the 1970's Laurona Eibar that kept looking back at me... and the deal was done.

Now I'm really sorry guys, because I sent it away to a mate of mines dad to have the wood reworked back form bare wood before I could take some photo's so I'll have to explain what she looked like. She had certainly seen action with water staining and some pretty hefty gouges out of the stock and and even though on the outside she looked a bit tatty she had accounted for some stellar days duck shooting in the past I was told.

Cool a project to work on over the next few months and the great thing was on checking the age of the gun It was pretty much as old as me - NICE!!!

The metal work was intact however was suffering a bit from Former Storage neglect and there was a bit of surface rust to contend with mainly on the barrels and a couple of broken springs inside that would need a smithy better than me to resurrect...

Any how while the wood was away I sent the barrels and metal work as they were leaded together to @Doubleshot at Cerakote NZ in Tauranga.who did a great job of disasembly and validating what could be done and in what colour would suit. Following media blast on the barrels we decided to go for SoCom Blue from the palate as being as close to a match for older Blue-ing.Nice job Craig and I love how he rings you to run through what he's found so you can come up with a plan of attack. We decided on a minimalist approach to match the barrels and existing metal work filligree - you might be able to pick up is almost everywhere on these Spanish guns. So we removed the rust and went for a more Patina approach on the remaining seen metalwork. Everything else got the love of the media blast and cerakoted pin heads and crews... apart from the one that broke on dissasembly... hahaha.

Any how once done got all the bits together and worked with the gunsmith at Reloaders here in auckland to source springs and screws and re-assembly of the more difficult parts.

Last weekend I went to Happy's for a pond day on our Maimai and we were able to show the original owner before me what we'd done - He was pretty impressed, so I hope the pictures do this justice!!

Warm Barrels Guys.. CD

Not wrong- that so-com bluing is sweet. That aside it all looks good, If I get half as good as that on my project i'll be happy.
Mind you your stock has way better colour than my yellowy one so I'll have to sort that.
Nice job.

Mate - it was decidedly yellow to start with this one too, and Dave Shirley originally did it in original colour - hated it with the clear. So stripped it right back again stained it or oil rubbed it (I can find out which products he used if you like) resealed it in clear coat - to get the result you see. He's a furniture builder by trade and man... what you can't see til your up close is the rework on the checkering he did - its mint! with small hand chisels just like the original..

Thanks for the Comments - Both Dave and Craig at Cerakote NZ did a wonderful job!

CD.

Bought a bit of a tear to the previous owners eyes when I showed him. Was Uncles long sinc passed away. Nice job done by all !!

Yup said it before, if he's called Craig he must be a good guy.
Yes please I would appreciate the colouring. Asked another person on this forum about his and he used the tru-oil walnut stain. I was considering using tru-oil again but not so sure as I thinking about something different-more towards oil than varnish.
Cant see me doing chequering lol just removing what ever is left of it or the scratchings of a Stanley knife (the latter seems closer to the mark).
That's enough now as I'm taking away from your triumph.

Whoa that is nice!

elegance in its simplicity -congratulations all round.

That sir, looks real good.

shit that looks better than how you described it to me whats it group like

Awesome job mate....I have the Mossberg silver RESERVE II....they look very similar.....hope it shoots well

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Not wrong- that so-com bluing is sweet. That aside it all looks good, If I get half as good as that on my project i'll be happy.
Mind you your stock has way better colour than my yellowy one so I'll have to sort that.
Nice job.

Hey Mate, Finally spoke to them about what stain or Oil was used.
Evidently that's just the colour of the wood (laurona Eibar original) that comes out once it was taken right back to bare wood, sanded and steamed (to get the dents out with a steam iron) and cloth. I guess that's a old furniture repair trick
Hand checkering re-done with hand chisels - Fully dried, then has had multiple coats of a 2 pot polyurethane over the top.

Man it was so much more blonder when I first got hold of her - so maybe oxidation of the original finish and a water damage to account for that.

Anyway good luck - look forward to seeing yours when finished, comment me in so it pops up in my login mentions when you post pic's.

Cheers ! CD.

@ Carpe Diem Thank you-in that case the colour on that is wonderful.
I drilled some cross bolt holes to help with the cracks and the wood has better colour inside-just don't know if I can sand it back far enough to bring it out with buggering all the joins etc. I stripped a small portion off and gave it a light sand but not enough to bring any colour out.
yes I will indeed PM you, but don't get your hopes up.
It wont be checkered and I definitely don't have the skill of the dude who did yours but I am sure it will look a little better and at least I get a shot of doing just about every repair and mod to a wooden stock you can do lol.

Looking sweet. Bought one brand new in 1975 and sold it mid 80's. Lovely to handle and great to shoot with. This one looks identical so well done on the restoration

Paul the woodwork is superb, I love the checkering, very nice detail indeed... A job well done, now to put it to use