FWB P70JR barn find and rehab.

[wildcj5]

An older local field target shooter decided it was time to thin his collection. A buddy picked up this P70JR that I am guessing had spent the last 20 years in the gun case in a damp SoCal coastal garage. I should have done a better job documenting it. The rifle had old club stickers, surface rust of the bolts and parts of the butpad and the stock discolored. My buddy asked if I would shoot it some and see if it needed anything. I agreed and as they say no good deed goes unpunished.

I brought it home aired up the empty tube and it gave me three shots before the rifle started leaking at the plenum. Then a few minutes later the cylinder popped. I aired up the second cylinder and it lasted about thirty seconds. I knew fast this would probably turn into a pain.


Rusty bolts.

Ghosts of the removed stickers.

Vid of it unairing itself.

 

[Ranchibi]

LOL.....I think you knew that hhsss was coming! Beautiful gun though and I hope you or someone gets it shooting how it should

 

[wildcj5]

After searching around I quickly discovered that getting the cylinders apart was not easy and from chatting with some reputable tuners probably not going to be successful. The tubes and endplugs are aluminum and cranked super tight at the factory all but guaranteeing they will destroy themselves if you attempt to disassemble. Ordered a new tube and oring set. The FWB premium prices are no joke.

Once I started disassembling the rifle I quickly discovered that it had been hotroded. The plenum and valve are had been hogged out like you would port a head, well not as nicely done as a head but it was done. Haha. I also found someone had wrote 100bar inside the plenum.

As I tried to get the old orings out the completely crumbled into little sticky crayon type chunks. This came back to haunt me.

A few disassembled pics.

Notice the set mark on the black nylon from the reg valve pin.

 

[wildcj5]

LOL.....I think you knew that hhsss was coming! Beautiful gun though and I hope you or someone gets it shooting how it should

The entire drive home from his house I knew what was waiting. I just didn’t know how bad the test was going to be.

 

[wildcj5]

While waiting on parts from the UK and Midwest I got to cleaning up the stock. I’m not sure what the discoloration was from but with some wet sanding, automotive polish, many coats of carnuba floor wax and some shoulder joint pain that just seems to be a gift from the FWB gods the stock came back to life.

 

[Ricklin]

Nice, wood refinish keeps you interested when the work gets frustrating, always helps if it is a pretty gun. Bet that cleans up very nicely.

 

[wildcj5]

After parts arrived I gave everything a cleaning and put it back together. This is where things took a turn. When attaching the cylinder if the gun was not cocked to take the pressure off the valve it would dump air. If I cocked the gun when attaching the cylinder it would valve lock and not shoot. If I attached with uncocked but as soon as it hissed take the pressure off the valve it would hold and shoot kinda. It might shoot 800 then 200, then click and nothing or it might give a few consistent shots and dump all the air.

I have no clue how many times I took it apart, cleaned it to spotless, reassembled, same thing. But sometimes it would work like it should for five to ten minutes before giving a soul crushing air dump. Take it apart and clean it again. And each time I would find more of the green seal material. No idea where it was hiding.

 

[wildcj5]

For reference of of who I am I essential color for a living on a computer but am not artistic in any real way. I have built few turbo Miata’s and can swap a transmission, turbo Miata’s break them a lot, or put a lunch box locker in a jeep differential. But that doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing.

So I started thinking about the fact this rifle sat in that damp garage for the last twenty years with who knows how many without air pressure. And was I dealing with corrosion I could really see?

Back apart the rifle came. I soaked the emergency reg in alcohol, polished the regulator washers. Also polished the top hat the washers sit on especially where it touches the regulator seal. And refaced the nylon seal the small valve sits against on the inlet side of the regulator.

Feeling like I might have something going I grabbed the reg body out of the alcohol bath and had the black finish just peeling away. What did I do to offend the airgun gods, was my karma this out of what?

Lucky for me the black finish came off easy enough and left a nice block of silver aluminum.

This time when I put it back together it aired up from an undocked gun and was shooting as it should. Dialed it to 780 fps with 8.44 and everything is good! Finally!!!

During polishing the parts I was getting chunky black bits off the washers. Assuming it was corrosion?

Reg body shedding it’s finish.

The bits that came off the washers.

 

[wildcj5]

Now for fun stuff.

The P70 had a shroud that was ported and man was it loud! Now was time for fun stuff. The new owner of the rifle had an extra RAW LDC but the shroud was a few mill thicker than the size of the LDC.

With a drill press, piece of dowel, some blue painters tape and sandpaper I was now ready to machine the LDC down to .002 of a country mile.

 

[wildcj5]

The rifle came with a cool old school Leopold scope but the had it way toward the back of the rifle where you practically had to have your cheek hanging off the back of the rifle. This is because it wouldn’t clear the loading port.

I added a riser under the scope and now have it out front for a nice fit. I would like to cut the riser to fit the length or the rail better but I’m not confident I could cut it and have it squared up.

I added a length of aluminum tub to cover the old ports and mounted the RAW LDC. It does an ok job but it still has a decent pop to it.

Things shoots awesome! Never had an old rifle fight so hard to stay an old rifle. Hopefully as I shoot it over the next few weeks everything stays together and I can turn it back over to the new owner so he can enjoy it.

 

[Ranchibi]

Just...WONDERFUL work there wildcj! I think the alcohol soak cleared out the debris that kept rearing it's ugly head! It looks marvelous and shoots like a dream thanks to you, many kudos to you, great pics! Looks BETTER than new . Did I say you are very diligent in a good way!?

 

[wildcj5]

Just...WONDERFUL work there wildcj! I think the alcohol soak cleared out the debris that kept rearing it's ugly head! It looks marvelous and shoots like a dream thanks to you, many kudos to you, great pics! Looks BETTER than new . Did I say you are very diligent in a good way!?

You are too kind.

I don’t think it would work on an open grain stock but if you have any with a sealed finish this stuff is cheap and works great.

 

[Motorhead]

Fantastic !!! restoration you have performed.
You might want to check out MASTRO DESIGNS as they were heavy into P70 parts & pieces making these rifles a tad more user friendly when used outside 10M applications.