Star Super A "Restoration"

[Guest ppardue1]

A few weeks ago I picked up this Star Super A. It was built in 1947 and looked every day of its age. It had been pretty neglected and had a very generous coating of rust. I consider myself a purist and hate modifying historic guns. That said, the rust had taken care of most of the historic value on this gun so I set about cleaning it up.

 

You're actually looking at the "good" side in this picture. The other was even worse.

 

Given that I didn't pay much for it ($150) I was not going to reblue it (not to mention that once I got the rust off there was some serious pitting which would have taken quite an effort to prepare for bluing). I elected to give it a two-tone scheme with Gun-Kote. My next plan was to polish and engine-turn the barrel, trigger, and hammer. I discovered, however, that the hammer had pitting on its shank deep enough such that machining it away would leave the hammer far undersized. Short of making a new hammer, I decided to polish the bright parts up and leave them alone.

 

Parkerizing in preparation for Gun-Kote

 

I didn't get away without fabricating a few parts. The take-down lever is retained by a "half-turn" screw. I nearly had to drill it out however I finally retrieved it from the frame and made a new one.

 

I made this on my 16" lathe. It would have worked (and it took some time to figure out how to make such a delicate part on a huge lathe) but a friend of mine invited me to try making one on his jeweler's lathe. As one would imagine this was far easier and produced a much better screw.

 

 

The last order of business was to make a new set of grips. I picked up some curly maple and went to work. I knew I wanted to inlay these grips. When I laid out my pattern, though, I was a bit daunted by the complexity of what I had chosen. I decided to try, for the first time, a decal. It isn't quite as attractive as inlay but the effort was considerably less.

 

The finished product:

 

 

 

 

I hope I haven't upset any purists but I think it looks pretty good for what it is: an all-steel 9mm which is a near-copy of a 1911.

[173rdABN]

Holy smokes you did a great job on cleaning that up! Nice detail with the grips :)

[Danger Rane]

Looks awesome sir, great job!

[Mark@Sea]

Very nice indeed ~ 

[hipower]

Wow. I'm stunned... and very impressed.

[leroy]

Great job!!!!

 

leroy

[Moped]

Great job!  How does it shoot?

Edited September 11, 2013 by Moped

[RED333]

All I can say is

WOW!!!

[Guest ppardue1]

Great job!  How does it shoot?

 

Well, I haven't shot it in its current state. I did shoot it before cleaning it up and it is decent. I have one other 9mm, a P-38, and I prefer it in terms of how it handles and the sight picture. That said, I have been amazed at how well this gun handles 9mm Parabellum. My P-38 hates hollow points, however this gun shoots them just fine. It is currently chambered in 9mm Largo and I am working on the fix to get 9mm Parabellum to headspace correctly. Until then, I am surprised at how well it works.

 

Thanks for all the compliments.

[Guest tangojuliet]

i can read the sic semper tyrannis  but what does the other side read O.o

[Guest ppardue1]

i can read the sic semper tyrannis  but what does the other side read O.o

 

"Omnia Vincit Amor"

[Guest TankerHC]

I was going to say wow but its already been said.........hmmmmm.............WOW! Nice JOB!!!