Project Guns

[Fat Boy]

A Ruger p90 is available for sale- the sides of the slide have significant surface scratches, it has well-worn, after-market grips (hogue?) on it- no magazine in the gun as it appears in the sales cabinet, but the shop has promised to provide at least 1 magazine

This gun is rough in appearance to say the least- when the slide is locked back, the barrel seems pretty loose in the slide. I don't know if this is normal or not but I have had the slide off and didn't see any obvious peening, or enlarged (worn) openings, pins, etc.

I am thinking about buying this and trying to make a good shooter out of it. (maybe it shoots well "as is", I don't know)

My idea is to polish the slide, maybe even remove the stamping from the factory- is this legal? I know I can't and wouldn't want to remove the serial number, but what about logo, model #, and so forth on the side of the slide?

I would also replace springs, pins, other parts as necessary- Not knowing what all might need to be replaced, with a starting price of $379 for the gun as it sits, I might be paying a whole bunch when I am done for a gun that won't be worth anywhere near what I have in it, although I would have a Ruger, which should last forever and be a servicable .45acp and the learning experience of doing the work myself-

What do you think?

 

[Rail Driver]

It sounds to me like the only problem with the gun is cosmetic (some scratches, non-original grips, but otherwise looks good). As far as the slide, I'm not sure where Ruger puts the legally required info on their guns, but if it's on the slide you can't polish it off. If its on the frame, polish away... I know several people that have polished the billboards off their slides (usually 1911s... don't see it so much on those rugers).

If you modify the gun by polishing the stamping/billboard off the slide it will certainly be worth less than it is even now. $380 sounds like the high side of the used price range for a P90 in fair shape. Likely it shoots just fine (the barrel is supposed to jiggle a little with the slide back. If it jiggles with the slide in battery (closed) then you have a problem).

I think I would offer the shop $275 for it, and if they take it great, if not I'm not out anything big. The Ruger autos are decent guns and have a following, but they're just middle of the road pistols. You'd be better off spending $400 on a used (or new if you're LEO) Glock.

Any time you "customize" a gun and you're not professional gunsmith it generally lowers the value of the gun (unless you really actually know what you're doing). If you're looking for something to turn into a project, look into spending that money on parts to build a 1911.

I wouldn't count on the Ruger semi-auto pistol to last "forever", and really the only work you should need to do to it is clean it and fix the cosmetic problems.

If you want to buy guns to work on and learn on, look for RG, Jennings, Jimenez, Davis, Raven and similar VERY cheap guns that you can work on and not worry about throwing them away when you break them *and you WILL break/damage guns/parts learning how to work on them*

 

[PT92]

Yeah--I have seen very good to mint used P90's for $380 and brand new ones for roughly $50 more. For me, I would pass.

-Cheers

 

[drsfmd]

Add up all the parts you want/need for the gun, and deduct them from the price, then deduct an additional 25%. I suspect that will put you well below $200.... that's what you should offer.