Ancient CVA Spanish made Pennsylvania rifle kit

[Philip Lebow]

A gent brought an ancient CVA Pennsy rifle kit to my shop. Wanted it built. Kit was a double hand-me-down missing the nose cap
butt plate and all hardware. Hmm! so I ordered him a Traditions buttplate and cap. Had to drill and tap a new hole in the barrel,
as the Traditions cap had a different hole spacing. Fit the butt plate to the rear half of the very rough stock. Being from 1976 (!) the wood forend and buttstock section had shrunk here in our dry Arizona climate. This is the rifle with the two piece stock with the little brass spacer in the middle. Front and back located by two short metal pins. had to solder a 1/8 in spacer to the existing brass plate to take up the gap. At some time in the past, someone had coated the wood with 'Restore-A-Finish' a tinted wax base compound, that touted "No Sanding!". I tried to make the stock one piece, after cleaning the wood, but epoxies wouldn't hold due to the wax release agent properties of the finish. So, I drilled the pin holes in the wood parts 4 inches deep, and put in two pieces of 10-24 all-thread soaking in epoxy. I used the barrel for alignment, The 8 inch long steel threads made the stock one piece.
Finally!!
Drilled for the barrel pins, and slotted the tabs, fit the lock to it's mortice.
The mainspring was dragging the plate, and rough, so I removed the spring, and polished the interior of the bridle less lock.
Polished and relieved the movable limb of the mainspring.

So the wood was very different sized and contoured, and apparently made from select shipping pallets.
I used a vixen body file and got all the lines straight , and the contours refined. Then a body sander to refine the wood.
Finally, I finish filed and sanded the wood and metal together and got it looking pretty good. Whiskered it a couple of times, and then when I was ready to stain it, discovered that the buttstock was made out of beech wood, and the fore end was birch.
As you all know, neither is easy to stain!
Used Laurel Mtn Forge Walnut, and then steel wooled. Then Golden Walnut, and finally Laurel Mtn Maple. It came out a uniform reddish color front to back. I sprayed it with Brownells Pro-Oil finish, as linseed would have removed some of the stain.
Still have to brown the barrel for the gent, and assemble.
Customer has seen the stock.
Customer was advised of the price, and said " I knew you could do it!" That's why I brought it to a professional 'smith!"
I'll post photos of this blast from the past when done.
Phil

 

[ohio ramrod]

It is always fun to "fix" problems. Not so much when they can't be fixed. I often wish people would have brought their problem work to me first!

 

[JamesA]

A gent brought an ancient CVA Pennsy rifle kit to my shop. Wanted it built. Kit was a double hand-me-down missing the nose cap
butt plate and all hardware. Hmm! so I ordered him a Traditions buttplate and cap. Had to drill and tap a new hole in the barrel,
as the Traditions cap had a different hole spacing. Fit the butt plate to the rear half of the very rough stock. Being from 1976 (!) the wood forend and buttstock section had shrunk here in our dry Arizona climate. This is the rifle with the two piece stock with the little brass spacer in the middle. Front and back located by two short metal pins. had to solder a 1/8 in spacer to the existing brass plate to take up the gap. At some time in the past, someone had coated the wood with 'Restore-A-Finish' a tinted wax base compound, that touted "No Sanding!". I tried to make the stock one piece, after cleaning the wood, but epoxies wouldn't hold due to the wax release agent properties of the finish. So, I drilled the pin holes in the wood parts 4 inches deep, and put in two pieces of 10-24 all-thread soaking in epoxy. I used the barrel for alignment, The 8 inch long steel threads made the stock one piece.
Finally!!
Drilled for the barrel pins, and slotted the tabs, fit the lock to it's mortice.
The mainspring was dragging the plate, and rough, so I removed the spring, and polished the interior of the bridle less lock.
Polished and relieved the movable limb of the mainspring.

So the wood was very different sized and contoured, and apparently made from select shipping pallets.
I used a vixen body file and got all the lines straight , and the contours refined. Then a body sander to refine the wood.
Finally, I finish filed and sanded the wood and metal together and got it looking pretty good. Whiskered it a couple of times, and then when I was ready to stain it, discovered that the buttstock was made out of beech wood, and the fore end was birch.
As you all know, neither is easy to stain!
Used Laurel Mtn Forge Walnut, and then steel wooled. Then Golden Walnut, and finally Laurel Mtn Maple. It came out a uniform reddish color front to back. I sprayed it with Brownells Pro-Oil finish, as linseed would have removed some of the stain.
Still have to brown the barrel for the gent, and assemble.
Customer has seen the stock.
Customer was advised of the price, and said " I knew you could do it!" That's why I brought it to a professional 'smith!"
I'll post photos of this blast from the past when done.
Phil

This sure sounds like the same CVA .45 caliber Pennsylvania kit I put together back in the late 70's, early 80's. The two piece stock with the brass spacer really rang a bell. My son has that rifle and still goes out to harrass the local ground squirrel population in the Sierra Nevada foothills. It always shot pretty good for me. The wood used for the stock wasn't of the best quality but it sufficed. Good luck with it, I am looking forward to seeing pictures when it's done.

 

[Pete G]

$500 worth of work on a $100 rifle.

 

[Philip Lebow]

The Customer is Always Right! Actually the customer got it for free. It was a hand-me-down from two guys who had passed on. The old Jukar made Spanish CVA kit. I'm also restocking an ancient Ithaca s/s shotgun for him.

 

[Heyyou48307]

Those are great old guns, still shoot mine from time to time