Deactivated Sterling to E-11 Blaster......I hope.

[Artshot]

So, as i was waiting for my armour to arrive I decided to start building my Doopy E-11, but there was something missing, it's not a Sterling....which led me to this.

 

 

It did not come partially disassembled, that was me, trying to strip it down and prep it for cleaning, it stinks, it's been well oiled, greased, whatever it's called, within 5 minutes my hands were black and slick.

 

So, as I was stripping it down I came to the conclusion that it's going to need some work, I am going to strip the paint (hopefully repainting with a similar crinkle type paint), as there's a fair few missing and rough areas in the paint that need attention.

 

I also noticed the selector switch will not move, is it because of the area on the next photo ?, it looks like a spot weld, more importantly if I grind the weld away, will the selector then move ?

 

 

I also noticed that I cannot remove the pin next to the magazine housing, grub screw came out fine, if you look at the photo you can just make out how it was deactivated, looks like a steel rod was welded in there, I have a feeling this is what's blocking the pin removal.

 

 

Next I came to the end of the barrel, this is the only outward sign of it being deactivated, horrible spot welds on the hex screws and a couple of random drops on the end of the barrel.

 

What's the best way to remove the hex bolts, grinding ?, I have a new dremel I bought for my armour build, I realise the bolts are going to have to be sacrificed, which is annoying as they have the right pattern on them, still I have a couple of bolts I can use, there not diamond patterned, but they will suffice, I will no doubt only be able to fit the heads anyway.

 

Also, how do I get the front site out, is there something I need to unscrew that I cannot see ?

 

 

The last photo was just to show some of the paint texture.

 

 

My last couple of questions are:-

 

How do I clean the grease, oil or whatever it is, from the sterling, or should I just go in with the paint stripper, which I do not relish as there are parts which will be a swine to clean.

 

And, what on earth was I thinking, I have no clue what I am doing.

 

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Art

[Snaps[TK]]

I'll just sit, watch and learn

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Usaeatt2 (Aaron ) might be able to lend advice on this. He is a magician with a torch!

[Artshot]

Well, since I nearly got a face full of spring trying to remove them, it could be something to watch.

[SamJ[501st]]

Okay, first thing first. I would leave any deactivation work done by an armourer alone. The bit next to the magazine housing is the ejector and probably won't move as I'd imagine it's welded to the bolt. Same thing with the trigger, it's to do with the deactivation guidelines. I could be wrong but I think possession of a functional trigger mechanism with a fire selector for a SMG is pretty much illegal in the UK unless it is accompanied by an old spec deac. Remember there are things you can do to these that would constitute a firearms offence.

 

Warning aside, this is a great project, I remember when I had mine, just awesome. Most of the grease can be washed off with soapy water or wiped off with a cloth. I'd leave a little bit on there though as it's there to prevent corrosion.

 

Other than that it's just finding the scope, Hengstler, T-track, cutting down a mag and making a rail. If you need a metal-socketed Hengstler PM me.

[Artshot]

@SamJ

Good point, whilst I got the certificate with the Sterling, it's not specific about what the deactivation involved, I think some things may be best left alone, the hex bolts are bugging me though, but at least I now know why the hex bolts on the Doopy resin kits are basically blobs.

 

There's a tiny bit of movement in the trigger , that'll do for me , another reason I think the ejector is welded is that when I was removing the spring it put up a lot of resistance, eventually it sprung loose, only to leave the end piece inside, which I think is fixed in place by the ejector pin going through it.....ofcourse I now have the metal piece rattling in there......first day of owning a sterling and I break it already

 

I plan on displaying it as though it was a Stormtroopers retirement gift from the empire, although I somehow doubt that any lived to retirement age

[usaeatt2]

LOTS of questions! I have answers for all your questions, but it's more than I can answer from work on my iPhone. Give me a couple hours and I'll respond when I get home.

Edited February 4, 2015 by usaeatt2

[usaeatt2]

Ok, home now and I can see the pictures much better.  SamJ pretty much summed it up...

This is a professional deac and I would leave it alone, otherwise, you're going to reactivate it and make it ILLEGAL.

 

That's quite a piece of work in the trigger group!  They milled off the top of the SEAR, flush with the housing, and welded it in place.  Impressive!

See the hole in the top?  A spring and pin are inserted in the sear from the bottom of that hole.

It doesn't look like they even bothered to remove the spring before milling.  I'm assuming the pin is still under the spring too.

With the sear welded in place, the trigger isn't going to move much.

 

The ejector is removed through the ejection port.  It WON'T come out any other way.  Sounds like the steel 'deactivation' rod and/or bolt prevent removal.

 

They filled the muzzle bolts with weld, but I'm pretty sure the weld should extend into the muzzle somewhere.  The idea is to prevent you from removing the screws and replacing the barrel with a functional barrel.

 

Trying to reverse any of this would likely cause serious damage to the gun itself, which is why they deactivate them this way.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but you'll need a shop full of tools, an acetylene torch, a TIG welder, some replacement parts, gunsmithing skills and a ton of patience.

 

My advice?  Clean it really well, make your E-11 modifications and enjoy your LEGAL deac. 

 

Cleaning:

That grease REALLY stinks, but it prevented your 50+ year old gun from rusting!  Beyond that, the original wrinkle coating is a 'B' to remove.

 

Here's the best method I've found:

Buy a gallon can of "chemical dip" from an automotive store.  It's used to clean carburetors.  Disassemble what you can, place those parts in the parts basket (inside the can), then put one end of the gun in the can.  Make DAMN SURE you secure the top half of the gun to something so it doesn't fall over.  Chemical dip is NASTY stuff.  Wear gloves...it WILL eat through your skin.  Depending on the brand, the fumes are usually many times stronger than paint fumes.  Leave the parts soak overnight.  When you remove parts, do it over a plastic drop cloth or carpet squares you don't mind throwing away.  Many pieces will be covered with "black goo".  Wipe off as much as you can with disposable paper towels.  Dip the other end of the gun for 24 hours.  Wipe down.  Next, you can hit any stubborn areas with Aircraft Stripper and a towel.  Most of the grease should be long gone by now.  For a final degreasing, I spray everything down LIBERALLY with brake parts cleaner - I'll easily use a whole can through the course of cleaning, prepping and assembling one gun.  Blow everything out with compressed air.  Start your modifications and painting!  You'll need to be sure to get the paint in all the little nooks and crannies, otherwise it will start rusting in those areas.  We're using them for props and displays, but a deac is still a real gun (non-firing gun) and needs to be treated as such.  I coated mine with phosphate coating to help prevent corrosion, then a bake-on finish and finally wiped it down with a light gun oil.

 

Another less messy option for cleaning is to sandblast everything, but that's a whole other set of tools and equipment...  If your intent is only for external appearance, you might be able to get the whole thing cleaned up enough for painting with a can of aircraft stripper, which you can usually find near the spray paint at most hardware stores.

 

Good luck with your project!  I'll be watching and commenting!  Aaron

Edited February 4, 2015 by usaeatt2

[jkno]

This will be a great Sterling conversion, and I'l lbe watching. But I'd advise you to not intervene and change the deactivation in any way, no matter if you like the look of the Sterling as it stands now or not. IMO it looks very cool and it will beat any resin or even licensed replica, even if kept like this and converted.

[Artshot]

@usaeatt2

Thanks for your comments about the deactivations on my Sterling, I had a good look at it while looking at the Sterling manual, your spot on with your observations, I also now know that the reason the second spring put up a fight was because the cocking handle goes through it, which obviously cannot be removed as the bolt is fixed in place, ofcourse since I got the spring out, the end piece now rattles inside, will have to pack that when I put it back together.

 

Thanks for the info about Chemical dip.....nasty stuff, but if it does what's required I may have to risk chemical burns.

 

As I was looking over the parts I had a brainwave and dug out some Cillit Bang cleaner, it works on grease in ovens, so I gave it a try, surprising it worked to a degree, I now have a lot of little rust spots to deal with though.

 

@jkno

I took your advice and showed the Sterling to a friend at work, he is in a gun club and I thought he would know better than me, he did, he got the club armourer to call me.

 

Basically it is illegal to interfere with a deactivation of a firearm that has been done by a licensed or approved metalworker, there work can be spot checked at any time.

 

However, he said he thought the welding of the front hex bolts was overkill as there are already three marked deactivation points, one on the trigger housing, one on the bolt and one on the barrel near the ejector and the barrel could not be removed via the front of the weapon anyway.

 

Now the good news, he is willing to do a modification to the hex bolts as he is in charge of deactivating and maintaining guns for a WW2 reenactment group, apparently there prone to a lot of police spot checks.

 

And yes, there's bad news, each hex bolt would be ground off, the then the body of the bolt would need drilling into a few mm, then spot welded into the hole, then each weld would need to be ground and stamped, however i am only allowed to glue the heads of the hex bolts in place, and if requested to do so, I would need to remove them for inspection if asked by police.

 

At this point he said I was nuts........he may be right.

[kev011]

Aaron really nailed it. Pretty much the same process I used doing the carb dip and airplane stripper but I did use a wire wheel on my angle grinder on some parts of it to help things along. I also recommend putting down card board boxes below you chemical dipped parts and this will soak up the black gunk and the chemicals of the airplane stripper as well and can go to the trash when done. Chemical dip will evaporate quickly if you leave it uncapped, one thing you could do is get some old socks and soak them in the chem dip, then put them on either end of the gun so they are sitting on the metal, then place the soaked socks on the gun in a heavy plastic bag (or double bag it) and leave over night. You may need to repeat this process over a few days but it will soften that coating up and make your chem dip go further.

 

Just finished up mine if anything can help you out here:

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/29486-Chopped-up-Sterling-project-%3D-E-11-Blaster

[Artshot]

 

 

Ohhh it's all shiny....mostly

This is were my Sterling conversion is up to (I keep jumping between this build and my Doopy build).

 

After reading everybody's advice about using chemical dip to strip the paint from the Sterling, I was just about to purchase it when I realised that without being able to remove the inner barrel, which would make painting it difficult, I did not want to strip it via a dip, a good cleaning will suffice for the inner barrel as I like its colouring.

 

So I opted for using paint stripper, which was a nightmare as the new environmentally friendly paint strippers have had all those handy paint stripping chemicals removed, it has taken multiple coats to get it to this condition, and lots of wet and dry to remove those stubborn bits that refuse to budge, even now, I know there's more to remove, i have ordered some elbow grease from Amazon.

 

 

 

The hex bolts have now been ground out of the end of the barrel, when I say ground out, that's just the heads, the threaded body is still in there tying it all together.

I used a fair amount of "Plumbers Mait", which sets like cement, to form the interior of the two bolt channels, I knew these were going to need a bit of work so I was not to concerned about making it look pretty, after 24 hours it was ready to start carving/sanding into shape.

 

As I was waiting for it to set (although it sets solid in only a couple of hours), I spent my time cutting/grinding the threaded shafts from two new hex bolts supplied by Dday, I actually have accurate hex bolts as part of the T-Jay mod set, but liked the diamond pattern on these better as there more movie accurate.

 

I will be affixing the hex bolt heads with epoxy glue once i have finished removing the remaining paint.

 

 

 

 

There are a couple of smaller gaps that need filling on the barrel and some wet & dry work, but overall I am pretty happy how it's worked out, once the bolt heads are fitted and it's eventually painted, I think I might just get away with it

 

I think my attention to detail may be my downfall, saying that, I now have an M38 scope to add to it and a Hengstler counter on it's way, courtesy of Felice.

 

 

Stand by for the next thrilling instalment of "What was I thinking?"

[gazmosis[501st]]

This will be so worth the work!

[Dday[501st]]

 

 

 

Ohhh it's all shiny....mostly

This is were my Sterling conversion is up to (I keep jumping between this build and my Doopy build).

 

After reading everybody's advice about using chemical dip to strip the paint from the Sterling, I was just about to purchase it when I realised that without being able to remove the inner barrel, which would make painting it difficult, I did not want to strip it via a dip, a good cleaning will suffice for the inner barrel as I like its colouring.

 

So I opted for using paint stripper, which was a nightmare as the new environmentally friendly paint strippers have had all those handy paint stripping chemicals removed, it has taken multiple coats to get it to this condition, and lots of wet and dry to remove those stubborn bits that refuse to budge, even now, I know there's more to remove, i have ordered some elbow grease from Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

The hex bolts have now been ground out of the end of the barrel, when I say ground out, that's just the heads, the threaded body is still in there tying it all together.

I used a fair amount of "Plumbers Mait", which sets like cement, to form the interior of the two bolt channels, I knew these were going to need a bit of work so I was not to concerned about making it look pretty, after 24 hours it was ready to start carving/sanding into shape.

 

As I was waiting for it to set (although it sets solid in only a couple of hours), I spent my time cutting/grinding the threaded shafts from two new hex bolts supplied by Dday, I actually have accurate hex bolts as part of the T-Jay mod set, but liked the diamond pattern on these better as there more movie accurate.

 

I will be affixing the hex bolt heads with epoxy glue once i have finished removing the remaining paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a couple of smaller gaps that need filling on the barrel and some wet & dry work, but overall I am pretty happy how it's worked out, once the bolt heads are fitted and it's eventually painted, I think I might just get away with it

 

I think my attention to detail may be my downfall, saying that, I now have an M38 scope to add to it and a Hengstler counter on it's way, courtesy of Felice.

 

 

 

Stand by for the next thrilling instalment of "What was I thinking?"

 

 

Good job reforming the channels on the nose!

 

You must have gotten a set of bolts from Tinos earlier runs, since he is now using the bolts I've got in his current kits. His kits are really a great deal for the accuracy they add and for the amount of work put into assembling them.

[Artshot]

Good to know about the updated hex bolts, I will be dipping into the kit I got from Tino on a regular basis to swap things out for more accuracy.

[Felice]

 

[SeanTX]

I used Simple green to clean mine. it works pretty well letting it soak over night and is enviormentally friendlier than most. The butt pad of your stock looks nasty. I was able to pop the two pins on mine with a punch and dissassemble it all the way for creaning.

[Artshot]

I spent a couple of hours last night cleaning away some of the last stubborn patches of paint on the main body and rubbing down a few areas with some WD40

 

The stock I will start on tonight......

 

I was thinking of removing the stock to make cleaning easier, but I have a horrible premonition of knocking the pins out, then never getting such a good fit again when I put it back together, same with the end cap catch, which is seriously gummed up with residual oils and greases, it's a pain to operate it.

 

Here's my new questions for the day:-

 

1) Is there a way to put a better finish on the grip ?, mine is looking a little worn and I don't want to paint it.

2) I have decided to keep the paint on my M38 as it looks suitably weathered already, any recommendations on giving it a better finish ?

3) The screw at the end of the rail that goes into the end sight housing, is it a specific type, I tried looking for a movie reference shot, but could not find one.

[PlayfulWolfCub]

I haven't tested this but T-Cut or similar polishing compound might shine the grip up.

 

There's no screenshot of a screw holding the rail in & we don't know exactly how they did it.  There's a good shot of a rivet on a Tunisian version. 

I use a 6BA cheesehead screw in a way that doesn't harm the rear sight.  It looks very period & matches the 10BAs I use on the Power Cylinders & the 2BAs I use on the scope.

 

Cheers, Andy

 

[Artshot]

Thanks for the information Andy.

I like the way you attached it, mainly because your not damaging the rear site, which is the way I want to go, I read somewhere, maybe on this site that the rail was fixed just by being slid under the pivot pin of the rear site, once it's removed and the pin put back in, while plausible, I think just putting a screw through it is more likely.

 

I think I can get access to some T-Cut, I may just give it a try and see what results I can get.

[Artshot]

Due to my stupid day job getting in the way of time spent on my build I have not made much progress, just been continuing cleaning up the paint and grime and accumulating parts for the build, although I now have a genuine Hengstler counter (thanks again Felix).

 

I have resisted the urge to remove the pins from the stock and the pivot pin from the end cap lock, which has made cleaning more of a challenge, especially the end cap lock, it's taken a lot of WD40 to get it to move easier.

 

Anyway, here's a few pictures to look over, got to admit, I like the steel look.

 

 

 

I have spent a lot of time cleaning the rust and grime from the trigger housing, there's a small spring loaded pin that springs the trigger back into position, now that it's clean, there's a lot more action to the trigger, I only gave the trigger a quick soak as I want to retain it's weathered look.

 

 

Incidentally for those building a Doopy kit (which is me), the selector switch does not sit flush against the trigger housing, there's about a 2mm gap, luckily I am in a position to scrutinise a real sterling as I build my Doopy kit.

 

Enjoy the photos.

[Tr00per]

Nice cleaning job for sure ...

 

Looking at the trigger housing... inmation all those little parts in it ^^

 

Are you going to paint it flat black (military variants) ? or achieve the wrinkle finish (new production when going commercial or export sales) ?

[Artshot]

It's taking ages to clean up, but then I did not start by using a strong stripper on the paint and grime, I have been working the stubborn paint out with wet & dry, I am paying attention not to remove any dings or dents as I think they give character.

 

I can only remove the trigger and trigger guard from the housing, which is a good thing as I would no doubt end up with a few pieces left over if I put it back together.

 

I am not sure about paint at the moment, I am leaning towards flat black more than wrinkle, but I might use my Doopy build as a guinea pig.

[usaeatt2]

Nice work, Art.  Being a metal worker, I prefer the look of the raw steel.  I've found the hardest part to clean well without disassembly is under the folding stock locking plate (inside the forward grip area).  There are years of gook and grime packed under that plate.  Just for kicks, here's a shot of the trigger group completely disassembled...reassembly is not for the timid.  You need three hands to position the disconnector while applying pressure to the sear and sliding in the pin to hold it all together.  Proceed with caution if you decide to disassemble and let me know if you need help - I've done a few of these!

 

Aaron

 

   

[Dday[501st]]

On 3/4/2015 at 2:11 PM, usaeatt2 said:

Nice work, Art.  Being a metal worker, I prefer the look of the raw steel.  I've found the hardest part to clean well without disassembly is under the folding stock locking plate (inside the forward grip area).  There are years of gook and grime packed under that plate.  Just for kicks, here's a shot of the trigger group completely disassembled...reassembly is not for the timid.  You need three hands to position the disconnector while applying pressure to the sear and sliding in the pin to hold it all together.  Proceed with caution if you decide to disassemble and let me know if you need help - I've done a few of these!

 

Aaron

 

   

 

I did a 50% disassemble of the trigger group when I did the conversion for Dennis, and it's not hard to get this far but still a bit nerving to make sure it goes back together. Going the other 50% would be crazy time.

 

If you want a challenge, take apart your hengstler fully... and put it back together. You will feel like a watch maker. Make sure you have another one on hand to figure where all the parts go back together.