Cleaning up an old Ruger Standard Pistol

I bought this Ruger Standard pistol sight unseen, the price was too good to pass up.
The only thing the owner told me was that the gun had feeding and extraction issues and it was really old.

Here is the gun before cleaning it up. I dated the serial number to 1953, the fourth year of production. It appears to be unmolested, juts a little neglected

I started with removing the grip panels and found some light rust starting to form, nothing we can't deal with

The innards do not appear to have ever been cleaned

The bolt was also a mess

The extractor did not want to come out, between the burrs left from the factory and the grit, it would hardly move...I think I found the cause of the extraction issues.....

the extractor after de-burring and polishing

I also gave the spring plunger a quick polish

after cleaning I gave the un-blued parts of the bolt a few passes on the buffer

The guts soaking in Hoppes #9

I usually use an old tooth brush to clean guns, but in this case I needed a brush that had a thinner profile....thanks to Otis I have one that fits the bill

after the inside of the frame was spic and span, I used some gun oil and 0000 steel wool to gently polish the rust spots away

Then I cleaned up the grip panels, removing the rust deposits on the back side and cleaning the screw recesses. The screws also needed a little work with the steel wool and oil

before installing the grip panels I give them a light coat of gun grease, to prevent moisture from building up causing the rust

after reassembly, I gave the pistol a coating of Renaissance Wax

and finished.....looks much better, the finish is about 70% I guess, not bad enough to have to re-blue, so we will leave it and enjoy it as is.

The cool part is that this gun was built in the little red barn on State Street in Southport, where Sturm, Ruger & Co started

On to the next project!