Walther LPM 1 - another project
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 9:27 pm
Well, another gun I took no "before" photographs of. This is the famed Walther LPM1 built by Carl Walther as he was so incensed by Feinwerkbau stealing his ideas. When this gun was built we had already moved on to Pre Charged guns so there was no real need to produce a Single Stroke Pneumatic - but Carl Walther did as a matter of principle.
When I took this gun on as a project I was a bit dubious about it, they really are a Marmite gun - you love them or leave them - this one has grown on me. I decided to go the whole way and everything that could be done to this gun has been done, the side plates are still with Colin Malloy being blued as I type.
Again, Garry at GTPistols stood up to the plate and produced a superb Duracoat finish as you can see from the pics. I am looking forward to getting it all back together but I am still waiting on some spares and no firm date for delivery - "soon" is the best I got
This is what I have so far:
Again, not all of the marks have been removed, I don't want to start remanufacturing the gun! But I think this adds to the gun personally.
The list of repairs to the pistol is quite formidable. Firstly, the threads on the main cylinder that secure it to the breech had stripped so this involved me sending it off to Nick to have a couple of 4mm Helicoils inserted.
The main Crank Arm pivot bolt, which is an offset hardened steel pin was sheared in two so a replacemen had to be sourced and the seals were just mush. The main cylinder to breech seal has proved the most challenging as I was initially told they were NLA from Walther. Something that turned out to be untrue but meanwhile Nick had started to make one from Polyeurathene bar. This is ongoing.
Then the main cocking lever retaining bolt would NOT come out despite all the "tricks" being used so I simply gave up and stuck it in the drill press for some twist drill treatment. Now it needs drilling and tapping which isn't the end of the world.
As I was so deep into the pistol by this time I decided to have the barrel reblued to get rid of the scoring. The next thing is to lightly refurbish the grip to get rid of the shadows caused by all of the stickers the grip has had put on it in the past.
But this is the clue. Someone, in the not so distant past used this pistol in serious interclub competition. This is well evident. If someone thought that highly of it to use against the modern PCP's I am very hopeful of it's performance. I already shoot my FAS 606 with some success so I am looking forward to seeing what this is like.
When I took this gun on as a project I was a bit dubious about it, they really are a Marmite gun - you love them or leave them - this one has grown on me. I decided to go the whole way and everything that could be done to this gun has been done, the side plates are still with Colin Malloy being blued as I type.
Again, Garry at GTPistols stood up to the plate and produced a superb Duracoat finish as you can see from the pics. I am looking forward to getting it all back together but I am still waiting on some spares and no firm date for delivery - "soon" is the best I got
This is what I have so far:
Again, not all of the marks have been removed, I don't want to start remanufacturing the gun! But I think this adds to the gun personally.
The list of repairs to the pistol is quite formidable. Firstly, the threads on the main cylinder that secure it to the breech had stripped so this involved me sending it off to Nick to have a couple of 4mm Helicoils inserted.
The main Crank Arm pivot bolt, which is an offset hardened steel pin was sheared in two so a replacemen had to be sourced and the seals were just mush. The main cylinder to breech seal has proved the most challenging as I was initially told they were NLA from Walther. Something that turned out to be untrue but meanwhile Nick had started to make one from Polyeurathene bar. This is ongoing.
Then the main cocking lever retaining bolt would NOT come out despite all the "tricks" being used so I simply gave up and stuck it in the drill press for some twist drill treatment. Now it needs drilling and tapping which isn't the end of the world.
As I was so deep into the pistol by this time I decided to have the barrel reblued to get rid of the scoring. The next thing is to lightly refurbish the grip to get rid of the shadows caused by all of the stickers the grip has had put on it in the past.
But this is the clue. Someone, in the not so distant past used this pistol in serious interclub competition. This is well evident. If someone thought that highly of it to use against the modern PCP's I am very hopeful of it's performance. I already shoot my FAS 606 with some success so I am looking forward to seeing what this is like.