The Golden Boy, my custom Benjamin 392

[Airgunnr88]

I finished this project last week, made a video for youtube but haven't posted it on the forum until now.  I did the "2 spring mod," re-shaped the stock to make the whole thing slimmer, polished the important areas of the trigger parts and removed the unnecessary bits, made a new trigger guard, and stripped off the black paint.  It feels like a different gun, like I scored an original 1960's Benjamin.

One thing I didn't mention in the video was the time I had getting the paint off.  I've seen people recommend acetone on a q-tip to get the paint overspray out of the muzzle, so I initially tried to use acetone on a paper towel to get the paint off the outside.  Fuhgeddaboudit.  It didn't do anything but put a nice clean finish on the paint, and it won't do anything for your overspray either.  You need a heavy-duty paint stripper, which I didn't have, but I also read that carburetor cleaner works, which I did have, so that's what I ended up using.

The carb cleaner evaporates so fast that spraying it on doesn't accomplish much.  The technique I eventually figured out was to saturate a piece of steel wool with it and scrub the paint off with that.  It was slow going, but it did work.  The only problem, that I didn't realize until later, is that the carb cleaner dissolves the paint, but then it evaporates and the paint re-hardens--after it's been smooshed into every nook, cranny, and screw hole in the gun.  I didn't notice it until I was putting it back together, and had to take things apart again multiple times to clean out holes.  Then I finally got it completely re-assembled, and it wouldn't pump.  I thought I'd somehow ruined my valve, but it was just that the little air hole in the tube was blocked with paint.  After cleaning that out, it all worked fine.  I'm glad I didn't know what a mess I was getting myself into with the paint, because If I had, I probably wouldn't have done it.  But now that it's done, I'm glad I did.

One note about the trigger guard that might be of interest to anyone that tries something similar, is that not very much movement of the trigger is necessary.  So when I made the slot for the trigger to go through the plate of the trigger guard, I made it as small as possible, so that overtravel adjustment is built into the trigger guard.  The trigger pull is very short and crisp now.

The only accuracy testing I did was shooting off-hand at a paper target to re-zero the peep sight, and then plinking at cans.  Still shoots as good as ever, probably better after a thorough cleaning and using carb cleaner on the overspray, but I've never shot it from a bench rest.

It feels noticeably easier to pump now.  Especially at 4 pumps which is my usual for plinking, but even 8 pumps seems a little easier.  It's hard to say how much of that is from the 2 spring mod, the slimmer stock being more comfortable to hold onto, and my imagination.  Probably all 3, but I'll take it.

The one thing I thought about doing but didn't, although Probably still could at some point, is making some kind of filler piece to mimic the look of the rear plug on the Sheridan Streaks, where it curves down to meet the contour of the stock, instead of the square back of the trigger housing on the 392.  I ended up just painting it with brass-colored spray paint to match the brass tube.

[JuryRigger]

She's a looker 
Good work!!
Jesse

[RBQChicken]

Very nice work, Dan!  Love that trigger guard!

[Airgunnr88]

Thanks, Jesse and Randy. 

The trigger guard came out better than my expectations.  I thought I bit off more than I could chew a few times, but then it all came together.

[jmoronic]

Like I said in the other thread, super job, just amazing!