Relum Tornado Refurbish

[MarksmanRSX]

How do guys.....

After trawling through another forums a while back looking for a Webley Tracker to refurbish I came across an oldish post by a member called Robbo offering a Relum Tornado.
Now this being my very first gun when I was 8-9 I thought I would reminise on my youth and set about contacting him to see if he still had it.......He did!!
He explained it had been sitting in an allotment for an unknown amount of time and the metalwork had seen a lot better days but the stock seemed in good condition. I arranged to take it off his hands for the grand price of FREE......yes....FREE...all I needed pay was the postage!
I finally received it yesterday and I phoned him to tell him it had arrived safe, Bry even paid the postage and told me not to bother reimbursing him as long as I made good of the rifle and sent him photos of it, so a BIG thanks to Bry aka Robbo for his generosity and being a top notch forum member!

So....to the refurb.....

Here's life as it started..... ROUGH!!!






and so the strip down ensued....




watery rust isnt always a very good sign....



but the leather seal was in surprisingly very good condition...




So.....with the other parts steeping in rust remover I set about doing the easy job first....the stock.....

lightly rubbed down with a couple of soft decorators blocks and then reoiled this was definately the easiest job up to now....and it's turned out great!!

Lightly sanded...



reoiled....




Please keep coming back for more updates as the refurb continutes.......

Darryl

[hwvixen]

Excellent post matey..good work,

Looking forward to the action Re-furb...Ever thought of writing for one of the Airgun "rags"..?

[martini1215]

wow the stock has come up a treat,,I am looking forward to the next installment,well done mate

[MarksmanRSX]

cheers for the replies.....

the rust is slowly being eaten away, Ive decided to take it down to the bare metal, seal it and paint it as my last blueing attempt went badly wrong but I guarantee it will look just as good

as for writing for the "rags" I've got enough on my plate without adding to it....lol

Darryl

[fat man]

Nice post good luck with restoration.

[red bob]

great job ,nice to see another mem taking a modest mark springer and putting in a nice refurb job,im getting a lot of satisfaction now resurecting baikels,relums ,haenals,and now the rare predom lucznic range to a level of finish that wasnt quite what the manufacturer thought poss,they are all solid as a rock buildwise,and will shoot as well as most owners!!.
keep it up .

[ogilkes]

Nice piece of work. Keep at it, the Tornado is a beast, not just a fence post!

[Hsing-ee]

I love it! It's such a good story. A Relum Tornado Super found in an ALLOTMENT and given away for free, not even swapped for a can of beer! And then the stock buffs up really beautiful and it is all set to go to the Springers' Ball!

Nice one.

I have been compling a list of the last few rifles I would like to own and I am teetering on the edge of adding a Tornado now .... Would have to have a buttoned piston though, and an 'O' ring or parachute nylon piston head. Hm.....

It would be nice to tart one up and do a head-to-head comparison with a Theoben Fenman or similar.

The Tornado I borrowed in the early 1980s had a very slabby stock, a creepy and heavy trigger and a nasty discharge, like an old train coming to rest uneasily on its buffers only with more vibration. The long snakey barrel disappeared off into the distance and overall it felt horrible compared to a BSA Meteor. Still, a bit of work and maybe the Tornado can be turned! I'll deffo write it up for any rag that will have me, and also enter an HFT comp with it too. In the .22 class of course.

[richywilk]

Cracking post, reminds me of something out of SAR those were the day's

[richywilk]

By the way are you going to stay with the two spring's or one spring with a floating spring guide??

[rod70]

you have done a good job very nice

[andy h]

Nice one good to see you breathing new life into it

[red bob]

did you think i was gonna miss that head to head idea against theo ,my second love of my life; just the thought of the £0 /50 hungarian challenging £450 of best of british ;combined with the nightmare scenario of achieving comparative groupings it mustnt happen ,please dont!!.

[keith66]

I did a .22 one up for a friend a few years ago, nowhere near as horribly rusty! i put a new leather washer in it & did away with the rivet that holds it on to the piston by filling the hole in, drilling & re tapping smaller.
With a meteor spring it shot pretty well, was smoother & ran at 10ft lds.
There isnt a lot you can do with the trigger except stone the trigger & sear sharp. It turned out a fine plinker.

[edbear2]

Blimey........Talk about resurrecting the dead!!.......Nice work so far mate, It just goes to show what can be done with a bit of commitment.....I always liked the look of the Tornado as a youngster, and a friend had one at the time we had junior guns...we thought it looked the biz..

On the subject of the blueing.....If you don't want to do it yourself, and don't want to pay the £50-80 it will cost to have done by a shop, Have a look in your local yellow pages for "metal finishers", or "electroplaters".you can often get stuff blacked for very little, and with surprisingly good results if you pop along, have a chat, and offer a "drink"