p38 restoration

Not sure what model p38 this is. Left side of the slide says p38 nmg 42 1974. The right side is filed down. It is all metal. The end of the barrel has a pin in it. The chamber is open and has a detonator. I think it is a Marushin.



Compared the grips to a post war p38. The plastic that fits inside the cutouts in the frame are different shapes. The bolt hole and lanyard loop hole are in a slightly different spot. Was hoping to fit some repo bakelight grips. The original grips are brown but someone painted them black. Some goof off took the paint off but the grips are still scratched up. The lanyard loop is broke off. Might be able to replace it with a real one.


The safety is missing. Looked at a real safety but the internal part is different and smaller diameter.

The action and trigger and hammer work. The trigger will move the hammer when it is not cocked. When it is cocked the trigger won't move the hammer unless the trigger bar is pushed up. Looks like a spring is missing. Tried a real trigger bar spring but it wants to slide under the trigger bar. The real trigger bar has a slot in the middle to hold the spring. That will be easy to fix.


The magazine is in pretty bad shape. It is dented in several spots. The feed lips are deformed. Might be able to reshape it. Looks like someone tried making a spring for it. It is real thin and way too short. The magazine is smaller than a real one so can't use a real spring.


One of the pins that goes inside the springs for the slide is missing. Will have to make a new one. The magazine release was too low. Just needed to be pushed back into the hole cutouts.

Filed down the parting line on the trigger. Sanded it smooth and removed the rest of the finish with fine steel wool. Filed a groove for the trigger spring to stay in the middle of the trigger. The trigger has a lot of wobble. Cleaned up the parting lines on the slide release.


Cut a slot in the trigger bar to keep a real trigger bar spring in place. Now the trigger moves the hammer every time. Filed the edges of the trigger bar to make it look like a machined part instead of stamped. Filed a bevel on the bottom of the trigger bar to match a real one. The hole in the trigger bar is bigger than the screw for the trigger. The trigger bar is steel. Thinking about replacing the screw with a pin that is welded to the trigger bar. That should help the trigger from wobbling as much.


Stripped the slide. Noticed the slide is broke on the front right side where the loop around the barrel starts. Found a few types of solder that might work.

The chamber indicator is missing. Could make a new one but is probably not worth the trouble.

Cleaned off all the paint from the grips with goof off. They turned white. Used some oil with fine steel wool to sand the grips. Still some deep scratches but cleaned up pretty good.

The finish on the frame looks pretty close the my post war aluminum frame. Haven't decided if I should leave it, try to touch it up with something, or strip it and reblue.

Decided to strip the frame and blue it. Blued the rest of the parts. Used birchwood casey super blue. Some of the bluing has already started to wear off.



The slide stop didn't have a spring. A real slide spring goes in a hole on the back of the slide lock around a peg and on top a slot on the sear. There is a hole on the back of the model in the same spot as a real one. The sear doesn't have a slot for the spring, but there is a second peg on the frame. Don't know what the model spring is supposed to look like, but the real one works fine going on top the second peg.

I believe that is a MGC P38.

I've used Casey super blue as well as aluminum black to redo a few of my pistols...usually stick with the aluminum black as the super blue will just turn out black as well. You have to strip it right down to bare metal, clean and prep properly. I usually do 3 to 4 coats of aluminum black, apply it, run it under cold water then repeat. Instead of gun oil to finish it off I coat the piece with a thin layer of bearing grease and wipe off.

I have another p38 that is marked mgc. The internals of the mgc are different from this one. Nataka and Marushin both made a p38 that look similar to this one. Some of the marking are filed off so I'm not sure which one it is.

I have switched to using Brownell Oxpho-Blue and coat the parts in used motor oil. It gets pretty close to looking like hot blued steel. I have some aluminum black but haven't tried it yet.

Please post pictures of the new finish.