Posted by B.Miller on November 15, 2007, 7:19 am, in reply to "Re: LC Smith 16 ga"
Suggestions? Probably Dr. Bill here on this board would be my first port of call.
Should one restore a Elcee? I have only my own experience to go by.
Somewhere in the distant past when I was about fifteen, I came across a shotgun lying out in the middle of a pasture. The barrel was rusted, the stock white from exposure, and the forestock missing. My dad and I checked with the local police, then took the gun to a smith. He was the man who asked me if I had any idea of what I had. Before that I had no idea.
I took that gun home and cleaned it. I oiled the stock and cold-blued the tubes. Lefever in Rome, NY was able to come up with a forestock. It took a year and cost me the princely sum of forty dollars! A lot of money in 1965.
For the next twenty years this old Elcee was my gun of choice. It returned so much pleasure that I made a promise to myself that should I ever have the chance I'd restore the gun to it's glory days when new. The chance came just before the original Ithaca Gun closed its doors in the mid 80's.
My instructions to the guys in the custom shop were simple. "Give the old girl everything and anything needed." They did just that! There now sits a brand new Elcee in my cabinet. She enjoys an honored retirement and will never in my lifetime be required to do more than please me every time I look at her.
Value? I suppose destroyed in the eyes of collectors. Priceless in my opinion as she ties me to times remembered, lost and loved friends, and events that happen only once in a lifetime. She's the glue that still ties me to a much loved lab by the name of Todd who's been gone for nearly forty years.
So... If the question is whether or not to restore, I hope my post has helped. Certainly the financial aspect cannot be justified if this is the only motive.
On the other hand, what little I spent to restore my old Elcee amortized over forty two years, amounts to no money at all. I ask what other investment over all that time could have cost so little and still return such pleasure to anyone?
Restoration? Worth every cent and so much more... For me.