The sight carrier assembly is being stripped down, for full rebuild. Photos to follow tomorrow. Having issues with my phone right now.
Very pleased to say, I don't think any internal parts are required, beyond those which were anticipated early on.
Although.....one should be very careful NOT to claim victory too early.
Some pieces need a little more work than I had originally thought, because some earlier owner had taken the whole 'deactivated' theme rather too far for my liking, and applied lumps of weld to defenceless bolts, nuts, etc... Not so much an issue if doing a liquid restoration, but I want to have everything working as it should, so everything must be able to come apart for cleanup.
The following photos are a few days old, with the first one being most recent of those. Pretty much everything is apart now. Even the abortion that you see in 2nd photo below. There was a nice big blob of weld on that one, and the grease nipple had rotted away long ago, by the looks.
My welder friend assures me he can weld up the bottom of the casing, where serious corrosion has eaten away a decent chunk of metal. I think we will probably weld a 'reasonably' accurate copy of the lower portion, and then use filler to finish and add all the finer details.
Quite a few pieces are brass or bronze, including a large part on the rear of the assembly. All going well, I intend to retain that in unpainted condition. Possibly even polished up. I know it's not as it would have appeared in real life, but these things are such a piece of art in their own right. Would be a pity not to emphasise that, I think.
PS: If you didn't see the irony in the very first photo........look in the background on right side.
Somebody's gonna get a whole can o' whoop-ass opened on em!