BODYGUARD 380 BIBLE VERSION 1 11/2011 GeorgiaShooter

Transcription

1 BODYGUARD 380 BIBLE VERSION 1 11/2011 GeorgiaShooter Locate a small punch or make one by grinding down the tip of a small finishing nail and smoothing any sharp edges. A great punch to keep in your portable field bag. I usually remove all pins. Sights and other parts from left to right but I stuck these in the holes to show you where I removed them from.

2 Before we remove the mechanism from the lower body. Make sure you capture this retainer spring-clip for the take-down lever. In this case I allowed this to fly across the room and wasted a good hour finding it. Do this next step while holding the whole gun inside a freezer bag to prevent that issue. Now I m removing the whole mechanism but I have not noticed that spring shown above is actually missing and flew across the room. Tip: holding both sides further forward than shown will keep the stuff from falling off the other side. Lift straight out with minor resistance.

3 Continue removing it from the main spring in the grip. Here s what the left side looks like with the safety freely falling off the rear end of the left side and the slide lock arm also falling off. That s normal since nothing is holding them on. You can see the small safety spring shaped like a question mark that never flew out but would be easy to loose. (watch it)

4 Here s the other side carefully flipped over and you can see the trigger arm coming down the side with a little spring tucked right into it s lower edge. That spring wont fly away because it s part of the trigger pin but this whole thing will fall right off if not held together. That s not a problem though. Here s the trigger spring disengaged from the arm so the pin and trigger can be removed and the side arm just falls right off.

5 Trigger arm off. This pin can also fall out with gravity but only when you don t want it to.

6 Now pull the hammer assembly right out as shown and make note how the parts are oriented. They will slide back up the same way when assembled We re getting there.

7 Now push the trigger pin out from the left side. Don t worry the spring embedded in the other side should remain captive. Just pay attention to all flying parts. Only the trigger is made of polymer. The trigger pin is metal. The pin is also keyed.

8 Now begins some of the improvements that will happen slowly as I go through the whole gun. This first step will simply polish the hammer assembly parts as shown. Not to remove any material but to use a cloth wheel at medium speeds to polish to a mirror finish without getting the part hot. I try to locate rough edges, scrapes and machine marks that only serve to add wear and tear and reduce smoothness. I also coat it with Teflon, allow to dry the a drop of Remington oil goes between it and the hammer. Next I ll work these rough stamped machine marks and four rough edges off the main spring guide that goes down into the grip and the spring travels on.

9 The results are very satisfactory and this should make some minor difference or at least makes me feel better. I wont fiddle with the other mating areas on the hammer assembly because they are more critical to maintaining the integrity of the factory setup. While here I ll also polish the business side of the hammer to a mirror finish while very careful not to remove any material or change the face of the hammer. I just want the slide block to glide over it like glass reducing drag and wear making the whole gun operate easier and smoother.

10 Next is one of the most careful steps in using a super fine and worn board to polish the rails for the slide just enough to slowly remove the black finish that even from the factory new is grinding and wearing off in a rough ugly way. These guns new feeling tight, abrasive and nothing like they can. Don t round off or remove material. Just polish and don t worry if some hints of the black finish are still there. We just want smoothness but not sanding at all. I polished the rails with a dremel cloth wheel soaked with polishing compound and cleaned.

11 This is optional but I coat everything with this dry Teflon spray that lays down a super thin layer of Teflon on all the internal parts then dries very quickly leaving that slick coat. Then I can wipe off excess and only oil the critical contact points later. It seems to work great for this use. Clean and reinstall the keyed trigger pin as shown. The spring wont fall out.

12 Flip over and make sure we didn t lose the safety retainer spring. Located several places on the safety lever with rough edges and spots that rubbed the frame and other parts and where it hinged. Smoothed those gently then polished to a mirror shine. This should not affect the snappy security of the safety but it should be slightly smoother and more consistent feel.

13 Assemble the hammer assembly as shown and apply a tiny bit of Remington oil where the parts lay together with no excess. In the spot shown. Slide into the frame as shown with pin lubricated cleaned and ready to drop in.

14 This pin can just fall right out the other side so pay attention. In preparation for assembly put the spring in the grip as shown.

15 Lay this trigger arm on the right side as shown with pin inserted in hole above the trigger. Now with thumbnail carefully bend spring end around until locks in lower edge of the arm. Keep the arm pressed up against the frame it this will all fly off. Keep pressure on it for the rest of the assembly.

16 This is what it should look like, keep it pressed. While pinching the whole assembly to keep the other side assembled. Lay down the slide lock arm on the other side with pin holding it in place and thumb and index pinching the front together. Lay the safety lever on the frame loosely in place and allow it to carefully sit there. It may fall off several times while assembling but that s okay. Be patient. We re almost there.

17 One of the last pieces we need to install. This can be done if you work very slow and carefully not to allow things to fly apart. Install this take-down lever retainer spring-pin as shown then carefully hold and pinch this whole front area together in preparation to slip in into the body. Note the bottom part of the spring has not been pushed up. It must lock against the upper edge of that slide lock lever. Now you can see I have everything installed correctly including the take-down retainer clip. If the safety level falls off just lay it back where it belongs and continue sliding the mechanism into the body until the sides begin to hold the parts in place and prevent them from coming apart.

18 Now you ll see the front pin hole line up perfectly but hold off before putting driving it back in. Not the rear pin hole still has the main spring pushing up and preventing it from being lined up unless you press downward. That s a good thing but insert your punch for a minute to test the gun before assembly.

19 With the temporary rear pin inserted, cock and fire the gun and make sure everything is working. The safety will work too. Leave the rear temp pin in, and proceed. Drive the front pin in from right to left. Both pins are the same so it doesn t matter which you grab. Now the lower part of the body guard should be well lubed, clean and all safe improvements and refinements done. We have been extremely careful not to spray lubricants or liquids near the laser compartment, buttons which can be damaged that way. I have videos showing how to fix the laser buttons and other laser related work.

20 Now time to clean, tune and improve the top end. Drive the hollow pin from the ejector but be very careful the additional spring and small solid pin under the ejector. These pins look alike but are not. Note the ejector and spring laying there but the firing pin s solid retainer pin has fallen out and laying on a ridge on the bottom of the block! I almost lost this little bugger.

21 Now drive the rear sight off from right to left with a punch block or whatever you normally remove gun sights with. This covers up a plate, spring and parts that engage or control the top of the firing pin. Be very careful not to loose anything. It should not go flying but be aware. You see the spring pushing the tiny plate up. Remove the plate, spring and firing pin locking mechism up and out of the hole as shown. They are oriented as they came out.

22 Now you can remove the firing pin and spring which you may have to push out the rear by sticking something like the small punch through the front access hole. Just be gentle. Here are all the parts layed out in the proper order in which they came out. Thoroughly clean and spray out the cavity to remove any traces of oil, dirt, grime and you might start with electronic cleaner for the first blast then rem-oil then let dry and wipe all excess.

23 Careful not to change anything I polish the firing pin with compound and the cloth wheel to a mirror finish and that includes the sides and rear but I do not touch the firing tip at all. I just want it to be smooth and reduce wear. I do nothing to the spring or the notches where the pins control the movement and safety of the firing pin.

24 This is the lever that is depressed from the bottom of the slide block that allows the firing pin to come out of the access hole and strike the primer. I only polish the surfaces that were breaking in with abrasive effect. Now they will wear more slowly and it s like a mirror on the contact points. Insert the firing pin and spring but push it forward until the rear notch in the firing pin is upward and allow the insertion of this part go down until seated.

25 Insert the spring with a drop of rem-oil then partially install the rear sight but don t drive it in permanently until everything can be verified.

26 Pressing down on the button with one punch allows the firing pin to be pushed fully forward as shown. Be very gentle and don t force it forward or make it stick. We re not done assembling this yet. This front edge of the ejector on the lower side is what touches the rim of the cartridge and slips behind the rim and down as the round comes up out of the magazine and chambers. This transition is not great on a brand new BG-380 and actually can cause most of your jamming problems when rounds are feeding in before they fire. The ejector works fine getting rid of the empty. As it breaks in the ejector doesn t get better as you would expect. This polishing does not round the edges. I take the super fine nail fine and simply clean up the bottom 45 degree angle then polish to mirror shine. See results in next pages.

27 Before we reinstall the extractor the small solid pin is the first one we need to find. Make sure you don t mix these up. Put a tiny drop of oil on the solid pin and push it into the small hole at the bottom of the larger hole where the extractor spring goes. This will go through one of the cut-outs in the firing pin and restricts the firing tip from coming too far out the front hole. This is something you should not forget to install. Do not force it in. Manipulate the firing pin from the rear if having issues.

28 You can see it installed in the smaller hole at the spring seat. Now install the spring and extractor without the solid pin falling out. Keep the other pin handy.

29 Squeeze the extractor down until the pin hole aligns and daylight. Then insert the hollow rolled pin and start it. Drive the pin in until it s almost flush but not all the way. Flip it over and see the other side.

30 Drive the rolled hollow pin back upward until just below the surface as needed. Drop of rem-oil on firing pin end which has a mirror polish. The tip of the firing pin locking mechanism is also polished. When that is depressed upward the firing pin is allowed to fire.

31 Next I smooth then polish the guide rod to a mirror finish. The front of the gun relies heavily on this rod and spring to guide and support the motion of the gun when firing and recoil. This reduces even more friction without hurting the gun.

32 With the gun assembled you can see the mirror shined guide rod with a light coat of rem-oil on it. I failed to note that I also polished the feed ramp to a mirror finish. Which helps feeding smoothness.

33 One of the most dramatic improvements was based on the ejector buffing and polishing but this was not to fix the ejecting function. It was actually causing feeding to be stiff when the ejector could not smoothly engage and slip behind the lip of this round as it came up and out of the mag. And as the lower side of the ejector broke in more and more it never started working better. Bad cycle! See next photo. Now the rounds slide up and behind the extractor effortlessly and the entire feeding operation is easily 25% smoother and the source of most of my few recorded malfunctions is history! And it will not wear aggressively in the future. This was the last big cherry on the sundae. But wait I have one more!

34 I very carefully knocked any sharp edges from the inner lips of the magazine and did not bend or pressure the metal then polished to a mirror and coated with Teflon then reassembled the mag with a very aggressive cleaning and light lube.

35 This BG is the sweetest 380 you ever held. Trigger is like butter and nothing like it was new. The slide is so smooth you can t even feel it transition over the block and hammer. The safety is crisp but very easy to use with an audible snap sound. No parts grind or bind in any way and the ammo feeds so easy now it s remarkable. The laser buttons are a dream to use and the retainer screw secured. This is a ROCK solid weapon now.