Refurbishing pistol box

Question for the group.

Where or who refinishes the wooden pistol boxes? I have an old pachmayr that I would like to strip down to wood and really improve the entire interior.   Does anyone know a guy?

Thank you all!

I have done a couple where I lowered the shelf and repaired the de-laminating covering.  Stripping the covering off usually reveals all the staples they use to assemble the box.  Some folks will carefully dig the staples out and replace them with brass screws.  For me, that juice isn't worth the squeeze.  I would just paint the stripped box.

Recent endeavor. Rails are lowered 1" and made from some oak I have:

this is hard..... Find a cabinet maker or someone who refinishes furniture

another option would be to strip off the covering and hardware, then shoot with bed liner paint

that stuff is thick enough to cover many sins and takes abuse

All of those boxes are primarily made of plywood. As Steve Samelak suggests, removing the hardware (screws are usually easy, if there are rivets they will need to be carefully drilled out, can replace with small bolts/nuts). Then strip off all of the original covering sand back any residual glue and get all of the surfaces smooth. I recently built a small toolbox from cheap sanded plywood - I had a part can of Danish Oil (from any hardware store) which is very easily applied with a rag (old sock, T shirt, whatever). Apply a couple of coats to get an even tone. Then once dry buff it up with some furniture wax. Looks great. If the hardware is Chrome or Nickel try some Aluminum cooking foil, bike restorers trick. Or good old steel wool to smooth the surface then spray to your color choice with a rattle can.

This requires the bare minimum of tools - OK a small power sander reduces elbow grease, but the surfaces are small and hand held sandpaper will do it. Total cost of materials probably less than $30. Two half days of effort should get it done.

If it turns out decent (no reason why it shouldn't) you can be proud of it for the rest of your shooting life.

At the end of the day “improvement” is in the eye of the one paying for the work. From a skill perspective, I would argue it is not difficult (Roy’s outline is spot on), but requires motivation. Tolex or other coveting is more expensive than bedliner or paint. Any wood repair also would add cost. The skill set to do anything is out there, but in many cases it may be cost prohibitive.