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S/S Viper Pump-Gun Restoration
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The Viper Pump-gun is a classic pump-gun from the early days of the paintball sport. This document
is the saga of the restoration of my example.
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I acquired my Viper Pump from Terry Garrett of G3 Paintball on May 8, 1999. The marker had
seen a lot of years and was not in the best of shape. Had it not been a rare and valuable peice, it
would no doubt been in a junk box somewhere. As I received it, it had a host of problems which I will
detail presently. First I wish to make something understood. While I purchased the marker from Terry
Garrett, I do not consider him 'The Former Owner.' Terry had acquired the marker from someone else.
Because he is a busy guy Terry had not himself gotten around to spending any time working on the marker.
In this article I will no doubt make numerous references to 'the marker's former owner'. For the sake
of clarity, I will state that this is NOT a reference to Terry Garrett, but rather, to the person Terry
acquired the peice from.
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Why such a disclaimer? Simply enough, so there will be no misunderstandings or hard feelings.
The host of problems that the Viper suffers from stem more from the 'repair' techniques of the markers
original owner than from it's overall age. Terry Garrett is a skilled and competant Airsmith. He is
by far more capable and competant to have handled the restoration of the Viper than myself. However,
he was less enthusiastic about the project than I and was willing to make a deal with me for the marker.
The person who owned the Viper before Terry is the one whose bungling resulted in much of the cosmetic
damage to the Viper. In no way do I wish to suggest or imply that Terry 'muffed-up' any part of the
Viper. The problems detailed below were the work of someone unknown to either him or myself.
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That said. Let me begin to detail the marker's condition. Overall the barrel and body tubes
were in realitively good condition. Only a slight belling of the muzzle was detected. The belling is
sufficient however to nessesitate repair. Finish of the tubes is good overall with only some polishing
marks near the rear of the tubes visible. These marks were appearently the handiwork of the former owner.
Likely caused by using a Dremel tool to attempt to shine the tubes up. I've seen the type of marks
before when I have gotten careless while polishing steel internal parts with my own Dremel. I suspect
that I will be able to buff these marks out without too much difficulty.
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Internally the tubes are in great shape. No scratching to be seen. Of course, stainless
steel is hard enough that only the most serious neglect would have resulted in a scratch. I'de like
to add here also that the tubes are remarkably thin. Perhaps only 3/16's or so in wall thickness. They
are surprisingly light but I suspect somewhat more fragile than the heavy guage brass tubes that Sheridan
uses. A brass sight rail was fitted to the top behind the feed port. Plating on the sight rail is
less than 50%. The letter's 'RTP Custom' are stamped into one side, and 'Viper' on the other. A steel
bead sight is mounted on the end of the barrel. The direct feed port is an unplated heavy brass tube.
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This Viper was originally a CO2 model. It features a lever action, drop-out CO2 changer mounted
just ahead of the grip frame. The CO2 changer presents the most serious restoration challenge. It's
soldered in place inside the body tube and will not be easy to remove, repair, or re-install. The 'plug'
that presses the cartridge into place is stripped out and has come loose. Appearently long before the
marker went out of active use. The plug is still present, being 'captured' by the tube's construction,
but it is scarred up from being forced together repeatedly with a screwdriver. In addition to this,
the owner appearently had the marker side-tapped at a later date. In order to keep the damaged CO2 changer
from interfereing with C/A operation, the owner tapped a hole through the change lever, body tube, and
into the plug. Damaging all three. To make matters worse, the hole isn't even centered up, so it is
cosmetically unappealing. The side-tap was professionally done and looks to be solid.
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Elsewhere on the marker were signs of years of use. The tail plug over the mainspring is
an adjustable type made appearently of soft aluminum. The knurling on it's back edge was nearly worn
away and it's looseness indicated that the screw that held it was stripped. A hole is tapped into the
side of this part evidently to allow a locking set screw. If I were a machinist and had the equipment
I would no doubt just simply make a replacement for this peice as it is fairly simple. However I will
likely have to 'make do.' I have an old tail cap left over from back when 'Boomer' was converted. I
may polish and install a velocity adjuster into it, using that model rather than the original
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The Viper has a Delrin bolt. It was in reasonable condition but missing an O-ring at the
front. The bolt is connected to the pump arm by a screw that passes through a plate on the pump arm,
a simple layout. The bolt features a metal pin on it's bottom side that engages and cocks the hammer.
This pin is quite worn. A quick strip notch is cut into the body of the Viper. Unlike the quick strip
notch on my Mac-1, this notch is on the left side of the body. The pump itself is identical to the pump
on a Mac-1 save for a series of countersunk 'lightening holes' drilled into it. The pump arm is brass
and shows some abrasions where an auto trigger was appearently mounted at one point.
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Wood grip panels replace the stock Sheridan types. Unfortunately they have a right hand thumb
rest and are uncomfortable for me to grip. I am left handed. Doesn't matter anyway because the former
owner took his Dremel drum sander to the back side of one of them and ruined it's profile. I will replace
the panels with classic Palmer's 'Battle Grips' at some point. Terry told me that the Viper 'leaked'
so I tore into the valve and made two unpleasent discoveries. The valve core itself was bad, appearently
the victim of being overheated when someone soldered on the gun at some point. I again know what this
looks like because I did it to 'Boomer' once. The second bad surprise was the internal spring had been
clipped and had corroded as well. Replacement would seem to be in order. One interesting surprise
was that the valve body had been 'ported' to improve air flow.
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The barrel of the Viper seemed at first like it would present few problems. In the end I
suspect that it will have presented the majority of them. On arrive the Viper had only one barrel problem,
a slight but visible 'belling' of the muzzle. The wall thickness of the barrel tubing is very thin,
likely to reduce weight. The disadvantage of this however is fragility, as I was later to learn. Beyond
the bent muzzle there seemed to be little else that needed to be done to the marker. I figured a quick
polishing would make the outside look good. . . (insert ominous music here)
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Well I muffed things up pretty good. While polishing the barrel it slipped out of my hand
and banged violently against the workbench. The result is a crease in the side of the barrel about an
inch in front of the bolt face. Bad news. I can probably get the majority of the dent out but I won't
be able to polish out all of the scratch. The Viper is going to have a permenant mar in it's surface.
It would have been a lot easier if I could have blamed this on someone else, but because I am at fault
it is difficult to take.
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I ordered an 11/16's diameter stainless steel ball bearing. The nominal dimension of the
the ball is .6875. Paintball sized. Upon it's arrival I lubed it up real good, lubed up the inside
of the barrel, and using a wooden dowel I gently tapped it through. I started at the back, the feed
port, and tapped it foreward to just about a quarter inch past the dimple. This did a pretty impressive
job of removing the dimple. Removing the ball I started again at the muzzle. The belling was much
more obvious with the bearing resting in the mouth of the barrel. I tapped the bearing in to just past
the last port and then stopped. Because the bearing was altering the I.D. of the bore slightly I did
not drive it all the way through. The center part of the barrel retains it's original I.D. with a slightly
larger I.D. in front of the bolt and at the muzzle brake. This amounts to a 'progressive' I.D. that
should not harm performance and may very well improve it.
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I consider the operation to have been a complete success. The outside of the Viper's barrel
still shows a mark, but the dimple is almost invisible inside the barrel. Such a mark, so far back down
the barrel is unlikely to have any effect on performance. The mark on the outside of the barrel is unsightly,
but I haven't exhausted my options for correcting it yet. Overall I think this 'Ball Swagging' technique
has some merit and may well be useful to correct the bores of other aging marker's as well. I am adding
to my wish list a 'bore anvil'. This would be a flat sided, tapered, peice of stainless steel with
a nominal O.D. of around .6865. Such a gadget would allow me to do a better job of fixing that dimple.
Unfortunately the cost of having it made would far exceed it's usefulness. Maybe when I win that Lottery
thing.
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I certainly dreaded this part of the restoration far more than the barrel or grip frame.
The quick-change is in bad shape. The forcing plug is stripped out. It's gouged up from the previous
owners attempts to get it to to screw back together. There is a hole in it's back edge where someone
tried to wedge it into position by drilling and tapping a screw into it. The lever handle is also rough.
It was crudely built to begin with, workmanship being secondary to functionality. It's mild steel so
it had rusted in places. The former owner had drilled a hole, off center, in the tab and tapped it.
Shade tree mechanicing on top of already shoddy workmanship. The whole quick change assembly is silver
soldered into place. In order to repair it there was no option but to remove the assembly. The last
time I soldered on a paintgun (Boomer) I melted down the valve and pitted the body. I was not looking
foreward to taking a torch to another paintball gun.
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After goofing up the barrel I overcame my fear of soldering on the quick changer. To keep
it short, the assembly came out without much hassle and I only set fire to the shop twice. I really
shouldn't be allowed to handle torches. I did remember to dismantle the entire marker, including the
valve this time so I didn't melt anything important. With the changer out, I began to dismantle it.
What a mess it was. Aluminum, Brass, and Steel. Not really a good combination because they will corrode
rapidly when joined. The steel parts were quite rusty, it looked like a lot of that was from having
had the torch taken to them more than once. I was surprised to discover that the chassis on which the
changer was built was actually brass. It was so dirty and torch burnt from it's prior assembly that
it did not look like brass at all. The steel parts were pretty crude. The threaded rod that coupled
to the plug was nothing more than a bolt with it's head cut off and a slot cut in it's top. I think
I will at least attempt to replicate this part either out of brass rod or by using a stainless steel
bolt. Behind the rod was a camming plate. This thing is also steel and it looks like maybe they just
found it beside the road somewhere. It's bent, buckled, and twisted. Caked with rust. Crudely formed.
I hate this particular part. It's horrid. I will probably make a new one out of aluminum or brass
sheet. I'm concerned about just how precise it's geometry needs to be to make it work right however.
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The first part I worked on was the change lever. This part is just butt ugly. One would
call it 'stamped', if indeed it had been mass produced. Instead I would say it was probably hammered
out one at a time. It bears a ton of tool marks, looks to be from a pair of needle-nosed vise grips.
Probably used to hold it while it was being formed. If I had the capability I would machine a new one
out of solid stock. I don't, so I'll have to improvise. The logical way to fix it would have been to
tack weld a bead of metal into the hole, grind that off and call it done. I don't have a welder either
so that was out. I wanted to make the part look better than new so I improvised. I filled the hole
with epoxy, filed the whole part smooth with a jeweler's file. Once I have soldered the unit back into
place I will dip the handle in 'Plasti-Dip' to hide the epoxy and give it a finished look.
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The Grip frame was the most cosmetically unappealing part of the marker upon arrival. The
bottom of the soft aluminum frame was bent. The wooden grip panels had been oversanded on the back side
and didn't mate up to the frame, leaving large gaps visible. Screw holes for a stock had been drilled
in the bottom of the grip frame but the holes were off center. It was evident that the original maker
sent the Viper's out unrefinished after doing some modification to the grip frame. An alternate mounting
screw location at the front of the frame is added, requiring that the bow of the trigger guard be relieved
somewhat. The grip frame was never refinished after this operation. Nicks and scratches abound.
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I began by dismantling the entire grip frame. The screw holes at the base of the grip frame
had coil springs inserted in them. Evidently so that screws could be threaded into them. I suspect
that this was work done by the original manufacturer. The work was so poor and unattractive however
that I choose to remove it. They would be simple enough to reinstall if someone wished to restore the
marker to original design. Like the change lever, I filled the holes with epoxy, sanded them smooth
and will repaint the entire grip frame.
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I spent a lot of time wondering just what the heck RTP stood for. I had run a lot of ideas
around in my head. Was it something like 'Ready To Play.' or maybe 'Really Tough Paintgun'.
Maybe it was just someone's initials. But reality is much less charming and a lot more unpredictable.
I discovered from Terry Garrett and a few others that RTP stands for 'Rick The Prick'. I don't
have the story of how this came about but I'm working on it.
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The maker of the Viper is defunct. They didn't sell out or change names, they just simply
folded.
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Colin Thompson of Lapco is the guy who knows the whole story. I'm going to try to get him
to fill me in but he's a busy guy so I'm not expecting much. I'll update when I've got something.
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