This is why pictures and hollywood aren't really a great source for historical accuracy :) All these Garands came off the exact same production line, probably on the exct same day. How do you know? because they are all sequential serial numbers! Obviously, over time the got separated and ended up with different histories. But one thing is very certain - after almost 60 years, NONE of them have the original Parkerization finish or wood stain/varnish they came off the production line with.

http://www.garandguy.com/images/3consecutive.jpg

It kinda looks like the first too just have a lot of dust hehe.

hehe good 2 know

hehe

Honestly thought the second one was plastic then :p

So you're saying that all of these garands looked the same, when they came off the production line?

I think the two on the left have been sprayed with a silicon-based rust-retardant. Back in my army days we had this spray-can that we could use on certain items instead of greasing them up. We used it on our Vulcan AA guns (the barrels, breeches, etc) but I'm not sure we ever used it on our personal firearms. It looked exactly like that (the grey).

I thought it was Hammerite.

Could be...not sure. I just know we used that stuff on all sorts of things and there's no telling where these specific weapons landed during their journey through time.

It could just be the type of phosphate used to finish them.

Originally posted by engineer
It could just be the type of phosphate used to finish them. This is the most likely answer. They have been re-finished with a process called Parkerization, which uses phosphates to bind the finish to the metal. this is how the original Garands were finished, however they had a greenish hue. Depending on the material you use during the process the color of the parkerization can be different. Most modern parkerzitions nowadays are light gray.

Here's a nice example of a gray/green parkerized Garand......

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/964/parkerizedm13yl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Originally posted by Wile E Coyote
This is the most likely answer. They have been re-finished with a process called Parkerization, which uses phosphates to bind the finish to the metal. this is how the original Garands were finished, however they had a greenish hue. Depending on the material you use during the process the color of the parkerization can be different. Most modern parkerzitions nowadays are light gray.

Manganese Phosphate is hte post-war finish that produces the dark grey finish, right?

ALSO: The Greeks had a OD Green Phosphate finish on their M1 rifles.

I would kill for those, even though the new finish kills them i think.

I <3 Winnie M1s, if im not lazy ill psot pics of mine, it's Jul 42 dated.

wait a second, I know those rifles.

Thgose belong to Tony from NJ Firearms guild!