Old Walther GSP with a Cracked Frame?

[Gwhite]

The MIT collegiate team has a couple of Walther GSPs. The designs are a bit different, and one has two cracks through the frame. One goes from the rear of the ejection port to the slot for the slide "ear" on the right side, and then there is a second crack extending from that slot down to the bottom of the frame. In effect, the right side of the slide below the ejection port is completely disconnected from the rear of the frame. The other pistol appears to be a newer design, and has no cracks, presumably because there is considerably more metal in that area. I think the cracked pistol dates from the 1960's.

In any event, I'm wondering:

1) Has anyone encountered this before? I have a dim recollection that there was something about the earlier design that tended to break, but i thought it was a component, and not the whole frame.

2) Is the pistol safe to shoot in this condition? There's plenty of metal on the left side holding things together, but there is clearly a certain amount of stress at that location to have broken the frame.

3) Can it be repaired? If so, is there someone in the USA that someone would recommend for the job? I'm sure it could be welded and made whole, but without proper annealing, I suspect it would be only a short time before it cracked again.

Thanks!

[Tom]

Hiya,

Have you called Earl's Repair Service yet? www.carlwalther.com

Tom

[Gwhite]

Yes. When no one responded with any insight, I explained the situation to him. I am still concerned that it is old enough that parts aren't available, but if anyone can fix it in the US, he can.

We will be sending it off to him shortly.

In the meantime, I found that this is not unheard of:

http://www.offhand.org/amb/busted-gsp/

Earl mentioned that the cracks can result from a weak recoil spring (echoed by the above web site), but the newer GSP we have has got a lot more metal in that region. It may be that we can retrofit the old one with a new frame and bolt, but I don't know what else may have changed. The piece that is cracked is ~ $450, so at some point it isn't economical to fix it.

[PaulB]

I have a similar GSP with the same problem. Serial number G16xx, bought used from Earl's in 1987. The frame is cracked in three places. I did not notice the cracks and the gun was doubling so I gave it to Buck of PilkGuns at Collegiate Nationals to see what he could do. He noticed the cracks and said it was not fixable because it would be almost impossible to weld, glue or solder the frame without causing some other problems. As a parts gun the only thing that I think I might be able to use is the barrel, as the trigger and the mag won't work on newer models.

[Greg Derr]

Pullman arms on Worcester Ma. Micro welding at its best.