Bring a few vm's back to life

[Kit352]

I was digging through my old gear and came across several of my old vm68s that looked in decent shape so I want to bring them back to fighting strength. I think I have 4 in total but can only find two right now nor can I find my spares bin for them just yet. I have one tiger striped with the metal sides and one black one with plastic sides. My missing ones are another tiger and a special edition one. I want to say it was a Palmer's job but I honestly can't remember, it was probably done in the early 90s. I do remember buying it in Brockton Mass though so that's something. I had a bunch of detents and oring kits but considering they are pushing nearly 40 years old now they are probably junk. What are some of the current work arounds regarding those? I know I have a barrel adaptor so I'm good there. I would love to run the factory front CO2 setup but I don't know if I can fill those at the field. I remember trying to run hpa years ago and it ran poorly, have any advancements been made with that? I'm pretty sure some have been modded inside but I have no idea with what. I'm gonna have to rip them apart and maybe make a couple good ones that can run in today's world.

[jokers]

So I was having a discussion with someone the other day and he is running the CO2 in the VM68 and I asked them about an SHP regulator. He seemed to think that it would not work I disagree, if anyone else can weigh in I would appreciate it.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I run HPA on mine it runs great. I use a First Strike 2” 17ci 4.5k fits right under the barrel. Co2 is around 800-850 so if you run HPA it should shoot fine. I run a Doc freak barrel so it fits today’s paint.

[Kit352]

How many shots do you get out of that 17ci tank?

[Chuck E Ducky]

Enough to shot a JoLo and about three 50 round pods. So maybe 200. I stick feed it a lot.

[wthomas333]

For detents I have one of the Bret G detents which works great and I have also just bought a sheet of 1/8" Buna rubber and cut new detents out of that. Not as pretty as something properly stamped, but they work. Never had good luck with 3d printed detents, they just don't seem to be able to handle that kind of abuse.

infamoussmiley has hammer orings.

[Chaos]

I was digging through my old gear and came across several of my old vm68s that looked in decent shape so I want to bring them back to fighting strength. I think I have 4 in total but can only find two right now nor can I find my spares bin for them just yet. I have one tiger striped with the metal sides and one black one with plastic sides. My missing ones are another tiger and a special edition one. I want to say it was a Palmer's job but I honestly can't remember, it was probably done in the early 90s. I do remember buying it in Brockton Mass though so that's something. I had a bunch of detents and oring kits but considering they are pushing nearly 40 years old now they are probably junk. What are some of the current work arounds regarding those? I know I have a docs barrel adaptor so I'm good there. I would love to run the factory front CO2 setup but I don't know if I can fill those at the field. I remember trying to run hpa years ago and it ran poorly, have any advancements been made with that? I'm pretty sure some have been modded inside but I have no idea with what. I'm gonna have to rip them apart and maybe make a couple good ones that can run in today's world.

If you got them in Brockton,MA then you must have gotten them at USI/Apache Paintball....That's my old primary field! Was a dump but,fun as hell!
Most of the VM O-rings can be purchsed at a hardware store,except for that Hammer seal,that is the hardest seal to get......difficult but not impossible. As for the Detent Fingers,there is a 3d Printed replacement but I recommend contacting BretG about his CHARM detent....it is spring loaded at the last detent you'll ever need. Also if you're on Facebook come join the VM Empire Group where we share new ideas and tips https://www.facebook.com/groups/552671518402392

[Kit352]

Thanks for the info guys. I took apart the two guns today as best i could. It would seem that when we had a robbery a decade ago they took a good chunk of my paintball stuff as well because i am missing so much old gear and more irritating, tools and parts to keep the old stuff running. So no spare vm parts like barrels, orings or even the valve tool and of course two of the missing guns.
So of the two guns i do have one has an aftermarket bolt and barrel. It might have a valve as well but i cant get it out. The bolt is annodized blue and is probably a starfire bolt. i need to get orings for it to test. hammer oring looks good but i have no air to test. Looks to be overall in good shape. Hand cycles nicely. This a front mount c02 unit. Nice aftermarket barrel but i think i couldnt use it because the bore is too small, even years ago
The other gun i must have modified by hand at some point. Stock bolt but has been cupped, has bad orings . Hammer oring looks good. Cant get to the valve. hand cycles nicely. Stock barrel with a good indent at the tip so no balls will pass. I just used it for display back in the day but now i need to do something it since its my only barrel. I may try to ream it circular again.
Sadly i can not find my barrel adaptor. It must have been on one of the missing guns. I guess it doesnt matter much because i am also missing all my smartparts freak barrel kits i had. I just have one tube on an old automag i forgot i had until i found it this morning. Nice looking gun so i need to get that working again now.

And yes, I went to USI for all my paintball stuff back in the day. I will have to join the facebook group.

I will contact the mentioned members about getting parts i need. Thanks

[Kit352]

Quick update until I get parts in.
I made a valve tool to replace the one that was stolen.
I've order a bunch of 015 orings that are supposed to work with most of the vm. Hammer oring is a problem but mine looks to be ok on both.
i have a couple detents coming from bretG.
I joined the Facebook VM group.
I have officially lost every spare barrel and part I have ever owned for the vm's or any gun I have owned for that matter due to a robbery so I need to build that back up. Barrels will be the first purchase so I got to start looking. I have an autococker evil kit so a barrel adaptor is probably the way to go.

[Kit352]

Good news! Both VMs are up and running. The starfire bolt one seems to be shooting well. I'm running a 9oz c02 and it's like 20f out so snow was coming out the barrel. I don't have a crono so I can only guess at the fps but I would say it's probably low but acceptable. BretG sent me his detents but unfortunately they don't work with the Starfire bolt due to the chamfer behind the face that locks the detent down. I think I have a modification for it that will work but I have done it yet. I think if I cut off the stop tab and use the second unused detent bolt hole to create a channel to guide the detent it will work.
The stock bolt one was rapid cycling at first but stopped after a few shots. Shots ok. BretGs detent works great on it. Running the 9oz on it as well.
I found another beater barrel and was able to ream out the other stock barrel so they both shot paint now. Both are massive so I'm gonna get an autococker adaptor for them.
I really want to make one a back bottle set up now. Preferably with the bottle behind the bolt. I see the bottom line setup on eBay so that's an option but I would rather do the other way if I can find the parts. Anyone have an idea where I can get them from?

[Chaos]

Finding most VM parts these days is a matter of searching .... Check eBay and with baccipaintball.com .Those are the two best places to find stuff these days.
Instead of a barrel adapter , try DocsMachine docsmachine.com
He makes Freak compatible barrel backs for the VM

[Kit352]

So, automag spring conversion- is it worth doing? I have the springs and can 3d print the bumper for it.
I found a back bottle asa adaptor as well. The Lonestar kit I had been watching on eBay unfortunately sold a couple days ago so that's out

[Chaos]

It's definitely worth doing, if you do it the right way you could even make a rear velocity adjuster to go with it

[Kit352]

Another update.

Spent some pennies at Baccipaintball. I order a back bottle adaptor and an as expansion chamber for the stock bolt gun. I want to get that one running the best I can.
The cyclone bolted gun is being tested with a few different finger mods. Right now an oring arrangement is looking promising but I don't know who long the tangs will last. The 3d printed ones I did didn't work well with the cyclone boot.

I definitely need new barrels and I gave 3 choices.
Buy a new old stock one. It will have a massive bore compared to the paint I can get locally so probably not the best solution.
Buy an adaptor to convert over to autococker barrels. I have plenty of those including freak and evil pipe kits. I don't know how an adaptor would effect the shot performance of the gun though.
Buy docs freak back and call it a day.
And finally buy a few barrels and have them bored out to accept freak tubes. I like this idea best because it will still look period correct depending on the barrel I get which is also the reason why I'm not crazy about it. I just don't have many choices of good barrels to bore out. eBay only has a few different types and my personal barrels are in poor shape and not worth boring.

[un2xs]

What is wrong with your barrels? If it is just the exterior that is banged up but with a smooth bore then i would say go fir it.... This would give you a sort of stealth setup and be better than others expect.

[Kit352]

One is a stock brass one that has its tips crushed. I was able to ream it and get it straight but the bore is huge, maybe .695 ish?
The other barrel I have is some two piece one that was cut and reglued. It works ok but huge bore again @.691. Since CO2 isn't available at some fields ideally I would run on hpa so a tight bore would go to no ends of helping that. Current field paint is roughly .681.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I have Docs freak barrel for the VM and it shoots amazing. Uses any freak tip. I’m running an All American tip on mine.

[Kit352]

So I printed up.a few automag spring conversion.pieces today. Took me some back and forth to get enough preload on the spring so it wasn't tapping the valve pin every shot. I ended up making the bumper with 10mm of shoulder for the spring to ride and a few 2mm spacers just to fine tune later. I think it's shooting a little hot but without a crono I am only guessing. Kick is much lower but still there. I only had one extra agd spring too so I can't fit it to both guns yet. Should have grabbed a few from Bacci when I ordered but I wasn't thinking about it.
On a side note my detent solutions for using the cyclone boot are not turning out so well. They either work too well and hold the ball in the wrong position or they keep getting caught behind the bolt itself and jamming. The tinkering continues.