I agree that it's a shame that at some point, this very nice gun has had value reduced by the addition of the White Line pad, the oversized ivory grip cap, and especially the screw holes in the top rib. Once, I had a chance to buy a couple new old stock Nydar shotgun sights, and passed. Never once regretted it. I also don't recall any higher grade Ithaca Flues with engine turning of the lump and barrel flats, and wonder if that might have been done during a past barrel rebluing job. There are also a couple weep holes in the lower ribs. Nice photography though Shane.
I have an E Grade Lefever that has a single small screw in the top rib, and have thought long and hard how to fill and fix it myself. I'm not sure if the method of filling the hole with a threaded blank, and then peening it over, then dressing and re-cutting the rib matting would work as well as it does on a rifle barrel. It might help to very lightly countersink the hole, and then use a small flat head screw ran down as tight as possible without breaking, to better fill the top of the threads. Then a quick shot of heat from a jewelers acetylene torch to soften the steel a bit just before peening.
I'm a little concerned that the peening process could loosen the rib solder joint in that area. I've also thought about having the threaded plug welded by someone who does laser welding. Maybe they could go at it in several short welds, and also fill the barrels with water to help keep the rib solder joint below the melting point. It would be interesting to hear how others have done this, and how invisible the repair was after dressing, and rebluing.
It's also interesting to me that many Ithaca Doubles including the Minier, Crass, Lewis, and Flues models used the same rib matting pattern as the Syracuse Lefevers. I've read that Dan Lefever built his own rib matting machine, and wondered whether Ithaca copied it, or may have licensed or bought it from him. Ithaca's use of that pattern predates the 1916 sale of the Lefever Arms Co. name, machinery, and unfinished inventory to Ithaca.
