To redoing the case colors, warping could definitely be an issue. If you have the capability, or know someone who does (local machinist will do), machine a block to keep that from happening. If that's the case, I say go for it. Do you have a furnace/kiln that can hold an accurate temperature?
My two cents on bluing: I would rather keep the receiver polished as you have it, than rust blue it. The Lewis that I worked on had been painted back in the 50's or 60's with lead paint. That was a pain in the rear to remove and was not degreased properly back when it was done. The owner didn't want a restoration, only a repair and refinish/checkering on the wood. He wanted the shotgun to have a rust patina to it (which I'm not a big fan of), and given the light but noticeable pitting, I selected a basic antiquing process to recreate the patina. It holds up well, is virtually impossible to screw up, hides quite a few imperfections, protects well, and can look halfway decent by matching the heads of the pins to that color (a little torch-bluing). Your receiver looks nearly, if not entirely, absent of pitting. If it comes down to bluing or polished, I would leave mine polished.
I'm interested to get a look at those mainsprings and am unsure if there were changes to the springs back then. I don't really see a drawback to the design - if they work. However, I wonder how the strain pins would have any impact on the compression of the springs. They wouldn't then prevent the springs from rocking into the trigger plate, nor would they keep the springs from torqueing, at all. As previously noted, it is pretty snug inside the receiver so I doubt it will affect anything.
I'll have to go back and check the earlier posts, but didn't you mention that you had some bent pins on this gun?
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