Barrels

[B. Dudley]

What dean said is right.

Sometimes the bottom of the dolls head hits the frame and causes the barrels to not fully seat on the water table. But, not often. If your barrels are fully seated and bolting closed and the rib extention still sits up some, it is because the frame that they came off of was not filed as deep as yours. The rib will need to be taken down, touched up and barrels refinished.

The joy of working on Parkers!

[edgarspencer]

I've never seen a Parker where the bottom surface of the rib extension/dolls head comes close to bottoming out, as the rib extension isn't nearly as thick as the depth of the mating slot in the receiver. There is usually .025 to .030" of clearance between these two surfaces. Otherwise any debris such as dirt, bits of leaves, unburned powder, etc, would prevent the gun from closing. The dolls head has about 5 tapered vertical surfaces which are really the aligning surfaces, and these likely vary from gun to gun. A simple dye test, or smoke test will determine how well these surfaces mate up.
If the rib extension on the new set of barrels are firmly soldered in place, as Dean says, simple filing of the top, and re-engraving is the fix. However, the dolls head may not be going all the way down because of a vertical interference, and forcing it can tear the rib extension solder joint.
Anyway you shake it, it's a job for an experienced gunsmith.