Refinishing a slide

I have a "beater" pistol that's had some finish damage on the slide for a long time (previous owner), and sometime soon I intend to media-blast it and refinish in one form or another. Looking for advice from those of you who have done something similar. A friend said I might want to use a gentle media like walnut shells to avoid removing too much metal, changing the size/shape of holes etc. [The current remaining finish is some kind of black enamel.]

What else should I consider?
Anyone have a link to a good source of info about this?

I'd like to do the refinishing myself rather than send it off to Robar or anything like that (again, it's a beater), so recommendations on at-home treatments are welcome. I'm wondering about DuraCoat.

Thanks folks! [Viking]

Pick your coating and then follow the directions from the manufacturer. I recently did a Kahr K40 in Cerakote (the factory finish on that gun sucked, BTW) and the mfr. specifies blasting with 100 or 120 mesh size aluminum oxide. The idea is to give the steel a fairly "rough" surface so the coating adheres well.

HTH,

-Jim

Funny... I kept looking into the options and was starting to lean toward Cerakote just a couple days ago. Thanks for the input!

I'm not saying Cerakote is the best option; that's just what I used. Whatever you choose, just make sure to follow what the manufacturer has to say about how best to apply the coating.

BTW, Cerakote makes two different types of coatings: one you bake and one you don't. I chose the one you bake. I put the parts in the oven for two hours at 200* (everything was metal so I didn't have to worry about anything melting). It smelled for a while but the smell went away as it started to cure. I didn't find the smell to ever be that bad but, as always, YMMV.

The finish came out great but I did a slight bit of damage when I was reinstalling the sights. Really pissed me off...[Mad] [Tooth]

I recoat my stuff at need. Learned a lot over time, and by listening to others. If you're doing a cured molycoat type finish (cerakote, brownells, etc.) PREP is where most fail.

Beadblasting = not so good (unless glass beads are all you have)
Sandblasting = good, I use Dupont Starblast 1500xl

magnesium phosphating (can be done in a tub) does help create a good basic undercoat.

E-nickle over the magnesium phospating adds a hardened base that increases the durability of the molycoat.

All the above applies only to steel. SOME steels coat well, some DONT - in general stainless steels don't coat as well as standard carbon steels.

AFTER blasting, cleaning with TCE (trichloroethane) is the best way to degrease. Carburetor cleaner has TCE in it (that's why it evaporated so fast) but it has other additives that contaminate the surface. Find the stuff locally, or order it from Brownell's. Be careful, this stuff melts standard plastics and will eat through any protective gloves you have - I dip my parts. It also has a very low vapor pressure, it will evaporate about 5 times as fast as acetone. If all you have is acetone, use it.

Pre-heating the part is covered in most directions you get with the coating, what ISN"T covered is how you re-heat the part frequently (unless it's massive enough to retain heat) because the action of the spraying cools the metal, and the molycoat does not instantly dry on the surface. If it doesn't instantly dry, the molycoat builds up like rippled paint.

Five or so light coats is better than 2 or 3 moderate coats, so I reheat between coats as a matter of quality. You should never expect a single coat to cover, once you make a single pass over the section of metal, don't make any other passes - reheat, and coat again. I use a model maker's airbrush kit, and I thin down my molycoat with acetone to help avoid buildup if I mess up.

Angle your coating passes, never spray at a 90 degree angle - you risk ripples from dwelling on one spot too long. The coating should be dry to the touch after application, it should never appear "wet".

A hotplate is a great way to heat parts, I put a piece of stainless steel plate on the hotplate so that I have a good heatsink, and I lay my parts on the plate to heat them.

If you're using your oven at home, do it at NIGHT so your wife doesn't smell the stuff curing, it will save your marriage.

Don't trust that your home oven's thermostat is correct, use a brownells gunsmith thermometer to verify it, I bought one and use it more for cooking than anything else, so it has multiple uses.

I find that molycoating alone is great for standard carbon steel and sheet metal. Phosphating works better on prepping stainless steel, and I have done one slide with phosphating followed by electroless nickle, then molycoat - and that's one tough slide to scratch. Coating aluminum is pretty easy, just don't sandblast any critical areas too much (like retaining pin holes) the coating WILL add a couple thousandths to the surface, but will wear away easily on aluminum - so it wont make up for lost material.

Wow great tips, thanks much ldmaster!
I still haven't gotten around to this project so your input is much appreciated.
[Beer]

That sounds like a lot of work! I would rather pay someone to do it. Does anyone know a shop (or a guy) locally that will do this kind of thing?

How much for just refinishing the metal on a romy G? I want to do the building myself, and I can also do the wood, but would like to know what you would charge for the Gun Koting over park?PM or email please, Thank you,