powder coating vrs spray and bake from brownells?

[CTtackdriver]

Im up in the air about what I would like to do with my new slide (stainless) but my frame is steel and need to be shot with somthing. Ive smoothed (melted) all the lines I envisioned. Ive installed and blended in a extended beavertail safty and stripped the entire frame. I am unsure about the spray and bake finishes as I have never used them Ive also never seen or touched a power coated pistol.

Some of my concerns with the spray and bake are the end result. With all the work and money im putting into my old gal I dont want to wind up with a 2 bit finish on her.

Powder coating worries me because I dont want my entire frame globbed up with the stuff being every where I dont want it!

Any info or advice would be great.

BTW every rifle shotgu and pistol I have is blued so im not much in the mood for more blueing .. well except my kimber and my duck gun LOL the other 35 or so are blued I definatly want to try somthing new

[Deacon Aegis]

CTtackdriver, you might want to consider a hard chrome finish for that frame. If you get the matte rounds/brushed flats surface treatment on the hard chrome job, you'll probably find it will compliment the stainless steel very nicely.

EDIT: Oh and oh brother my friend, I know this response doesn't really address your question. My apologies. I've played with Dura-Coat and will be taking a crack at Gunkote from brownell's here soon. I see alot of pros using the K&G Gunkote finish and have high hopes for the product for the kitchen table gunsmith (like me), but haven't tried performing an application of it yet myself though I have some in-house right now and as soon as I get a chance to blast a Rock Island frame I modded a beavertail to I can post some pics for you on how that turns out.

[pa_guns]

Hi

A lot of the result of any spray or powder coating is related to the expertise of the person doing the job. If you have never done it before there may be a bit of a learning curve.

You can mask the pistol before you do either the powder or the "paint" process. The degree of masking depends on just how patient you happen to be. There are rubber like masking compounds that will let you mask some very small areas.

If you decide you are going to send it out for a coating job there are a *lot* of options. Nickel plating has already been mentioned. There are some exotic materials that can give you nice black's or other colors.

Bob

[CTtackdriver]

I really dont have ANY faith in ANY of the gunshops in this area. 2 have already had me physically pained while leaving shaking my head in disgust. I wouldnt trust them to ship my frame ect. There is however a powder coater locally who does ALL the work for my buddies manufacturing company so hes definatly competant ect.

here are 2 picks of her in her current state ( just stuck the slade on and 1 of each grip to send progress pics to a buddy up north) Its REALLY ugly and none of the metal work or prep is done yet ect
:edit: didnt shrink the pic as much this time see if it helps
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/987275/0200.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/987275/021.JPG
and the before pic ( bone stock milspec colt)
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/987275/1911.jpg

[CTtackdriver]

There was way too much light on the pistol ,,, i cont figure out how to turn the flash off on this digital cam :(

[pa_guns]

Hi

If you can bounce the flash off a wall that will help a lot.

Bob

[CTtackdriver]

Ill get my cousin to turn it off when he gets a chance and retake the pics after i wet sand it out nice and smooth. Not really worth the effort right now as its might ugly at this point. Alot of the reflection like in the top pic bottom of the frame infrot on the trigger guard just lies in the pic ... there is no sunk in spot there just stripped finish.

The beavertail was REALLY easy with the Ed brown jig It definatly saved a ton of time and effort. Not worrying about the finish made it easier too =)

[Helstrm]

I use KG GUnKote, Powder coating is not the way to go for guns. It will crack and peal. It is nothing but a plastic coating. I was not impressed with the brownells but at the time I used the spray can. Now I airbrush with KG.

http://gunsmithusa.com/files/1911_005_908.jpg

[muscle]

Definately not a powder coat. It is way too brittle and too thick.

Ive used duracoat on a few AK builds with excellant results. I spent time on the AK's bead blasting, dehorning, etc. These rifles are mass produced and have many tool marks that I spent time to remove but had to decide when to stop. The duracoat is going strong after several thousand rounds through the ak's. I also painted all surfaces including frame rails but did not paint the firing control group.

If the 1911 is cherished then I would go with a blue or hard chrome finish. Duracoat, Gunkote is extremely difficult to remove once applied.

here is some pic of one of my AK's done in Duracoat "colt grey"

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/rddown/AK-47/duracoat004.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/rddown/AK-47/Image3.jpg http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i232/rddown/AK-47/finished007.jpg

[Anopsis]

I am trying this myself for the first time. I bought Brownell's Aerosol Baking Lacquer in Dark Parkerizing Gray and shot it on a Colt Commander grip safety that was laying about.
I only put two coats on it and baked it for 30 minutes at 350º. Pulled it out and almost immediately started digging and scraping on it with the tip of a knifeblade. Only made small marks where the rough parkerizing-like finish was removed. It maintained its color.

I am a bit confused though about the difference between this spray and Gun-Kote, though.

[CTtackdriver]

Some old and NEW pics and YES i know I havent done much this week , but between work and life I just havent had time to pee let alone work on her!

Before
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/987275/1911.jpg

As of today...... fixed the flash issue =)
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-4/987275/melt.JPG

[muscle]

CT from what I can see is that there are alot of buffing or sanding swirl marks in the frame. This would be good for a paint application as long as they are not too deep. Typically most gun sprays require a pakerized finish or bead blasted before you spray them.

good luck.

[CTtackdriver]

It was posted for a better pic because the flash ruined the other ones ..... Im not going to pain it with the metal all messy like that LOL. Its still roughed out. I need to sand it all then wet sand it all before i re finish it. I just dont want to wet sand it smooth and then have it pit from being raw steel and having no finish on it

[pa_guns]

Hi

Anything you would *want* to finish a 1911 with is going to be pretty thin stuff. The condition of the base metal is going to have a big impact on the end result. That's even true with some of the "paint" like stuff.

If you think about it this is another advantage you have in the finishing process. You can control texture and color independent of each other. Lots more stuff to have fun with.

Bob

[CTtackdriver]

Im going to shoot the frame with duracoat grey the controls with black . glass beat the top of the slide then put the "machined" testure back of the sides of the slide with some fie grit sand paper. That is once i get all the metal prepped and the work completed on the pistol