Refinishing question

[Kid Kwik]

Hello,
I have a question about refinishing.

I have a couple of custom II Kimbers and the pistols are great but the finish doesn't seem very durable. I think that someday in the next couple of years due to holster wear I will be wanting to refinish my Kimbers.

How much money does it cost to refinish a pistol in one of the new finishes like Duracoat or something like that? I was told by a dealer yesterday that just getting a 1911 reblued will cost about $150.00. That seems pretty high to me. Are the newer coatings even higher than that?

[Deacon Aegis]

$150.00 for a good re-blue job is actually a heck of a good deal. There is such an enormous amount of prep work that goes into delivering a good finish and a number of things that can go wrong that a more realistic price one might see a full-gun re-blue land somewhere in the $250 to $350 range and fees for added stuff like scratch repair and other hidden costs such as shipping can really make a refinish project add up if not considered. Polymer finishes range in cost and effectiveness, delivering both lower cost alternatives to carbon steel finishing while some folks might demand something like a parkerized process preceding a polymer coating application and that can start to become equally or even more expensive than some traditional finishes. Hard chrome and other forms of elctro-chemical finishes range equally. $150.00 bargains can be pretty easy to find in the polymer and blued offerings, but I wouldn't expect to get anything stellar for that price range. Hope that helps.

[groundpounder]

I have had several of my guns refinished by Derek at Arizona Expert Arms. He first strips the gun down, then bead blasts it, then parkerizes it, and finally coats it with a moly based bake on finish. I can't remeber his prices off hand but I'm sure if you give him a call he'd be more than happy to give you a quote. http://www.azexarms.com/contact.htm

[Justsomeguy]

Hello,
I have a question about refinishing.

I have a couple of custom II Kimbers and the pistols are great but the finish doesn't seem very durable. I think that someday in the next couple of years due to holster wear I will be wanting to refinish my Kimbers.

How much money does it cost to refinish a pistol in one of the new finishes like Duracoat or something like that? I was told by a dealer yesterday that just getting a 1911 reblued will cost about $150.00. That seems pretty high to me. Are the newer coatings even higher than that?

Don't get excited! If you do this, you will make a couple of "safe queens" out of your Kimbers and never shoot 'em again. Realistically, you will probably be talking about $600 to do both of them and they will come back so pretty you will be afraid to handle them.

My advice, for what it's worth, is just enjoy the guns until they get decrepit, then, when they won't hit the broadside of a barn from the inside send 'em out for a rebuild and refinish. Until then, just shoot 'em and enjoy the ride... but hey, I'm just some guy!

[--Terry--]

This makes sense. I should not try to refinish a gun which is still quite new.

Sorry, just thinking aloud......

[Kid Kwik]

Don't get excited! If you do this, you will make a couple of "safe queens" out of your Kimbers and never shoot 'em again. Realistically, you will probably be talking about $600 to do both of them and they will come back so pretty you will be afraid to handle them.

My advice, for what it's worth, is just enjoy the guns until they get decrepit, then, when they won't hit the broadside of a barn from the inside send 'em out for a rebuild and refinish. Until then, just shoot 'em and enjoy the ride... but hey, I'm just some guy!
I understand what you are saying but no gun of mine will ever be a "safe queen" They just spend too much time in a holster!
At some point the holster wear will just make the pistol loo too bad and I will start to worry about rust. One of the two will end up with a Crimson Trace Lasergrips because my wife likes them. That one will probably stay at home full time to protect my wife and kids while I am at the range :).

[Ericthenorse]

Do some checking around... For just a fraction of the cost, you can parkerize and coat your pistol yourself... You might have to pay someone to blast the old finish off though... Check with brownells for both park solution and several different coatings....

[Justsomeguy]

I understand what you are saying but no gun of mine will ever be a "safe queen" They just spend too much time in a holster!
At some point the holster wear will just make the pistol loo too bad and I will start to worry about rust. One of the two will end up with a Crimson Trace Lasergrips because my wife likes them. That one will probably stay at home full time to protect my wife and kids while I am at the range :).

Ok... So I was kidding a little about the safe queen thing, but it does happen. I built a gun in gunsmithing school about 27 years ago and put a high polish deep blue finish on it. I built several more 1911's over the years and always used those instead because the "pretty" one, although it would shoot a five shot group you could cover with a nickel, would show every little fingerprint and I was always afraid I would hurt the finish. Finally, recently I said the heck with it, put a 9mm upper on it and have been happily shooting it ever since.

Also, like Erikthenorse says, you can get some refinishing stuff from Brownell's and "do it yourself", but those costs mount up too. I did get some Gun Coat and stripper from them recently to finish the upper I referred to above and several other slides I have sitting around so they will be protected. Those costs are not high, but you have to be aware that preparation is EVERYTHING! No finish will look good if the prep work is not near perfect, and by near perfect I mean as flawless as humanly possible.

If you are sure you will not be putting any more mods on the gun, and holster wear is down to the "white", then you can either use touch-up blue to help protect it, or go whole hog, strip the gun and refinish. Bluing or Parking setups do a good job but by the time you buy the chemicals, tanks, buffing equipment, etc., you will be paying at least as much as sending it out for those kinds of finishes. Bake on coatings are less expensive for the "home finisher", and have gained popularity in the last few years as the finishes have improved. I would practice on a less expensive gun or slide to begin with if you have that option.