Bead Blasted Finish..Scratches

[zenbiker]

I own an Ed Brown Kobra in SS bead blast finish, I noticed a couple of very superficial scratches on the slide. I decided to try to buff them out with Blue Magic Metal Polish. The result was that the scratches were removed but the bonus was that the appearance of the slide was much more like a polished SS finish. Looks just beautiful.
I then did the frame and the slide stop which came out matching perfectly to the slide's new brightness. The gun looks much better now.
Use light pressure and do it by hand,. You may be surprised as I was by the great results.
I think deeper scratches would be a bigger problem but for superficial ones, this works.

[berkbw]

There was a thread where someone, I think, pounded on some abrasive to kinda give a "uni-pucker" to the finish. A starting place?
b-

[emmagee]

IMO, a nice bead blasted stainless finish is great, however, it *will* show any scratch, mark, etc. Short of reblasting it, I don't think there are any easy fixes.

[DUBYA R 2U]

I like "FLITZ". Have not tried "Blue Magic".
Has anyone here used both, and have a preference?

[zenbiker]

Dubya...being a long tome motorcycle buff, I have used every metal polish known to man! Flitz is great stuff but a tad more abrasive than the Blue Magic which is VERY fine. Flitz may have worked as well...I just don't know.
I think the trick is to use very light pressure and very fast strokes with a microfiber cloth.
Emmagee, I thought the same about "easy fiixes" on bead blast and if I loused up the finish, I was ready to send the gun back to Ed Brown for a refinish which I've done before. It turns out I like the finish now better than stock. BTW, these scratches were VERY superficial but I am very neurotic about my guns.
Joe

[egumpher]

Hello,

I too have a bead blasted stainless Colt slide with some imperfections.

I have always wanted to try to touch up the slide with a bottle of computer/keyboard cleaner compressed air and a straw filled partially with sand but haven't tried it yet.

If you have an air compressor then obviously you don't need the compressed air bottle. Once I owned a compressor and had a sand blasting kit that was nothing more than a box to hold sand with a air gun that had two hoses. One for the air pressure and the other that picked up the sand using the vacuum created by the flowing air.

Perhaps I will motivate and try out the air bottle this weekend? It should work just fine.

Rgds
Eric

[zenbiker]

Eric
I think we are talking differet things here. I'm just saying that you can get those superficial scratches out of a bead blast finish with a mildly abrasive polish and get a better finish, overall.
Regards, Joe

[egumpher]

Eric
I think we are talking differet things here. I'm just saying that you can get those superficial scratches out of a bead blast finish with a mildly abrasive polish and get a better finish, overall.
Regards, Joe

Hello,

OK....Sorry.....I thought we were talking about more significant blems....I'm in the same boat as everyone else....this is why I am considering the "re-blast" technique.

Rgds
Eric

[zenbiker]

Eric
I guess it depends upon how deep you want to buff out the scratches. Mine were very fine. I sent the gun back to ED Brown for deeper ones for a re-blast before but I just couldn't send it back for these. If I get more, I'll re buff because I've developed some confidence in the cutting down technique.
The bead blasted finish from Ed Brown is just so prone to scratches but I think the cutting down of the high points of the bead blast will be more resistant to light scratches.
Joe

[John]

:wl:

[zenbiker]

John...you are correct. I need to take closeups of the finish and I have to take the time to figure out the pic thing. I used to use AOL for putting the pics on the web but they shut that service down.
Can you direct me to the post(s) that deals with the how to of this?

[zenbiker]

John...I found the relevant post...I'll try when I get a chance.

[zenbiker]

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5263/edbrowncleanedup.jpg

Got it!

[DUBYA R 2U]

WOW!
Post some more pics....PLEASE