[Nowhere Man]

I looked at a used SA stainless 1911. It appears to have been carried a lot with holster/handling marks on the stainless flats and gray rounds.

Is there a way I can clean this gun up?


Thanks, Dave

[TIMC]

I use my dremmal and a polishing kit I bought for it.. I have cleaned up several of my guns polishing up barrels, feeds ramps and slides. It is a little work but they come out nice. I did my little Para C-645 recently the slide and barrel were pretty shabby looking after several years of holster time but it polished up nice.

Hard to get a good picture of the slide since it is so shiny now.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/timc/ParaOrdnanceC-645.jpg?t=1243171343

[rcmodel]

Slide flats are best polished on a flat glass plate using very fine emery paper & oil. That is the only way you can keep the fine factory scratches all running in the same direction.

The gray areas are bead blasted and there is no good way to DIY and make it match.

IMO: It is very difficult to polish anything flat with a Dremel and keep from ending up with unsightly swirls in the polished surface.

Large buffing wheels are far better, and is probably the way most factories do it, but the flat glass surface is the preferred way to do it yourself.

rc

[Badger Arms]

Stay away from a dremmel. You mask off the gloss areas and lightly blast with glass beads. Remove the masking tape and, as was suggested, use a flat surface (I use a file) to back up some fine emerly cloth. 400 grit to start until you get all the scratches off then move to 600 or possibly a little finer. If the surface is not flat (such as at the rear of the slide behind the cocking serrations) then you need to get creative with some layers of sandpaper under your primary sandpaper or the blunt end of the file with the sandpaper wrapped around it.

Bottom line, go REALLY slow and careful with the non-flat surfaces. The whole job takes about an hour if you've got the right tools, patience, and a little skill.

[Nowhere Man]

Thanks guys. I'm thinking I'll swing back to the shop on Tuesday and see if the gun is still there.


Dave