Painting a pistol barrel

Try powder coating. Plug muzzle and breech, put the barrel in a plastic bowl with a little powder coating and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Wouldn't powder coating increase the OD?

Cerakote is pretty popular. I've got a rifle that came with that coating and it's held up well. Paint isn't going to do it . I prefer to leave mine as they are, tools and not try to get some aesthetic joy from a gun but you do what you like .

Col. Harrumph said:

Wouldn't powder coating increase the OD?

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So would painting. Anything you put on the surface will increase the OD (albeit traditional blueing would increase it very little.) Expect powder coating to result in a 1 or 2 thou increase.

Ok. This may come across as condescending. Not my intent.

Metal parts on guns are either carbon steel. Stainless steel. Aluminum or other metal.

If you strip the finish of stainless, it can be polished. And hold up quite well

if you strip the finish off Carbon steel, it will look like chrome. Until it turns red with rust.

Most finishes, these days, are pretty high tech and will protect the base metal far beyond most finishes you can apply.

The Nitron on the Sig is an incredibly tough finish. And, as I recall, actually becomes a part of the barrel steel. Other than aesthetics, you cannot improve on that finish. The Bersa is likely just blued. Start with that one if ya wanna experiment. That can be stripped with a mild acid solution. YouTube “Stripping blue”.

“Paint” will not hold up. At all.

Go to Brownells and wander their gun refinishing section. The prep work and application is way beyond paint. But, you seem to have a creative streak and willing to put in the work. More power to you.

Also, realize, unless you are good enough at it to get “custom gun refinishing” good at it, you will markedly decrease the value of a gun.

Like, literally, a 75% + loss of value on a collector grade gun.

Great points on interfering with fit; the slide and barrel of the P365 are an uncommon tight fit.
Think carefully before proceeding.
Moon

That painted barrel will look great until…oh, say, the 4th or 5th round.

Paint will be the least durable of the various finishes. I don't know if it is even still available now but in past years I found Krylon Fusion to be the toughest of any pain finish I messed with. I painted a Barrel on a 22-250 bolt gun for coyote hunting and after several years with it decided to remove the paint. I thought it would be easy with acetone and found it wouldn't even bother the paint. I eventually got it all off with several applications of paint stripper and a lot of rubbing.

Carbon steel can be protected with the simple application of paste wax. I turned down a bull barrel years ago and polished it. I keep it waxed and it has had never had a speck of rust to this day. I use it on several tools that are bare steel for rust protection and after many years of use none have rust. Bluing does not prevent rust and I use the same wax on my blued guns. No rust.

ripred66 said:

. . . specifically sig p365xl . . . has done a pretty good job of stripping the black layering off some guns to give them a chromed look. . .

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Oh dear.

"Black layering" is not a finish. Blueing is a finish, paint or ceracote is a finish, and nitrocarburizing is a surface treatment. Please don't disturb the "black layering" on that Sig.

One might be given a pass for confusing nickel plate with a chrome plate, but neither is anything like an unfinished surface, in appearance or durability.

This could be an interesting hobby, but careless and inarticulate vocabulary is a terrible place to start. You need to do some reading (wikipedia will do) to learn enough vocabulary to ask meaningful questions.

Hope he checks back in before getting the nitron off a Sig with an angle grinder.

Ah well, my work here is done. I tried.

I believe Krylon Fusion was the advised paint for refinishing used AR parts; did some handguards, buttstocks and pistol grips. The advise was leave it for 48 hours, and then it would be about solvent proof. Such was my experience; Hoppes or oil hasn't disturbed it in 15 years.
Now still have reservations about putting it on the barrel of a semi-auto.
Moon

edwardware said:

Oh dear.

"Black layering" is not a finish. Blueing is a finish, paint or ceracote is a finish, and nitrocarburizing is a surface treatment. Please don't disturb the "black layering" on that Sig.

One might be given a pass for confusing nickel plate with a chrome plate, but neither is anything like an unfinished surface, in appearance or durability.

This could be an interesting hobby, but careless and inarticulate vocabulary is a terrible place to start. You need to do some reading (wikipedia will do) to learn enough vocabulary to ask meaningful questions.

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OP, search out answers yourself and double check what you read. I try to stay away from Wikipedia for obtaining true answers to questions. Since it is 100% user added information, that may be altered by anyone at anytime, it is barely a step above reddit.

As for the paint or powdercoat idea on semi-auto barrels, don’t waste your time. Slide friction, heat and cleaning solvents will turn it into an eyesore in short order.

Stay safe.

ripred66 said:

Hello, I am very new to this particular side of firearms, but I am interested in doing some custom work on handgun barrels (specifically sig p365xl and bersa 380 thunder). My dad has done a pretty good job of stripping the black layering off some guns to give them a chromed look, but I wanted to take this further and have concerns about only stripping the finish.

1. what is a good way to paint the barrels a different color? I assume you need a high temp resistant paint/finish, and potentially some kind of clear coating to resist the friction of the slide, but I have no idea what that might look like or brands to use, etc. Anyone able to shed some light on this?
   
   
2. I assume it's always a good idea to have some finish over the barrel exterior to protect from scratching and corrosion. Anyone able to give advise here?

Thanks in advance for all your help, I look forward to learning more about this kind of work

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I am going to have a different opinion than everyone else, but my opinion is shared with many others including firearm manufacturers.

First, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to customize your firearm. There is nothing wrong with going for a particular look, style, theme, color scheme, etc. Manufacturers release firearms with different themes and in different colors, and there are what seems like thousands of companies and shops who offer customization services to do exactly what you want to do. Then there are a pothera of other companies who sell aftermarket frames, levers, buttons, barrel, baseplates, etc in different colors as well. If it wasn't popular or common, these companies wouldn't waste their time or money. There is no rule that your firearms MUST be black or stainless, and that there's something wrong with wanting to customize it because it's a tool.

Next, I would have the barrel professional cerikoted or plated as opposed to a DIY project. There are a lot of steps, gotchas, tools, and machinery that these professional services use that will make the finish product look good and be more durable.

Last, that "black finish" is likely nitride or some other type of chemical treatment to the metal surface. If that is the case, it's not a paint or coating. DO NOT SCRUB IT OFF! On most cases, you can apply the paint or cerikote over the nitride. Manufacturers do it all the time.

Shoot the guns some. Do you see scuff marks on the barrels?
If there is contact between barrel and slide, any sort of applied finish will wear rapidly.