Black paint on CZ pistols?

Its a electrolis powder poly coat over parkerizing. Pretty effective from what I have seen in use.

I don't think the paint is anything but cosmetic.
The corrosion protection is under the paint (or in the case of my CZ82, peeking out of the paint here and there, while showing no corrosion)

I have a couple scratches on my 75BD that are down to the metal, and it hasn't started showing rust yet after a few years.

It holds up better than blue. I carry one in .40 on horse back a lot and its doing fine except all the blue is gone off the controls. They are finished in blue vs the poly on the frame and receiver.

Polycoat is not paint. It's tough as h_ll, you have to grind it, grit blast, or use an acetylene torch to get it off. I don't holster this 97, but with nearly 7K down the pipe, the frame/slide finish still lloks very good; the manual safety and slide release are turning white from wear on the high spots, but still no rust.

schmeky

I thought I read somewhere that the Polycoat uses some sort of epoxy resin. Do you know if this what it's actually comprised of? That would explain its toughness.

You have no idea how effective the polymer finish is on the 75. You can leave it in a soaking wet holster overnight and it will not do anything to the finish. Holster wear? No.

Polycoat is a form of polymer plastic that is applied with an electrostatic process. Cleaning solvents that are not to be used on plastic should be avoided.

You can't put powder coat on a firearm it would be to thick and the gun would not function.

Most of the finishes other than ( blueing, parkerizing, or nickel, or, chrome which are chemcal dipping operations) are sprayed on through the use of a industrial electrostatically charged spray paint system.

Most of these finishs are simply paint, which is a either a bake on finish or air cure 2 part epoxy paint.

The electrostatic system is used to minimize overspray and also offers a little better adhesion to the metal

rellascout said:

Cleaning solvents that are not to be used on plastic should be avoided.

Click to expand...

With all due respect, I have not encountered anything that will harm the polycoat finish (yet). I have used Hoppes #9, Hoppes Copper solvent, lacquer thinner, acetone, varsol, different "gunscrubbers", and even a little gasoline, and it is unfazed.

I read somewhere the polycoat is some form of ceramic/epoxy/resin baked on. Maybe there are some solvents I am not aware of that could harm the finish, but so far I haven't encountered them

Gunscrubber, brake cleaner, or carb cleaner on the CZ polycoat finish will often dull the gloss on the finish. This does not make it a bad finish and it has held up on all of my CZs but it is what it is.

The only finish I have heard of issues with is the surplus 82's

The only finish I have heard of issues with is the surplus 82's

Click to expand...

They are "painted" black. LOL The enamel paint used in the 1980s to the early 90s was terrible.

The blue on some of the older guns is pretty thin IMHO. Again this does not make them bad. What do you want from what was then a sub $300 pistol NIB.

Hell I got one 82 that was LNIB minus the billboard (actually the PW arms on the bottom of the slide was nice, but the near new (finish) with the flaked CAI wasn't so...)

every other CZ I have seen looked nice.

In the late 90's, CZs had a polycoat finish that could be melted by some solvents that attacked plastic. (Gun Scrubber and brake cleaner could melt it.)

Over the years, the formula has improved, and now it's very durable and solvent resistant. Older CZ used a different paint -- an enamel, and it was not durable at all. If you have an older one, you can always test an area under the grips to see if it's delicate.

If you have scratches on a newer gun, just about any matte black auto-body touch-up paint will be a very close match. (I've found that if you buy a spray can of the paint -- more costly than the small bottle -- and spray some onto aluminum foil, and then use a small brush to touch up the scratch, it'll work very well. the spray paint is "thinner" than the stuff in the bottle.)

Dupli-Color (brand name) is an almost-perfect match.

The CZ-82s, cited above, don't have the Poly-coat finish; they're just an enamel. The newer CZ-83s are different. My first CZ-75 was a very old pre-B, and the paint finish was very delicate. That is NOT the case with the ones made over the past 8-9 years.

A fine grade sand or bead blasting and a can (and airbrush and curing oven) of KG GunKote does wonders too.