Duracoat on a 1911???

[briney11]

I was thinking about getting my 1911 Duracoated. I was told though that it could cause the accurracy to go to pot. The company that would be doing it says that they sand blast everything and then Duracoat it all. They do the barrel and everything. Anyone have experience with Duracoating a 1911??? Should I get it parkerized instead? My main concern is rust.

 

[Thompsoncustom]

Not gonna help your duracoat question much but I figure if I was to refinish any of my guns I would use gunkoat instead of duracoat as it's supposts to be more durable being a bake on finish. But before I did any thing I would sand blast it and parkerize it for a base. Also when the gunkoat was 100% cured I would coat it with eezox. Sorry to give you more to think about

 

[xr1200]

You never use sand or sand blasting grit on any firearm it will ruin it.

Sand blasting grit is to abrasive and will actually remove metal, from the sever abrasion.

You should only use glass bead or crushed walnut shells, in a blasting cabinet on firearms. Soda blasting also works well.

Sand blasting should only be used on heavy outdoor steel items, like a car suspension, restoring Sherman tanks or farm equiptment etc.

Light sheet metal or aluminum surfaces need delicate blasting media to avoid damage to the metal.

If your guns finish is is good shape leave it alone, most of the new spray on finishes are simply oven cure paint and really don't hold up as well as simple gun blue or parkerizing. Wait till your gun needs refinishing before screw with it. If you want an easy to use spray on finish, go with brownells alumihyde to , it is air cure and comes in a lot of colors. Note when sparying the gun it must be competely disassembled and no spray paint can be put on any shafts or bearing or sliding metal parts, you basically can only spray the outside of the gun. Moving parts will bind if they are finished to heavly and paint will simple falls off.

This is why bluing, pakerizing, or chrome or nickel plating is superior to thes esprayed on finishes

 

[briney11]

Unfortunatley, it needs it bad. It's a Kimber and thus it has that cruddy finish that they like to put on it. Well, after carrying it IWB for 10 hours straight, I took it out and it had sweat all over it and was starting to get some tiny rust spots. And since Kimber considers rust as neglect (I see it as them selling a high quality, high dollar product with a low quality crappy finish) I am stuck with refinishing it at my own expense. Granted I should have bought the quality leather holster instead of the multiple el cheapo holsters that I have.

 

[CTGunner]

You could also look into having Wilson refinish the gun in Armor-Tuff. I just had my 1911 redone with Cerakote. Reliability and accuracy is still solid. However, the Smith who did it warned me that some places will just coat the gun and send it back as is. The guy I used sends the gun out for the coating then gets it back and makes sure everything fits back together perfectly. Find someone good that does this a lot and has a good reputation and you should be fine.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=608707

 

[Quoheleth]

My Rock Island came to me Duracoated. Can't say it shot any differently than my other 1911s that were blued, stainless, or parked.

Q

 

[CDW4ME]

I did this Colt XSE Lightweight Commander myself with Duracoat "shake n spray" kits in Combat black & gray.

It was my 1st attempt at coating.



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[WC145]

I don't like Duracoat or any of the paint-like finishes, too thick for me, makes the gun look plastic. I'm a fan of parkerizing, it looks good and protects the metal well as it holds oil or whatever you use as a lube. I've had a couple of guns parkerized by a 'smith I use and they look good and moisture is not an issue. My duty gun is a parkerized Springfield and I treat it with Eezox every couple of months and I don't have any trouble with rust.

I haven't used them yet but I've read good things about these guys - http://www.ccrrefinishing.com/hg.htm. They have some interesting options and the prices are reasonable. I have a S&W 1911 9mm Pro Series and, while the gun itself is stainless, all of the mall parts are carbon steel and rust very easily and after the IDPA season up here I'm going to send them to be coated with the Cera-Hide and see how they hold up.

 

[Sam1911]

I DuraCoated a 1911 that I'd done a lot of work on. I don't love the finish, by any means, but it has held up ok-ish for about 4 years.

There is NO WAY i'd have anyone DuraCoat a barrel or other internal part. The finish has way too much "build" (finish thickness) and closely-fit parts so coated often will not go back together. (I spent a lot of time sanding finish back off of things that should not have gotten sprayed -- and that was just small areas of overspray.)

Further, the finish is in no conceivable way durable enough for parts that have bearing or wear surfaces like a barrel does. In the first few shots, the gun will start removing that finish again from each spot the barrel touches the bushing and slide, and then you'll have a gun full of paint scrapings. It's just a horrible idea.

This is the only picture I have of that gun that's easily available:


The edges and corners are all bright from wear, but the flats and rounded surfaces still have finish on them. Unfortunately painted surfaces that get wear don't look as nice as bluing or parkerizing that tends to take on a softer wear pattern.

 

[rellascout]

Unfortunatley, it needs it bad. It's a Kimber and thus it has that cruddy finish that they like to put on it. Well, after carrying it IWB for 10 hours straight, I took it out and it had sweat all over it and was starting to get some tiny rust spots. And since Kimber considers rust as neglect (I see it as them selling a high quality, high dollar product with a low quality crappy finish) I am stuck with refinishing it at my own expense. Granted I should have bought the quality leather holster instead of the multiple el cheapo holsters that I have.

Send it out...

http://www.customizedcreationz.com/ Todd does complete guns for $165

CCR does their new parkerized plus for $99

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=552703&highlight=ccr

These are both much better long term options IMHO

 

[Zerodefect]

I'd send it to CCR to get beadblasted, then park'd or Houseblack Cerahyde or Alumahyde.

ION Bond and Hardhat are real nice as well. But those are too nice $$$ for a Kimber.