Parkerized -> Blued conversion for CZ 75B

[Sven]

I really like the way bluing looks on steel, and was thinking of having my CZ 75B stripped of the "Tuff Coat" and made blue.

Has anyone here done this?

If you had to choose a shop to do this work, who would you recommend?

Thanks,

-steve

 

[makarov]

It would make more sense to either sell the gun you have now and buy a blued CZ or just by the blued gun and keep the one you have now. You could send it in to be stripped, polished and blued but it would probably run $150-200 at least.

 

[caz223]

Funny, I was thinking of having my barrel nickel plated (Because of loose barrel/slide fit), and if the plating on the barrel wasn't thick enough, plating the slide, too.
Then I found the home electroless nickel plating kit at caswells.
I have to do more homework, but I think a reverse two-tone CZ would be cool.
I'd prolly wind up plating the barrel, slide, slide stop, safety, magazine, mag release button, hammer, trigger, and trigger parts.
Maybe not the slide stop.
Maybe I'll just get a witness slide stop that is already finished in the white.

 

[Handy]

Carefull

Does anyone know for sure how much finishing those CZ parts get before they are lacquered?

I have a carbon steel knife that came painted. I can see where the paint has chipped that the metal if very rough, which probably helps retain the paint.

You could be in for a nasty surprise when the paint comes off. That slide and frame metal could be far from "ready to finish" and require days of sanding and polish before it's smooth enough to even parkerize. I'd check with someone who's done it before on that exact gun first.

 

[Sven]

HMM. Good points.

I guess I will wait for the finish to chip off more or until someone posts information on a successful conversion... CZs are not known for the finish of the metal parts.

 

[caz223]

That's the reason I'm not gonna do the frame.
Waaaay too much sanding.
I do have a dremel and polishing wheel, but I'm not into pain.
The slide and small parts will do just fine for me.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I bought a used pre-B 75 a while back, with very bad scratches in the front of the frame and slide, deep into the metal. The polycoat looked like crap. (I might not have bothered, but the gun has absolutely the best DA and SA trigger I've ever experienced in a SA/DA gun.... I bought it, even though it was obviously in sad shape.)

I used Automotive Paint Remover (from a auto parts house) and the polycoat came off in great lumps.

I then used a soft wire wheel on a bench grinder to polish it up a bit, and reblued it myself -- cold blue -- using Brownells Ox-Pho Blus and a mix of some other cold blues I had setting around).

It turned out remarkably well, and the finish has remained VERY attractive, after a lot of use, except on the back of the grip, where it has dulled a bit. Here, I hope, is an image of the gun from the CZ Forum, where it was originally posted.

The more you polish it before applying the finish, the shinier and darker the finish will be.

There are a number of new products out. I have one I'm going to try next -- Novum Solutions. I haven't used it yet, but have heard from several who say its great.

The American Gunsmith newsletter also rated Ox-Pho blue as the best of the traditional cold blues and noted, as does Novum Solutions, that you should heat the metal before application for best effect. (A hair dryer will do it...)

Try this link for Novum Solutions.

http://www.novumsolutions.com/

Either one of these will give you a blued finish without a lot of cost, and if you find it doesn't hold up, you can get it commercially blued or refinished later.

If nothing else, removing the polycoat yourself will save you some money if you have it reblued commercially. That is pretty stout stuff...

 

[Handy]

So Walt, the metal wasn't a tool mark nightmare? That's good news.

I've always liked blue, that's an impressive cold blue job.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

There were some scratches deep into the metal on the front of the slide, on the saide, and on the frame. Judicious use of a fine flat file got rid of them, and you'd never know if I didn't show you were I did it.

I used Ox-Pho Blue, a little G-96 Gun Blue Creme, and a bit of Brownell's Formula 44/40. But the best results seemed to come when I used a lot of Ox-Pho Blue and a little of the Gun Blue Creme. (The secret with Ox-Pho Blue, which was first recommended to me by George Stringer [from here and previously, The Firing Line], who also suggested applying it in thin coats. It worked. Almost as dark blue as an old S&W revolver or my S&W Model 52-2.)

After a lot of presentations, its starting to show a little wear around the muzzle. I'll touch it up again, one of these days.

 

[Sean Smith]

Almost any gunsmith can re-finish the gun and have it blued for you. It is usually pretty cheap... going by the prices on Ted Yost's web site, I'd guess more like $50 for the metal prep and $50 for the actual finish.

http://www.tedyostguns.com/pricelist.htm