Pics of my refinished Sig P226

[Exposure]

Last year I bought a Sig P226 that was a police trade in. It shot great but dang was it ugly!

So I finally got around to refinishing this little gem. I used DuraCoat and I think it came out pretty decent. I also replaced the grips while I was at it.

Here she is just before I detail stripped her. She sure does look beat.




All put together. I am a bit disappointed in the fact that I dinged the backside of the take down lever, thats the large round bit just below the ejection port. I had to take the pistol apart several times while I was doing the reassembly. One of those times I had some difficulty popping the take down lever out and ended up gouging it. Aside from that I think it looks pretty decent.



Just for fun here is a pic of the pistol fully disassembled. I waited a long time between refinishing and reassembly. I had pretty much forgotten how everything went back together! It took a while to figure it all out, but it worked out in the end.



After a week or more of curing I am going to pic out some of the lettering on the slide in white grease pencil. It should look great!

 

[George Hill]

Well done, bravo. Looks great.

 

[Lonestar49]

~ Beautiful ~

...

Well done..

She's a beauty now..


Ls

 

[SAS Mayhem]

A1 job Super

 

[moph759fl]

Great job and fantastic results, none of my pistols look bad but you would make them look better than new, when can I start sending them to you ?

 

[DirksterG30]

Great job, Exposure. Don't worry about the ding on the takedown lever; think of it as "character" or premature holster wear.

 

[Commander Guineapig]

looks incredible!
great job sir!

 

[Bobo]

Very nice!!

 

[10-Ring]

Well done sir Looks an 'atta-boy' is in order

 

[Autolycus]

Very nice.

 

[pablo45]

very nice. Good job in making something not so nice. VERY NICE!

 

[yongxingfreesty]

wow. you did a really good job. looks like new.

 

[1BLINDREF]

Very nicely done - sweet pistol

 

[Wayne G.]

Wow! I'm IMPRESSED! It couldn't look better if you sent it (and $300) to a professional refinisher. Great job.

If you don't mind elaborating for the rest of us, how did you do the refinish? What was involved in the process?

Great work!

 

[gb6491]

Very well done! That is a great looking pistol.

I am very curious as to how the DuraCoat holds up, because I recently did my police trade-in P229 with Cerama-Coat. I only did the frame; as the front strap was a bad (if not worse) as yours before refinishing.
Regards,
Greg

 

[Rinspeed]

looks great my friend.

 

[FullEffect1911]

Well done!

 

[texagun]

That's a very nice job. What would be the approximate cost to refinish a handgun with Duracoat? Somewhere I have read about the process. I think you clean the parts thoroughly, spray them with Duracoat, and then dry them in the oven. Is that pretty much the process? How durable is it compared to Parkerizing or other external finishes?

 

[Exposure]

Thanks to everyone for the extremely complimentary responses, they are very flattering.

As far as cost and what was involved here is how it breaks down.

This was actually a 3 color job as I did the frame in stainless, the slide and operating controls in HK black, and then sprayed everything in a satin clear coat.

First let me say this, Duracoat strongly recommends using their clear finish for the stainless color so I bought it. I figured it would look good if I used it as a topcoat for both colors. So I sprayed the stainless and the HK black and then did the clear coat. In retrospect, I should have skipped the clear. The weapon actually looked better without the clear, I have the pics to prove it! The frame looks good with the clear on it, but the slide not so much. It looked much nicer with just the flat HK black on it. I was just trying to follow the directions! Lesson leaned I guess.

I still think the overall effect is stunning and I am not sorry about how it turned out. But I wish I had stopped after I had sprayed the color coats.

As far as cost I had approximately $50 in Duracoat for the three different colors, plus the $14 for the new grips. So $64 plus my time. Keep in mind that this leaves me a TON of Duracaot left over for future projects.

This is my third firearm I have refinished with this process and all of them have held up great! The refinishing process is really nothing more than a VERY thorough degreasing and cleaning followed by airbrushing the Duracoat on. As far as oven drying goes, it depends on which type of Duracoat is purchased. Some is designed to be heat cured and some is not.

Here are a few more pics of what I have been able to do with this awesome product! I know I sound like a shill, but I just love this stuff.


Plain jane AR-15 reciever.



Refinished in Duracoat OD Green with selector markings picked out in red and white grease pencil. This was done for a friend. I have got to get a pic of the finished rifle. It is assembled in 6.8 SPC and has matching furniture to the OD Green, it looks SICK! After much use and abuse it still looks just like this.



One very sorry looking Yugo SKS. I figured this would be a fun experiment for me.



Refinished in AUG green and Colt gray, with a new stock, bipod, scope, and muzzle brake to boot. She is a great shooter and the one that most people want to get behind when I have her at the range. This weapons finish has also held up extremely well!



Thanks again to all who responded!

 

[Floppy_D]

Your work is great. Keep that up, and you are liable to put yourself in business.

 

[highrider]

Exposure,

That's one sweet Sig. Beautiful. But I don't agree that it was ugly "before". Just had character.

 

[tnieto2004]

They all look great .. I hope to dabble in duracoat soon ..

 

[Rinspeed]

Those look super, you could be the next Robbie Barkman.

 

[JDGray]

Looks great! Let us know how the finish holds up

 

[briang2ad]

You've got great results...

I think the two-tone SIG looks superb - and I generally don't like two-tone all that much.

You only cleaned then sprayed? You DID NOT blast in Al Oxide? I would LOVE to know how this wears - blasting is recommended (but supposedly not mandatory with Duracoat). This IS the hardest part to do often times, because Al Oxide is tough to find in small amounts, and you have to have a blaster, etc.

I have seen other threads about Duracoat with guys simply cleaning and spraying, but I have NEVER heard them follow up with how they ended up WEARING. I know that you MUST blast when using Gun Kote and bake. If you REALLY don't need to blst with duracoat, that would be VERY good.