Refinishing a Colt Cobra - need advice

[Preacherman]

Hi, folks. I have a Colt Cobra (nickel finish, lightweight alloy frame). In one place on the frame, there is some corrosion under the nickel. I think that re-finishing the gun is the only way to permanently deal with the problem.

However, I'd kinda like to have the gun in a non-reflective, dark finish, for CCW purposes. I'm thinking of having the nickel plating removed and going for a straight parkerized finish. (I have another Cobra with perfect nickel, so I'll still be able to do the bling-bling thing with that! )

Has anyone refinished a Cobra in a different finish to the factory nickel? If so, what did you use, and how did the finish turn out?

Also, I'll probably send the gun to Accurate Plating and Weaponry in Florida, as they seem to have a pretty good reputation for good work. However, if you know of other high-quality sources for this sort of work, I'd be interested to hear them.

Many thanks.

 

[Al Thompson]

Buddy of mine had a Commander done by Birdsong. Might be the solution as I have the impression that alloy frames can't be Parked.

 

[dfariswheel]

This is out of date info, but I sent several customer guns in to
various finishers for finish changes years ago. Usually, this was blue to nickel, but there were occasional nickel or hard chrome to blue.

Once the nickel is removed, the base metal can be changed to whatever you want.

I'm not sure what options Accurate Plating offers for aluminum, but if they can do anodizing, the colors and finish is limited only by what process they have available.

Aluminum can be refinished to a parkerized-like finish.
This was done by Colt on the short-lived Colt Commando and Cobra with the black finish.
On the black finish Cobra, the steel was finished with a black tint parkerize,
and the aluminum frame and crane was done by anodizing.

I'd check with Accurate about anodizing.

There are any number of guns offered today with flat black aluminum parts, so the process is available.

 

[blfuller]

Check into one of the baked-on Moly type finishes, like Birdsong Black-T, Roguard, Gun-Kote and the like. Many different colors. This would probably be the most economical.

The aluminum alloy of the frame cannot be parkerized. It would have to be anodized like dfariswheel mentioned. Hardcoat anodizing would produce the best finish similar to the AR-15. Not sure if this can be done because it builds up and penetrates into the base metal. This might cause some tolerance problems.

Try Norrel Moly-Resin, they do nice work here.

Here's another for Lauer Dura Kote here

 

[BluesBear]

I recommend this.

Car guys have been using it for years.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Cobra Grips

I have a couple of long frame new Fitz aftermarket grips for when the Cobras were made one light walnut and the other cherry wood.

Fitz