Tranished safety - CZ 75b SS

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wow6599

wow6599

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I just got off the phone with CZ 's customer service, and I hope I never have to use them - guy kind of called me a liar.....then said I would need to send them pics to believe it :rolleyes:

Anyway, I have a high polished 75b that has seen the range twice. It lives in a humidity controlled safe with a lite film of FP-10 on it - like all my firearms.

Last night I was bored and decided to clean/oil a few while watching TV, and noticed that both thumb safety's have a rust colored hue on the top half of them. For all of you SS CZ owners out there, it looks similar to the inside of the frame/dust cover/slide. I cleaned it with Break-Free CLP and FP-10.....nothing.

It isn't rust, but looks like a coating I have heard they use on the inside of SS guns (interweb stories). I don't want to call CZ back, let alone send it in. It's not that bad at all, but CZ only provides a warranty on the finish for a year....I've had it 9 months.

Any ideas what this "rusty hue" might be?
 
Got any pics?
Click to expand...

I'll have to try to get some later. But, you have to look at it from an angle (not losing my mind, or eyes) to see it - but once you see it, it's always looking at 'ya!

I think it's whatever they use on the inside of the gun and I never noticed it. I will buy guns on a whim and not shoot them. Who knows........but "it" is there.
 
If the strange (rust-like) color doesn't rub off or wipe off it's arguably NOT rust or anything like that. I haven't a clue as to what it might be. I've NEVER seen rust on the controls of a CZ, and I've many of them over the years.

Every Stainless 75B I've seen has controls that are matte-type (dull) gray-black color . Or that's how I remember them -- it's been a while seen I've seen one in person. My nickel-plated 85 Combat is the same way -- dull, dark, matte black controls. (In photos, the 85 Combat controls look darker than the controls on the Stainless, however.)

Sounds strange. It will help if we can see pictures. Don't be surprised if the subtle color change you describe doesn't show up well in your photos.

(I don't think they use ANYTHING on the inside of the stainless guns -- as there's arguably little reason to do much to that type of steel. (It can rush, but not easily.)
 
I know on some stainless guns some of the small parts are actually nickel plated. Is this possibly the case with CZ?
 
I know on some stainless guns some of the small parts are actually nickel plated. Is this possibly the case with CZ?
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That kind of sounds right based on the description. Not a CZ owner though.
 
I don't think CZ nickel plates the controls on any of their guns -- they certainly don't do it on their nickel guns.

There are THREE polish levels with the CZ stainless guns, and the photos on the website suggests that the controls on those three levels (matte, polished, high gloss) might be different.

I did a Google Search of stainless CZ-75B images and found the following images, which shows many different combinations and variants -- including a "compact" with a stainless frame and matte slide -- never saw THAT before. (Some of the guns pictured aren't stainless, but most of them are.)

It remains a puzzle.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=551&q=stainless+steel+CZ-75B&oq=stainless+steel+CZ-75B&gs_l=img.3...2520.6543.0.6895.22.11.0.11.8.0.85.793.11.11.0....0...1ac.1.26.img..4.18.739.5V28bxt2zfY
 
That copper color is something I've not seen before. If the controls on your gun are not black (either matte or polished), that might explain it.

In one of their write-up of parkerizing, Brownell's says that stainless steel can't be parkerized (either manganese- or zinc- phosphate) so I doubt that the copper tone on the inside of the slide (shown in the photos) is parkerizing. It could be on the controls, however. (Parkerizing can apparently have a number of different hues, and Brownells mentions several -- including green, and shades of gray. I suspect a "red" would be possible, too.)
 
My CZ SP-01 has that same chocolate milk brown color coating on the inside of the hood on the lower, and everywhere else they did not do the black external finish. It's not rust. It's some kind of rust inhibitor. Like you I thought it was rust and kept it slathered in oil, but it does not rub off, grow, or transfer.

Identifying it might be impossible with all the proprietary coatings now available. So I can't say what it is, but we can definitely conclude what it isn't.
 
I appreciate all the responses, but the problem with mine is that it is a polished SS version.

Why would there be a proprietary "coating" on the stainless steel thumb safety(s)?
 
Why would there be a proprietary "coating" on the stainless steel thumb safety(s)?
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Your model must be one of the HIGH GLOSS stainless -- as that's the only ones I've seen with controls that seem to be polished/shiney.

It's very unlikely that the thumb safeties are stainless. (They are ambidextrous on the Stainless models, aren't they?) The fact that the CZ rep said it was "red parkerization" suggests that they're not stainless -- as stainless can't be parkerized (according to Brownells.) I suspect CZ uses the same control levers for most of its models, and coats them appropriately, for the various colors and finishes. RED parkerization probably gives the most compatible color that isn't black for the high-gloss stainless model.

You MIGHT consider getting the dual safeties used on the SA models -- I think they are compatible. (You can certainly find out.) They're black, but much, much larger, and much easier to use. They would make your model relatively unique, if they work, but you might not like the look. I do. Functionally, the SA safeties are much better for a SA start.

.
 
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Any way you can post pictures? I'm going to go look at my polished SS CZ 75 for reference, but from what I recall, the inside non-polished are coated with some sort of green (like oxidized copper...like an old copper penny) coating, but the controls are just straight SS. Stainless steel isn't a finish, it is the bare unfinished metal, so a little Flitz polish might help.
 
Here are some pictures of my Polished Stainless 75B that shows the green coating on the inside of the slide, and the backside of the slide stop. Does the tarnish look like this?

gusage4y.jpg

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uzasuben.jpg
 
Also, once you take some pictures to show us here, you should also email them to CZ. I've dealt with their service guys in the past and I've had EXCELLENT results.


ETA - I just realized you already posted a link to the pictures. The inside of your slide looks different than mine. Mine is much greener. Either they have changed the coating, or the coating is some kind of coating that is acted upon for a purposeful chemical change, for example, if the coating is some kind of copper type of coating that is treated to cause it to oxidize and turn green, perhaps yours was coated but not 'activated'? Just a guess.
 
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Another thought, I remember reading somewhere that CZ does some kind of treatment to harden the barrels where they treat them with something and then leave them to weather (I think somebody said outside, but that seems odd). Could be they do something similar to the Stainless gun slides and undersides of the controls. Maybe over the years the process has changed, that's why mine is green and your's is brown/red, or maybe carbon content in the particular batch of steel determines the color the process will result in or something. Perhaps your safety switches got some of this treatment inadvertently on the visible side.

Again, just a guess. As with so many things in the CZ world, an educated guess is sometimes as close as you are going to get.
 
JohnBT said:
"the green coating on the inside of the slide"

That's just not right. And it's ugly, too.
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It's some sort of rust inhibitor or hardening treatment or something. It's not very noticeable. I took the pictures in such a way (as best I could) to make it more obvious since we were pointing it out, but if you weren't looking for it under normal lighting, you probably wouldn't see it.
 
The discoloration is an artifact of the cutting oil from when the parts were machined. Neat cutting oil/coolant doesn't protect the tooling when machining stainless steel. Sulfur or chlorine are the best additives for the process but a lot of places will not use it since they produce corrosive vapors which will damage the machines and tooling. Most of the replacements discolor the surface of parts when they get hot during the machining.

The discoloration can be easily polished off but it is a time consuming process so it gets skipped if not needed. Getting the detailed areas of stepped surfaces like the controls or slide ribbing requires a lot of attention to detail and sometimes it just doesn't happen. If you have a Dremel, a spiral sewn buffer wheel and some rouge or white rouge compound will take it off with a little effort.
 
Here are some pictures of my Polished Stainless 75B that shows the green coating on the inside of the slide, and the backside of the slide stop. Does the tarnish look like this?
Click to expand...

It looks similar to that in the areas covered seem the same, but mine isn't green. Mine has a copper color to it.

My wife has been out of town with the kids and took the camera. She's back now, so I will try to get some pictures posted.
 
You should be able to get some Flitz polish or something like Mother's Mag Polish and hand polish it out. I would avoid power tools unless you really know what you are doing.
 
CZ

Give CZ a chance to fix it. Return the pistol. I've only had one experience with CZ Customer Service. They supplied a shipping label promptly, in a few minuets. They were prompt, courteous and went way way way beyond anything I imagined to satisfy me. For a very minor thing they replaced the pistol with a brand new one immediately I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when it showed up within a couple of weeks. I have nothing bad to say about CZ Customer Service at all. It's only my one time experience and yours may differ. However, my experience made a believer out of me. They had every intention of making things right for me from the "get go". My cost for the new pistol was ZERO, not one penny in postage or for the new pistol.
 
Before I sent anything back to customer service, I'd buy a tube of Flitz and try polishing the offending pieces. You may want the Flitz for later use -- as the highly polished stainless guns show blemishes and small scratches pretty easily. (I've only hand one -- a Sphinx -- and that was the last one.)

Miked7762's response seems based on real-world experience.

It sounds as though the controls themselves on this particular model ARE stainless -- and if so, it's NOT "red parkerization", and anything on them causing the discoloration can probably be removed pretty easily with something like Flitz...

Note: Stainless can rust -- but not easily. If the controls were, in fact, showing rush, you'd probably see it elsewhere, too. Sounds like something was applied when they were made, as suggested by Miked7762.
 
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