What happened to my Combat Commander? *pic*

[prezzz]

I bought a 1972 Commander at a local gunstore for $450. It had some sort of spray on finish on it that wasn't done great, but was acceptable. I was going to have it professionally refinished so I decided to bead blast the finish off to see what was under it. Come to find out this is (was) a electroless nickel plated Commander. So far so good. After blasting off the old finish, the parts looked okay to the naked eye. I sent the parts off to be refinished in a satin black Gunkote. I've used it before and it comes out very nice, but I wanted a pro to do this one. I get a call from the refinisher yesterday and he said "we have a problem". He said after spraying the parts, it revealed a bit of pitting in them that weren't noticeable what they were flat silver raw metal. He sent me a picture and I'm still scratching my head. See for yourself. The slide and frame have some areas like this, but not near as bad. I don't think it's anything the gunsmith did because upon further inspection, you can see the imperfections in the frame which he doesn't have. I'm sure if the frame was refinshed, it would end up showing the pits just like the parts.

Any ideas why the parts are like this?

 

[DnPRK]

Something definitely etched the base material. If it wasn't in that condition when you sent it to him, I'd ask him what he is going to do to make it right.

 

[Black Snowman]

Based on where the pitting is it looks like it had rusted and been refinished before, and the blasting (and perhaps reblasting at the refinisher) agrivated the pitting. I don't know any way to know for sure and I don't know of any way to correct it. Hopefully some of the pros can chime in.

It looks mostly cosmetic to me and that it should still function, of course the point of having it refinished would be to make it look better. If the frame suffers the same fate that's too major of an expense to really justify replacing. At least for me. I'd be tempted to just leave it pitted and see if it works. If everything was fine I'd just call it a sleeper and be happy I didn't have to sink any more money into it.

If the frame gets refinished and it's OK, I'd be tempted to replace the parts over time. But then I like to tinker. I don't think this result is really any one person's fault and it's good the refinisher contacted you as soon as a problem was detected. It's a shame it wasn't caught sooner but maybe you can work something out with them.

 

[Jim K]

FWIW, my guess would be that it was a rusted relic that may have been immersed in water (are you near the ocean or a lake where scuba divers play?) and that the "some sort of spray on finish" was intended to do just what it did - cover up the rust until the gun could be sold to some suck... oops, sorry, some discerning firearms afficionado who would appreciate a fine gun.

If it works, keep it. Forget about trying to put on a good finish; too much metal would have to be removed. I would even use it for a carry gun (if your state has CCW), since you would not be worrying about dropping it or having the cops seize it. But replace all the springs, since they may be rusted as well.

(Maybe a good idea to have the cops run a trace if that is not done in your state when a gun is sold by a dealer; if it was in water, it might have been dumped by someone who badly wanted to get rid of it. If it is found in your possession, you could have a problem.)

Jim