Cerakote Color Change During Oven Cure???

[NorCal Ollie]

So I was Cerakoting my Star PD .45, Cold War Grey on the slide and Civil Defense Blue on the frame. For reasons unknown the frame changed from blue to brownish green in the oven. I prepped the surface well. Sand blast, wipe with acetone and heat up the parts to rid of any residue. The blue looked great going into the oven. Oven was at 275*. I checked about 45 min in and the frame had changed color. The grey slide looks great.

The brown/green color actually looks really cool so I think i'm going to leave it. Unfortunately, it doesn't go well with the grey slide so I'll probably respray it to black or tan.

Has this color shift happened to anyone else? Any idea what caused it? I don't want this to keep happening.

Thanks

 

[akmike47]

Looks better than that blue color

 

[MtnCreek]

Maybe it was a miraculous intervention that saved you from making your pistol look gay?

 

[kindabitey]

I had it happen once. Just a guess, but I think it may have been a result of bad batch (old) catalyst. Both coating and catalyst had been sitting in the cabinet for at least 18 months or so.

 

[Maciej]

I was chatting with my cerakote guy about this last week, he mentioned over the years he's gotten some colors from them that ended up nothing like what they were supposed to be. I'm guessing just a quality control issue.

 

[Milf Dots]

I'd try the same blue and catalyst on another metal object, to see what happens.

 

[SharpsNitro]

does your oven have exposed heating elements (i.e. do the elements have direct line of site to the parts)? If so, you probably burned the coating from the thermal radiation Form the elements.

 

[Tiger_Shilone]

I had it happen once. Just a guess, but I think it may have been a result of bad batch (old) catalyst. Both coating and catalyst had been sitting in the cabinet for at least 18 months or so.

This. Cerakote has a definite shelf life for both the air cure c series and h series heat cure. That is the main reason I quit doing cerakote as I got tired of product going bad. The air cure will just separate and clump in the bottle, and the heat cure catalyst yellows out and won’t mix with the base. Figure you have about a year and a half to use it.

I only bought the 4 oz “tester” bottles at the end as I could easily do almost 2 rifles or 4 pistols with a single color. Iwatta makes an awesome spray gun. Once I got the proper settings down, that gun really put out a nice controlled pattern with little overspray. While not as fine as an airbrush, the droplet control was real pleasure to use. So much better than the POS pasche they include with their starter kits.

heat cure is also very sensitive to how much catalyst is used. Definitely changes shine/sheen and hardness depending on mix ratio. Also changes color slightly depending on mix ratio. But I never saw that drastic a color change from grey to green as per the op’s example.

 

[NorCal Ollie]

Thanks for your input. Unbelievably, I left a message for Cerakote and a tech called me back. He said most likely It got in a hotspot in the oven and got over 300*. He said lighter colors are more prone to discolor at higher temps.

 

[Tiger_Shilone]

Possibly, I know a suppressor I did in H series heat cure OD green has discolored towards a much darker color after use, but only in the hotter areas of the can closest to muzzle. Hasn't flaked off or failed in any way, just the color darkened considerably. I switched over to air cure for anything that gets hot after that incident, C series has a much higher heat tolerance range. Suppressors I did in the C series air cure have kept their original color even after hard use.

 

[Short-bus]

There are several colors that have a known problem with changing colors over a certain temp. Storm Trooper white will start to yellow over 225 degrees, many of the brighter colors will change with higher temps. I do most everything at lower temps, saves me a lot of headaches. Sure, I have to bake 'em longer, but I can do other things while they're baking, so it's no big deal.

Branden