I want to preface this for saying that this is not for the faint of heart. You will be doing some pretty 'rough' things to your treasured shootin' irons in order to refinish them. If you do a good job, they will look nice when you are done. If not, this will cost you a lot of money and headache. So if you're squeamish about that idea, do yourself a favor: pay someone to refinish your guns. All usual other disclaimers apply as well. I don't know why I feel like I have to say this, but let's just say this seems far easier "on paper" than it is in real life.
The product I refinished my guns with is called "moly resin." It is available at http://www.molyresin.com I don't have any affiliation with the company that sells it. A friend and I bought two 7 ounce cans of his product: glossy black and stainless moly resin. In hindsight, we should have added flat black to our order, but that's for next time. The nice thing about using home refinishing products is that you can start over and re-do it if you're not happy or it doesn't wear well. I'd say this is the biggest advantage to using a product like this and owning the tools. I know for sure now that I'll never have to deal with a gun with a worn finish or one that rusts or whatever, because I can touch up and/or completely refinish my guns at home if necessary.
Onward to the process. I should list all of the things you will need for this:
Guns and/or parts that need refinishing (duh)
Blasting cabinet. I installed a light in mine so I could see what I was doing.
60-90 grit aluminum oxide blasting media
Air compressor that delivers a high volume of air. I also high recommend that you install a water trap on the air line as well to avoid moisture issues, and you will need to be able to regulate it for use with the airbrush and blasting cabinet. The compressor I used is 2 hp/33 gallon. It was big enough but bigger is better. I usually use a 3 hp two stage compressor, but I don't yet have it hooked up as I just moved.
Airbrush. I suggest a cheap one. I highly doubt that a nicer airbrush will give you a nicer outcome. A spray gun will likely spray way too much material.
Methyl Ethyl Ketone. This is what you will use to thin the moly resin and/or clean up. I bought a quart; it was plenty.
Dish soap and/or degreaser
An oven that you will use to cure the resin. Your home oven is fine. It won't drip or get anywhere or otherwise damage it in any way.
Wire for hanging parts to paint and bake them. I used scrap 14 AWG solid copper wire that I stripped the insulation off of.
Masking tape
Rubber gloves
While not required, you will probably want to completely disassemble your gun, including removing the sights. I left the extractors in place because I wanted to coat them as well. Other than that, the guns were totally gutted. This inevitably requires additional tools, such as pin punches, sight pushers, hammers, vice, etc.
Okay, I think that's everything. First, before you do anything else, scrub your gun's parts with hot soapy water. I used a toothbrush scrub it. Pay close attention to places where grease tends to collect, like the barrel lugs, barrel bushing channel, etc. I also scrubbed my checkering really good. There really is no such thing as "too clean." Keep scrubbing. Trust me, there's always more oil to remove.
Next, you are going to blast every ounce of finish off your gun. This is the part that is definitely not for the faint of heart. I spent over an hour stripping the frame on my single stack. Use the blasting cabinet, 60-80 PSI, and the aluminum oxide blasting media. Parkerizing and bluing come right off. Be very careful to assure you hit every surface from every available angle.
After blasting, handle your parts with rubber gloves on only. Return to the sink area and give the part one last scrub down. You need to do this to assure that you remove any stray abrasive media and to remove any remaining grease or oil.
After the final wash, the parts go into the oven on the lowest setting. The goal is to pre-heat all parts to 100 degrees to avoid runs. This will give you a chance to get your airbrush ready to rock.
Shake the bottle thoroughly and pour an ounce or so of the product(s) into the airbrush. I set my compressor to about 25 psi to spray slightly thinned moly resin, but your airbrush may vary. Tip: spray it as thin as possible. It's tough, even after you've thinned moly resin, to get it to spray thin. The reason is likely because it has so many dissolved solids in it that it's tough to siphon. Spray it as thin as possible! If you don't, you'll find out just how tough it is to remove from areas that don't have the dimensional tolerances to handle a thicker coating (guess how I know?)
Next, spray the parts. The technique will need work to achieve good results but the product is cheap enough that you can waste some and start over if necessary. As I stated before, this product must be applied as thinly as possible.
Working with moly resin is somewhat like working with paint. It dries when solvents dissolve. Even though moly resin will dry without baking, it will not “cure.” Those of you who think that moly resin is paint, I have a suggestion for you: blast a part after drying, but before curing. The moly resin will come right off. After baking, it is harder to remove moly resin from the parts’ surface than parkerizing or bluing. This is quite remarkable, I must say—it is much tougher to remove cured moly resin than parkerizing or bluing.
And, without further ado, here are my finished guns. I did the entire single stack except the sights. I am going to have to find a flatter product for that. The 2011, I did the slide and firing pin stop.
All in all, I think it turned out very nice. It's not perfect, but it is very rust resistant and tough. Next time, I'm going to build my own parkerizing tank, blast all of the guns, parkerize them, and then finish with the resin. Even so, I have no complaints for now. The guns look 1000 times better than they did before.
Here's some before shots for you guys:
The product I refinished my guns with is called "moly resin." It is available at http://www.molyresin.com I don't have any affiliation with the company that sells it. A friend and I bought two 7 ounce cans of his product: glossy black and stainless moly resin. In hindsight, we should have added flat black to our order, but that's for next time. The nice thing about using home refinishing products is that you can start over and re-do it if you're not happy or it doesn't wear well. I'd say this is the biggest advantage to using a product like this and owning the tools. I know for sure now that I'll never have to deal with a gun with a worn finish or one that rusts or whatever, because I can touch up and/or completely refinish my guns at home if necessary.
Onward to the process. I should list all of the things you will need for this:
Guns and/or parts that need refinishing (duh)
Blasting cabinet. I installed a light in mine so I could see what I was doing.
60-90 grit aluminum oxide blasting media
Air compressor that delivers a high volume of air. I also high recommend that you install a water trap on the air line as well to avoid moisture issues, and you will need to be able to regulate it for use with the airbrush and blasting cabinet. The compressor I used is 2 hp/33 gallon. It was big enough but bigger is better. I usually use a 3 hp two stage compressor, but I don't yet have it hooked up as I just moved.
Airbrush. I suggest a cheap one. I highly doubt that a nicer airbrush will give you a nicer outcome. A spray gun will likely spray way too much material.
Methyl Ethyl Ketone. This is what you will use to thin the moly resin and/or clean up. I bought a quart; it was plenty.
Dish soap and/or degreaser
An oven that you will use to cure the resin. Your home oven is fine. It won't drip or get anywhere or otherwise damage it in any way.
Wire for hanging parts to paint and bake them. I used scrap 14 AWG solid copper wire that I stripped the insulation off of.
Masking tape
Rubber gloves
While not required, you will probably want to completely disassemble your gun, including removing the sights. I left the extractors in place because I wanted to coat them as well. Other than that, the guns were totally gutted. This inevitably requires additional tools, such as pin punches, sight pushers, hammers, vice, etc.
Okay, I think that's everything. First, before you do anything else, scrub your gun's parts with hot soapy water. I used a toothbrush scrub it. Pay close attention to places where grease tends to collect, like the barrel lugs, barrel bushing channel, etc. I also scrubbed my checkering really good. There really is no such thing as "too clean." Keep scrubbing. Trust me, there's always more oil to remove.
Next, you are going to blast every ounce of finish off your gun. This is the part that is definitely not for the faint of heart. I spent over an hour stripping the frame on my single stack. Use the blasting cabinet, 60-80 PSI, and the aluminum oxide blasting media. Parkerizing and bluing come right off. Be very careful to assure you hit every surface from every available angle.
After blasting, handle your parts with rubber gloves on only. Return to the sink area and give the part one last scrub down. You need to do this to assure that you remove any stray abrasive media and to remove any remaining grease or oil.
After the final wash, the parts go into the oven on the lowest setting. The goal is to pre-heat all parts to 100 degrees to avoid runs. This will give you a chance to get your airbrush ready to rock.
Shake the bottle thoroughly and pour an ounce or so of the product(s) into the airbrush. I set my compressor to about 25 psi to spray slightly thinned moly resin, but your airbrush may vary. Tip: spray it as thin as possible. It's tough, even after you've thinned moly resin, to get it to spray thin. The reason is likely because it has so many dissolved solids in it that it's tough to siphon. Spray it as thin as possible! If you don't, you'll find out just how tough it is to remove from areas that don't have the dimensional tolerances to handle a thicker coating (guess how I know?)
Next, spray the parts. The technique will need work to achieve good results but the product is cheap enough that you can waste some and start over if necessary. As I stated before, this product must be applied as thinly as possible.
Working with moly resin is somewhat like working with paint. It dries when solvents dissolve. Even though moly resin will dry without baking, it will not “cure.” Those of you who think that moly resin is paint, I have a suggestion for you: blast a part after drying, but before curing. The moly resin will come right off. After baking, it is harder to remove moly resin from the parts’ surface than parkerizing or bluing. This is quite remarkable, I must say—it is much tougher to remove cured moly resin than parkerizing or bluing.
And, without further ado, here are my finished guns. I did the entire single stack except the sights. I am going to have to find a flatter product for that. The 2011, I did the slide and firing pin stop.
All in all, I think it turned out very nice. It's not perfect, but it is very rust resistant and tough. Next time, I'm going to build my own parkerizing tank, blast all of the guns, parkerize them, and then finish with the resin. Even so, I have no complaints for now. The guns look 1000 times better than they did before.
Here's some before shots for you guys:
