Refinishing my 1911

I bought a Springfield 1911 GI a few years ago, from a friend who is a gunsmith. It was his personal carry gun for a while, and he did some stuff to it:

• Trigger job
• Hand-fit oversize barrel bushing
• Milled front sight dovetail

I've had it for a few years, adding a flat MSH along the way. I just recently sent it out for:

• Milled rear sight dovetail for Novak sight
• Lowered & flared ejection port

And I recently added a Wilson hammer & hand-fit a beavertail grip safety.

So, lots of bare metal on the gun I needed to fix before I could carry it this winter. $215 at my LGS for CeraCoat. I figured I could buy the stuff to do it for that. I can get KG Gun Kote locally so I went with that.

After sanding to 120 grit (I couldn't find media finer than 80 grit, so I didn't sandblast), I scrubbed with soapy water & degreased. Then I heated with a heat gun & sprayed on a layer of KG K-Phos, a cold phosphate. Then another heating & a layer of KG Gun Kote Black Satin. All into the new toaster oven and now it's baking at 325 for an hour. Everything looked great going into the oven, but who knows how it'll turn out? Great, I hope!

Before, with the factory park job:


Right now, in the oven:

 

Nice

 

Photos outside. I'm happy. We'll see how it holds up but I went the whole 9 yards with metal prep so I think It'll hold.

I think it could almost pass for a factory finish job. There is a little difference in the sheen of the flats between the slide & frame. I might have gone a little light on the frame. Better than too heavy though, which would mean a coating run an a restart to fix it.

 

Are you shitting me? That is sick!

 

Excellent job!!

I just bought a Mil-Spec Stainless
Love it

 

Outstanding!
Congrats on your restraint.
That just looks serious.

 

Looks great.
It's all about the surface prep with that stuff, but it should last awhile.
If it does not, you could always park it and recoat.