Powder Coated pistols

tokguy

tokguy

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I'm curious as to whether or not anyone here is familiar with powder coated pistols.
I'm (hopefully) in the middle of rebuilding a grenade'd Steyr-Hahn 1912 in 9mm Luger caliber. Yes 9 x 19 parabellum, not 9 x 23 Steyr.
I located a bbl in 9 x 23 from a forum member, who was a gunsmith who's familiar with the conversion.
A site sponsor; who shall remain unnamed ( cause people who b*tch online about businesses are...well...intolerant?. And if there is one thing I cannot stand; it's intolerant people, I just want to smash them! Naw, just always wanted to say that:p). But is that slide ugly! Nasty stuff, small pits and surface rust! But a piece that rare, what do you do, right?
So the collector value is nil, nil, nil.
Why not powder coat the whole pistol in OD green, or camo? It can't be worse than the condition of the slide at present; that would be impossible in my eyes.
I don't dare post this in Milsurp...they'd burn me in effigy, lol!
 
I'd go for the more durable cerakote over powder coating. It will not chip or flake like powder coating and also can be applied thinly so there is less issues with parts not fitting after refinishing.
 
What's going on here!? Someone dressing up a milsurp!?
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...Tokguy, say it ain't so! :p
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.There was little I could do once word got out...
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...the horror...

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I'll post a pic or two of the slide. The more hardened Milsurpers might say " No, leave it...think of the children!"
But it's pretty harsh on the eye's, and I'm not removing more metal to clean it up. It was really sad & pretty freaking scary when it piled up. The gunsmith who's helping me out asked about the trainwreck and I replied truthfully " I don't really know what happened, I normally run Universal in a standard 9 x 19 loading. The bottom of the Universal can was showing, so I went down a line or two to the standard 9 x 19 loading of Bullseye. Halfway through the magazine it piled up"
To which he replied " Bullseye, strikes again" Upon doing an internet search there is more than few instances of Bullseye throwing a funny sounding report or recoil in the midst of an otherwise perfect set of reloaded rds. But I digress...
No tri-rails or lazerbeams; I promise. But it needs something as it looks like it came from 'the rafters of a barn in Romania' after a 70 year hiatus. And I'm not taking it to the range looking like that.
 
I did a desert eagle slide in a 2 stage granny smith green color, it looks killer but was a pain in the ass to prep the slide as I had to mask off basically all of the internals and just coated the outer shell. I just ordered some cerakote to play with, its better suited for firearms especially if you want to coat the entire part with tight tolerances or moving parts. Just not even close to the same color choices as I have with powder suppliers
 
If you are not familiar with Steyr-hahn's; they have helical grooves machined on the inside of the slide. They rely on the rotary torque generated by the bullets twist to apply force between the helical grooves in the slide / on the outside of the bbl for lockup. Needless to say, nothing applied can interfere with the fit of lugs to grooves or the operation of the pistol will be compromised.
But...the ugly



Tell me that doesn't hurt your eyes.
 
tokguy said:
If you are not familiar with Steyr-hahn's; they have helical grooves machined on the inside of the slide. They rely on the rotary torque generated by the bullets twist to apply force between the helical grooves in the slide / on the outside of the bbl for lockup. Needless to say, nothing applied can interfere with the fit of lugs to grooves or the operation of the pistol will be compromised.
But...the ugly



Tell me that doesn't hurt your eyes.
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The desert eagle I did was old as well and pitted just like yours, the double coat color filled the pits well....ANd for the same reason as your internal components, that is why I only coated the outside....Everything that was a tollerance fit or had moving parts inside I masked off for blasting and coating so only the outside was coated for appearance
 
It's a true mutt, lol
Chilean pistol with a Romanian slide (dovetailed front sight ) in 9mm Luger.
I'd like to get it into the 'Vintage' category at a local ranges raceday.
Don't have to worry about spreading precious 9 x 23 Steyr Hornady brass around the range.
9mm Luger...let it lay where it falls
 
Here is what I would suggest. Grind, file, sand as smooth as you can get it without removing too much metal. Use one of the automotive rust converters to stop the rust. Then fill with some auto body filler. Sand till smooth, then Krylon it or some other of your favourite spray paint. I wouldn't wast your money getting it Cerakoted as that will cost more than the gun's value and will still show all the defects, only in a cool colour. It would keep you out of trouble for a week too. Zombie green.
 
MustangFrank said:
Here is what I would suggest. Grind, file, sand as smooth as you can get it without removing too much metal. Use one of the automotive rust converters to stop the rust. Then fill with some auto body filler. Sand till smooth, then Krylon it or some other of your favourite spray paint. I wouldn't wast your money getting it Cerakoted as that will cost more than the gun's value and will still show all the defects, only in a cool colour. It would keep you out of trouble for a week too. Zombie green.
Click to expand...

I think that is likely the way I'll go. Between the initial cost and the secondary rebuilding cost it's already well beyond what it's worth. Very cool gun but it's getting harder to drop $$$ on it. The cost of the slide, bbl and rechambering is already at 300 $.
BTW the fact that someone in the business says "Don't bother, too expensive friend" carries weight.
Thank you for your integrity, sir
 
Oh, I really like Steyr-hahn's...I have a nice replacement already. If I didn't like Steyr-hahn's I would have just used this one for spare parts. Including original price I've about 550$ into it.
But the pic's really don't do it justice, that slide is pretty f*cked up, finish wise. It's like seeing a beautiful woman turn her face to expose a gaping eye socket on the side you didn't see at first. You just go "Oh my!" as the realization hit's you
 
I was up last night thinking about your Steyr. Thats weird. I would love to know what happened to the slide and why it is so much worse than the frame ? The big thing that kept me awake was perhaps the slide has lost its ability to withstand pressure safely. Old rusted metal can get weak or brittle. Is the inside the same or is it just surface. It looks like actual metal flaking as if it were dug up in the ocean. That might be unsafe. Can you source another slide ? Even another gun for 250.00 might be worth a look. There, I am spending more money instead of saving it for you but I would hate to see it blow up in your face. Then you will have two nice Steyr's for your collection.
 
The original slide had a train wreck. Piled up from a 'Bullseye mishap' This is A Romanian slide on a Chilean pistol.
It's in fine shape on the inside.
It'll see light loads of Unique behind 115 FMJ's in 9 X 19.
The interweb says how strong these pistols are...I for one would beg to differ. The recoil and stresses upon firing work on two planes; rotary and compression, in my line of business that's how things get wrecked. Either compression or rotary...not both combined.
Sourcing another slide is pretty much impossible; they are 350 shipped max pistols. Despite what some ask for them on the EE, lol
 
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