Tanfoglio Open build journey

[jasonv]

I finally done it. i finally bought a gun without the old lady knowing and i went nuclear upgrading it and making it into what i think is the perfect tanfoglio open.

Life started out as a Tanfoglio Eric Gold Custom Xtreme open.

I bought it used off a friend who only shot a few hundred rounds and was more interested in his cz to bother with shooting this gun. Fast forward a week and 2 range trips, i had the idea of tearing the entire gun apart and start sanding and polishing the internals.

Here is what the gun looked like next my other stock 3 which i did a big build on.

Doesnt look bad eh? wrong, i hated the black and silver from the start and wanted to redo the entire gun in solid black or black/gold look.

Luckily i have a friend of a friend who does pvd and was willing to do a test trail on parts.

First thing before i send it off for coating is bead blasting. Spent the better part of a day driving to lagnley and blasting the tanfoglio and few other parts. The coating came off very easily.

Blasted these also which i will be doing tin on.

Spent the next 2 sleepless nights hand sanding everything. My goal was not to get a mirror finish but to get a high polished with machine marks look. i started with 80 grit and orked my way upto 2000 grit. Some parts i stopped at 800 grit to keep the sanding marks.
Everything inside the frame as getting sanded smooth, from the inside of the frame where the magazine sits to where the trigger bar touches. If it was not for function, it was for ease of cleaning in the future.

Somthing good to remember is to do it outside and not in the house. I ended up having to spend a hour moping the floor and scrubbing every inch of the kitchen because of polish splatter and sanding dust.

How things turned out after polishing by hand and with a dremel on the lowest setting.

 

[PharoH]

Lookin good

 

[Craig0ry]

Beauty! Can I send you my stock 3

 

[Trinimon]

Damn! That's a lotta elbow work! I like the unfinished bright steel finish.

 

[jasonv]

thanks everyone. nothing beats hand finish. if it was ss i would of considered keeping it polished as i love the color on my nickle finished tanfoglio

lets see how mine turns out first

parts are offically off for a pvd treatment.

i will be doing my frame and slide in a dark grey and everything else in tin.

it will be interesting to see how this turns out as the grey pvd is twice the hardness of tin. i wonder if the tin will rub off from being in contact with the grey frame.

another note, some parts are aluminum. everyone says not to do aluminum in tin because it is too soft, however most of the parts i am tining that are aluminum dont rub against metal. I be testing to see how well tin holds up with aluminum.

I cleaned all the parts as best i could with acetone however, it will be going into a ultrasonic cleaner and water blasted before going into the oven for PVD. I also got a chance to see the process in action. They have to preheat the oven to 450 degrees and from there the pvd actually bond with the metal at a atomic level. Meaning it etches into the metal and doesnt just sit on top like cerekote.

parts out of the oven. looking good.

 

[jasonv]

Here is Tanfoglio completed. pretty unique however, fastforward a few range trips and the aluminum parts that did receive PVD coating started to chip and wear. This bugged the crap out of me especially since it only had a few hundred round. should i care since it is a open gun? no, but i also like style and performance

also decided to add the new racker. a must for this open gun and much easier to rack now.

the rest of the metal that did receive pvd came out perfect and held up. no wear what so ever. this shows how good a gun is fitted.

i also had a glock with a agency barrel. their most expensive barrel with tin pvd. that gun had pvd wearing off just from 1 range trip. that shows even a coating like pvd can wear off if the gun is all loose.

this also did show on the aluminum comp as that part does somewhat rub agaisnt the slide. hense why i didnt like it and wanted to redo it.

my idea is if it was all silver pvd, even if it did get scratched, all i had to do is hit up with the polisher to make it look new again.

as with all tanfoglio's, the machining and finish is horrible. wavy rails, file marks. all that had to go. It did take a while but i think i did a pretty decent job.


* Did you know, GREY PVD, is 3x stronger than gold tin pvd. it is also one of the hardest pvd to apply and really easy to have adhesion issues if not prepped properly.

The ugly side of PVD. this is what happens when you dont ultrasonic clean your parts and thoroughly scrub them down.

this is after soaking it in acetone overnight and scrubbing the outside with a brush. a lesson i learned well. i now ultra sonic clean all my parts, scrub the every inch including the inside plus heat it in a oven. repeat until i see no wet spots.

 

[jasonv]

So about a few months ago, while also working on the infinity, i decided i also wanted a all silver tanfoglio so it would match my silver stock 2. yep im that cheesy.

here is the pvd stripped and polished. we ended using bead blasting to take all the old finish off. Then used 320-400-600-800-1000 before taking it to the buffer.

 

[jasonv]

design work. make sure to scan you guns. do not just take a picture. i had to readjust the design after i found out i was a tad off on the edges.

went through a few revision of this also. really wanted to put a skull in. just didnt work out on the slide. but i did find a place. stay tuned tomorrow for the result.

 

[sixty9santa]

Phenomenal!

 

[jasonv]

Finished engraving. Had to engrave each side in 2 parts. Why? The smaller the lens, the sharper and deeper the engraving. I decided to go for a clear deep etching rather than having a blury engraving. Also found a place for my skull. Under the frame.

After hitting it with the buffer.

It looks really good after buffing and the design really fits the italian gun.

This is after it came out of PVD. its actually more silver in color. If thats even possible.
I had to take a small stainless brush and gently clean all buffing compound out. A tooth brush and acetone barley did anything. Had to dunk the parts over night in acetone before brushing then heat and repeat till its all clean.

 

[Eduardo]

Awesome Jason!!!

 

[jasonv]

after some light polishing and nail polish filling. anyone have other ideas for filling other than nail polish? i find i have to be very carefull with wiping the excess off with aceton. usually takes more than needed off.

overall i like how it turned out. now i just need to finish polishing the rest of the aluminum.

 

[Craig0ry]

Looking awesome! I haven’t held my Tanfo in months, moving put shooting on a mega back burner.

As far as nail polish goes, I’ve always used a non acetone nail polish remover and my girlfriends cotton make up remover pads and just kept them nice and flat and gone nice and light, very rare that it takes off too much unless Iam really pressing down, time consuming of course but given this thread that’s not an issue for you!