Refinishing guns?

[yeti rider]

How durable are the finishes that go on polymer pistols? I'd like to buy a new glock and refinish it.

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

The factory glock finish is either Tenifer (pre 2012) or Nitrate (post 2012.) The Nitrate finish is pretty cool IMO. I have found it to be pretty durable and see no good reason to get rid of it unless it has failed.

 

[Bfish]

I see no reason to refinish unless you are wanting to do something in a color for some reason... The finish on Glocks is fantastic! I have both and love the tenifer but the nitrate is totally good too. I could cerakote mine if I wanted to but there is no point. Probably won't be for manny years to come either!

To answer your question best, it's super durable, a buddy of mine has used his slide to hammer things onto another gun before. It made me cringe... I am curious as to why you want to refinish it.

 

[WebSnyper]

Tenifer/Nitrate is not the black finish you see on a Glock.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

yeti, you know more about this than I do, but isn't part of refinishing stripping off what is there?

Will you not set off alarm bells at EPA and IDEM?

 

[Bfish]

Tenifer/Nitrate is not the black finish you see on a Glock.

What are they exactly??

 

[yeti rider]

The factory glock finish is either Tenifer (pre 2012) or Nitrate (post 2012.) The Nitrate finish is pretty cool IMO. I have found it to be pretty durable and see no good reason to get rid of it unless it has failed.

I want to refinish the Frame only, no slide. I'll leave the slide black. My wife wants a pink pistol. I'd like to get her a G43 and paint (cerakote, duracoat, whatever) the frame.

 

[Walt_Jabsco]

The frame isn't "finished" per se. It's plastic, and the coloring is part of the production process.

 

[WebSnyper]

What are they exactly??

They are the metal treatment that occurs before the black finish is applied.

 

[WebSnyper]

I want to refinish the Frame only, no slide. I'll leave the slide black. My wife wants a pink pistol. I'd like to get her a G43 and paint (cerakote, duracoat, whatever) the frame.

Not sure how well it holds up on a polymer frame, but AllenM does a great job with Cerakote, including on polymer frames. Check out some of his work under his subforum here under Diamond Collision.

 

[Bfish]

They are the metal treatment that occurs before the black finish is applied.

Huh you have anything on it? I'm just curious about it now that we are talking about it, I don't know too much about the process.

If I were to paint something OP I'd go cerakote. I just sandblasted some rails and got them painted the other day... I'm a big fan of the stuff! You can mix up some nice colors.

 

[sapper]

Cerakote would be the only coating I'd try.