I bought a new 1911A1 (built on Essex frame) which had been Parkerized (an early type of coating). The parkerizing had gotten into the slide-groove areas, and it would prevent the gun from going into battery after the first 25 rounds or so, as it warmed up.
After being told that Government pistols were not designed for sustained fire (bee ess), I attacked the problem by the careful use of thin diamond hones to remove the parkerizing from the grooves. It was about 12 hours of very exacting hand work, but now the pistol is reliable.
Word to the wise: do NOT coat any parts which have to bear on other parts.
Prefacing this by saying that I am by no means an expert on refinishing as i’ve only done about 7 Duracoat jobs, the Duracoat process recommends Parkerizing, or at the very least, bead blasting prior to the Duracoat. The DGFM on the left was Parkerized prior to Duracoat. For the Springfield, I skipped the Parkerizing and just blasted with Aluminum Oxide. FWIW, I haven’t found one process to be better. Only that the bead blasting is a heck of a lot easier than trying to parkerize with a crock pot. 🙂
Since Parkerizing is a chemical bath process, I’m not sure how one would pull off Parkerizing only certain parts of an individual piece. When Duracoating, I usually use 3-4 coats of finish on the outer parts, and blend that with 1-2 coats of duracoat wrapping around to the inner portions. Whichever way you go, I think hand sanding/polishing the contact points is unavoidable. Especially with higher tolerance weapons.
October 24th, 2013 at 8:57 am
I bought a new 1911A1 (built on Essex frame) which had been Parkerized (an early type of coating). The parkerizing had gotten into the slide-groove areas, and it would prevent the gun from going into battery after the first 25 rounds or so, as it warmed up.
After being told that Government pistols were not designed for sustained fire (bee ess), I attacked the problem by the careful use of thin diamond hones to remove the parkerizing from the grooves. It was about 12 hours of very exacting hand work, but now the pistol is reliable.
Word to the wise: do NOT coat any parts which have to bear on other parts.
October 24th, 2013 at 9:28 am
@Rivrdog
Prefacing this by saying that I am by no means an expert on refinishing as i’ve only done about 7 Duracoat jobs, the Duracoat process recommends Parkerizing, or at the very least, bead blasting prior to the Duracoat. The DGFM on the left was Parkerized prior to Duracoat. For the Springfield, I skipped the Parkerizing and just blasted with Aluminum Oxide. FWIW, I haven’t found one process to be better. Only that the bead blasting is a heck of a lot easier than trying to parkerize with a crock pot. 🙂
Since Parkerizing is a chemical bath process, I’m not sure how one would pull off Parkerizing only certain parts of an individual piece. When Duracoating, I usually use 3-4 coats of finish on the outer parts, and blend that with 1-2 coats of duracoat wrapping around to the inner portions. Whichever way you go, I think hand sanding/polishing the contact points is unavoidable. Especially with higher tolerance weapons.