Time to Refurb

Got this at a good price, knew it would need work.

You get to help. What color should I Cerakote it? Go with the standard black or Midnight Blue or go exotic, frame one color, cylinder a contrasting color. If the exotic, what color(s) would you like to see? If you had this gun to be Cerakoted for yourself, and you wanted to go exotic, what colors would you choose? I have done a revolver in Flat Dark Earth (frame) with the cylinder in a dark graphite and it looked pretty good).

Mild or wild, what would you do if it were yours and you could play with it?

Great project. Midnight Blue.

Go exotic,,, and make it a Tri-Color!

Go hard chrome! 8)

I guess if it were mine, I'd have it re-blued.

High polished blue.

...oh no, Ron wants to "pimp " his ride.............surprise us.........

me I prefer basic black..........I just "see" all those DEEP pits, and know what it takes to just simply "reblue" 8) :roll: :wink:

I think Mr. Mick Jagger could offer you some excellent advice on this.

Cerakote is one step ahead of spray paint. I say polish out as much damage as possible then bead blast and re- blue a matte finish to conceal any remaining pits.

Grand old Six. What would I do? I'd give it a good cleaning, get the rust off etc, tune-up the action, a set of factory grips that match the age and finish, and leave it be. I've got a 2" S&W 36 that was in the same condition when I bought it, cleaned it up leaving the "character" and it's one of my best revolvers. Nothing wrong with "character" for a shooter.





The Preacher

Preacher and I think alike. BTW I like your Smith also.

If you like the gun, get it professionally refinished and blued. I personally do not like Cerakote or any of the "spray paint" finishes. The condition of this gun is way beyond "character" IMHO.

I'm sorry to have to say it, most people really don't know or understand what Cerakote is, how it works or what it can do for a firearm. It IS NOT a step above spray paint, it is more than that. If you see any gun manufacturer that has non stainless steel guns colored other than with a blue or blue-black finish, including Ruger, those have been finished with Cerakote. Cerakote is the industry standard in firearms finishes. It is made by the world leader in metal coatings, NIC Industries, who leads the industry in abrasion, wear resistance, corrosion resistance and chemical protection of metal. I did a lot of research on the different metal coatings before I chose to add Cerakoting to my business. I've been doing it now for about 10 years and have had no customer that was unhappy with the Cerakote or my work.

I will absolutely agree that a firearm that is Cerakoted is not for everyone, myself included. I love a well blued revolver, or a nicely done blued rifle in a wood stock. There is just that panache about the looks (think of the past years ago Colt Royal Blue or the S&W bluing, those were probably the best in the business).

However, there are times that just rebluing a firearm just doesn't do it justice, or just wouldn't look right due to the condition of the firearm, no matter how much you worked on it.

I have done Cerakote work for several members of the forum and I think they would agree that it isn't just spray paint.

All that said, everyone has the right to their opinion and I respect that right. I'll keep the thread going with progress reports so you can see what is going on.

RoninPA said:

All that said, everyone has the right to their opinion and I respect that right.

Click to expand...

Cool. If it were mine, I'd steel wool all the rust off, hit it with cold blue, fix whatever's going on with that front sight, put a set of grips that both looked and felt good and matched the overall "vibe" of the thing, and then shoot the hell out of it and brag to all my friends how LITTLE money I had in it. But that's just me. :wink:

Now, if I wanted to play a little, I'd cut the barrel to 3" and round-butt it. And THEN I might think about Cerakote or another (relatively) inexpensive spray-on finish. Actually I might just spray it with common hi-temp semigloss black. I did a rusty Mossberg 500 barrel that way over a decade ago, and it still looks good. That stuff is TOUGH. Total cost, something like $8 or $9 (Walmart), and I think I still have 3/4 of the can left.

But it's YOUR gun and this is still America (most places), and the gun isn't particulary rare, valuable, or "special," so do it however makes YOU happy and drive on! :wink:

What snake said. ps

Well, went a bit conservative:





Main color is called Multicam Green and the cylinder, cylinder release and hammer pivot are Green Beret Green (it's a real dark green that can be seen a lot better in natural light)

It, with some others will be at the ROCS banquet as Cerakote examples as I will again be donating a Cerakote job as an auction item.

Looking good there Ron!

I'd have gone with all black, or maybe all that dark green, but it DOES look cleaner and "healthier" than it did.

aaaaaaaaaaaaa that's different. Looks kinda like a WWII relic.

If I have a chance like this (fat chance: beater 6's in SoCal are unobtainium) I'd go for everything dark blue but the frame in Ruger Plum Jam!