Single-six grip frame material?

[Yaworski]

I have a Single-Six that I bought many years ago for teaching my kids to shoot. It came with a .22 LR cylinder and a .22 Mag cylinder.

The grip frame appears to be painted and the paint is coming off. What is the grip frame made of? Pot metal? Aluminum?

Stainless or brass grip frames are more than I'd want to spend for this gun but I'd like to clean it up and have it look nice.

 

[Fox Mike]

Aluminum

 

[Yaworski]

Was it painted or anodized?

Attempt to refinish it or just hit it with a buffing wheel?

Cheap source for steel grip frames?

 

[contender]

Welcome to the Forum!
The grip frames are an aluminum alloy. They were anodized originally. Having the finish come off is not uncommon for used guns over time. Some just turn gray & "age" & others can have some of the finish come off.
Many folks have stripped their grip frames to a shiny finish by careful polishing & others have re-finished them using chemical strippers & then getting a spray on bake-on can of stuff from Brownells.
So, you can use chemical strippers & careful polishing & have a shiny grip frame, or you can go a step further & re-finish it.

 

[rugerguy]

have seen them refinished over the years using about any paint, available to whomever, where-ever....most used Krylon, or the Alumahyde from Brownells, seen engine paint for cars and cycles, in flat,matte or semi gloss paint...some folks say they even put the part in the oven to "harden" ??? seems to make it a bit more durable, but unless you get it anodized from or by someone who KNOWS what they are doing ( seldom see them come out "black" by local anodizers) as noted above above, simply strip it down ( degrease) before you use any paint, OR send it out for a "coating" ( Ceracote or any other "hard coating) or strip it all off, polish it down to bare metal and make the gun two tone, this too os done more often on the aluminum parts, ( the housing or the grip frame) to 'match'..............

 

[reloader]

I refinished an aluminum 10-22 reciever with Birchwood Casey's Aluminum Black.
It looked like the factory finish when done.
I had to strip and degrease the whole thing first though.
They claim it can be used for touch up, but it didn't look right until I did the entire reciever.