Beat up pistol. Refinish it or sell it for pennies?

[Misery Loves Shotguns]

I have a Taurus PT92 that's in pretty bad shape right now. Holster wear, some rust from storing it in a case with wet padding (don't ask because I don't know how it got wet) mostly. Anyway, my questions are 1) how much would I be looking at to refinish the pistol? 2) How much would a PT92 in bad condition be worth? I can't honestly expect to get more than $150 (if I'm lucky) for it if I sell it. I figure that I'm going to get screwed either way but I'd kind of like to get it restored because it's always been a reliable, nice looking gun. Thoughts?

UPDATE: I refinished the pistol myself and it turned out great. Go to page 3 to see the results.

[FLICK]

If you would choose to bear coat your gun, it would be $200 plus whatever it would cost to ship it to them per their website. I don't know if major rust repair is included in that price.

Info here.... http://www.bearcoat.com/

Good luck

[The_War_Wagon]

Didn't have rust on my Kimber, but the finish was worn off, and even the rattle-canned finish from the previous owner, was wearing off!



So I sent it to Amelon Coatings, LLC, and had them cerakote it for me, and now it looks like a million bucks (the new safety & grips were done by my local 'smitty - the bob job was done by the previous owner, FYI)!



You'll need to e-mail Dan and get a quote - I got a discount because he was a sponsor of another board I belonged to - but $150 comes to mind.

[Xpertz]

If you decide to sell it , let me know. I need parts for one I've been working on.

[knight0334]

Refinish it. You could possibly do most of the work yourself getting the old gunk off it. Steel wool and metal stripping compounds can take it to gun-metal gray in minutes.

I had some stuff that machinists use to strip metal a few years ago. I smeared it on a heavily rusted Marlin 60. It was clear of paint, bluing, and rust in less than an hour. ...and I didn't even have to touch with steel wool.

Once you strip it, smather it in a protective oil or goop(cosmo). Put it in a big ziplock bag and send it to a refinisher.

[Asmodeus6]

^ Naval jelly?

Being phosphoric acid, it will turn rust into a black ferric phosphate matrix, that is remotely akin to parkerizing.

Is that what you used?

[knight0334]

^ Naval jelly?

Being phosphoric acid, it will turn rust into a black ferric phosphate matrix, that is remotely akin to parkerizing.

Is that what you used?

I cant remember.. ..been many many years ago. It was jelly-like though, and had the foulest of smells. Gave me a headache within minutes. But it worked slicker than a greased icecube on a pain of glass.

Rust, paint, bluing, everything was gone. It worked faster than I expected.

I used paint thinner and lighter fluid to remove the remnants of the stuff. Then Rattle Can Rembrandt'd it black.

[justashooter]

agreed, refinish it yourself. use a chemical stripper, then polish all non-flat areas with 400 grit emery. polish flats by placing said emery on a flat sheet of glass and stroking parts straight back and forth on axis of bore.

paint with rattle cans from auto parts store. use dupli-color #1634 (semi-gloss black) shot from about 12" at parts hanging from steel wire. paint in a sweeping motion, starting before you pass the part and ending after. apply mist coat from all angles. allow to dry. apply color coat from all angles, keeping a "wet-line" overlap. if you want a textured finish, apply a 3rd coat from 18-20" that will be partially dry on contact. allow to dry for 4 hours, then bake in oven at 250* till the stink goes away. allow to air cool before handling. impervious to all chemicals i use to clean and oil, and hard as glass.

total job? about $10 plus your time. total satisfaction? pretty high on the scale.

[red dog]

give dura kote a look. did a nice job on a fal that was built on a rough kit.

[Misery Loves Shotguns]

Did some work on the PT92 today. I tried to strip the slide with some sandpaper and then used steel and brass brushes to even it out. There were spots that weren't quite even and I didn't want it to have a mirrored finish so the brushes helped a lot. The frame is still fine but the slide stop and other part on the right side (outer trigger mechanism . . . don't know what it's called) needed to be stripped because the rust got them. I'm going to try to refinish the slide myself and if I screw it up, oh well I'll strip it with blue remover and send it to a gunsmith. I may try to do it in a dual tone finish . . . we'll see.