Refinished my first 1911 today

[cplstevennorton]

I bought an Ithaca 1911 that had been blued. I bought it dirt cheap with the intentions of refinishing it. I've been wanting to try to parkerize for a awhile, and tried it today. It came out pretty good I think. It was way easier than I thought it would be. I stripped off all the old blueing with white vinegar, sandblasted, and parked it. Real simple. What do you guys think?

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[painter777]

I'm no expert on the 1911's but your park job looks to have a nice smooth finish with a consistent color. I like leaving them in a after park oil bath for a few days.
Looks very nice
Congrats and thanks for sharing.
May I ask...What park did you decide to use?

Regards
Charlie-painter777

[cplstevennorton]

I've had it soaked in Rig Grease. Someone told me it will give you the green hint if you leave it on long enough. I just wiped it off for a picture last night. But resoaked it immediately afterwards. It darked up over last night. I actually got the park solution off ebay. I had a friend who recommended it to me, and it was very easy to use. You didn't have to age it, or put in metal shavings or anything. You just heated up the water to 190 degrees and put in 4oz of park to 1 gallon water. And then summerge your part for 15 minutes. Plus it said it's reusable, but I don't know if I am going to try it again. But it says it is reusable. I bought the park solution of Palemetto Enterprises. A guy name Scott sells it on Ebay for about $35 a quart, his ebay name is kso456. What's nice with him too, is he gives you his phone number and you can call him with any questions. It seems like a really nice guy. And I would recommend him to anyone.

But all in all for the first time ever trying it. I think it turned out really nice. I know I have paid people hundreds to park items before that didn't even turn quite this nice. So I'm happy.

[lboos]

Cpl, You done good.

[Johnny Peppers]

Looks like a very nice job. Brought the old Ithaca back to life.
As a suggestion on your photography, use a darker colored background. Your light meter exposed the white just right, but left the pistol too dark.

[badabing]

I likee. Can you try some shots like Johnny posted so we can see the color better. Who, knows, you may pick of some business. How did you degrease prior to finishing? How did you sand blast? What type of media did you use? Anyway you cut it for the first time out you did a nice job of it. That would have cost over $100 at most shops.

[cplstevennorton]

Here are some more pics with a black background. Hopefully this helps.

This is what I did.

1. The pistol was blued. So I soaked in white vinegar for about two hours. It took all the blued finish right off. I was amazed there wasn't any finish left at all.

2. I degreased it by spraying it down with a whole can of break cleaner. Then I put in my oven at 250 degrees for a an hour to make sure all the brake cleaner and oils were melted off. After this point I only touched the pistol with rubber gloves on, as oil from your fingers can screw it up.

3. Then I sand blasted it with 60-80 grit aluminum oxide in my blasting cabinet. It was the same stuff that I use to sandblast car parts. I've read that glass beads are not abrasive enough to give the park a good area to adhere to. And I have been refinishing a few pistols with cermakote. Which is an incredible finish if you carry a pistol. With stripping the other pistols, I've had good luck with the oxide, and it doesn't seem to wear the letters at all. So that is why I used the aluminum oxide to rough it up. Also the original finish was a very high polish blue. So I really had to rough it up to give the park an area to bond too.

4. I bought a aluminum tank off ebay for 20 bucks. It was just an old server dish like used in restaurant buffet lines. It worked perfect for a parking tank.

5. I have a side burner on my grill so I put the aluminum tank on the side burner and put a gallon of distilled water in it. You have to use distilled water, not tap water. I then put in a candy thermometer that I bought from walmat for like three bucks. I heated up the water to 190-200 and put 4oz of park solution and in and stirred it up. I then laid the parts in. I used a stainless steel sis kabob used for barbecues to move and pull the parts out. I read to used stainless steal wire to fish your parts out and move them. I couldnt find one, but I found four stainless steel sis kabobs in the cooking section of walmart for $3. I bent the bottom of one into a hook and it worked great.

6. I flipped the parts every several minutes to make sure all sides had an even finish. I let them sit in there for about 15 minutes. They stopped fizzing about 10 minutes into it. But they said let them sit in there for at least 15 in the directions.

7. I then pulled the parts, as soon as they came out of the tank, I sprayed them heavy with WD40 to stop the park process. I then wiped them dry with a lint free cloth to dry them. I did this three times.

8. While it was still warm, I covered it in rig grease. While it was still warm and the pores of the metal were open, it really seemed to go deep into the park. I also read that this will over time give it the green tint that we all want.

Then I reassembled it. All the small parts were already blued. So I left them. And just parked the frame and slide. Like I said earlier, the park solution from palmetto enterprises was really easy. It was easier than I have read other people say about other solutions. I'm very happy with their product and I would recommend it anyone!

If anyone has any quesitons about how I did it, or wants to know about cermakote as I recommend that to anyone who wants a carry piece, feel free to contact me on that as well.

This project was a lot of fun, and I think for my first time parkerizing it turned out great. All together the solution and all the parts, tank, etc cost me about $65. But I have enough solution to do a lot more guns. And I plan on parking some other stuff for myself, mags, M1 parts, etc. So it was worth it. Also I have paid others a lot of money to park stuff for me, and mine I think turned out better than theirs, and only took about 4 hours start to finish, and most of that was waiting until the water hit 190 degrees and waiting the hour for the oven process. So probably only an hour of real work. It was a very easy day off project.

I don't know for the first time, it isn't bad I don't think. I learned a lot this time, and next time I think I will be even better. It really was a lot of fun. My next thing I'm going to try is hot salts bluing!

Steve

[lenb]

Great parkerizing job, Steve. Thanks for sharing your tips on the process.

Len

[cplstevennorton]

Hey I did find something else that I thought I would pass on. The park finish was a little rough to the touch, and it sort of drove me nuts. So I took some fine 0000 steel wool, and going in the same direction just like you sand wood, I rubbed the Ithaca down. It looks a lot better. The letter is really nice and crisp now, and it's much more comfortable to hold. So I would recommend this too. Just do it very much as you will wear all the park off. Here is the final pic.

[Wick]

Steve,

Do you have any "Before" pics you could share?

Looks like you did a great job! Thanks for sharing!