Can this Series 70 Colt be made pretty again?  Has moderate rust and pitting issues.

Thanks

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Everything can be made pretty or kept pretty. Have you seen Tom Cruise lately?

I have a Series 80 CM slide I want blued, I’m sending it here:

http://ardengun.com/prices.html

Plenty of people all over the country who can address that.  It may be worse under the grips as those trap and hold moisture.  Get the grips off and inspect everywhere before take and send pics off for an estimate/evaluation.

A master polisher can do miracles on guns that look even worse then yours.
The key is "master polisher", of which there aren't many who have the skills AND the specialized polishing equipment.
A local gunsmith with some soft buffs ain't one.

Here's those who do and can do a top professional job.
The price depends on the level of polish you want, from a standard factory level to a Python mirror polish job.
Your Colt would have bright polish sides of the slide and frame, the slide top and edges of the frame would be bead blasted......

These days the price difference between a botch job by a gun butcher and a top level job by a real pro is about the same.
95% of a good blue job is the hand polishing.  The actual bluing is the same.
Might as well have it done by the pro and have the gun looking like factory rather then a rounded off bar of soap with buffed off stamps...

Glenrock is probably the best of all.  They do work for top custom gun makers needing the very finest work.
http://www.gunbluing.com/

Precision are full time metal polishers..........
https://precisionbluing.com/

APW/Cogan is argueably the best all around gun refinisher, best known for plated finishes, but do bluing....
https://apwcogan.com/

I no long recommend Ford's.  They used to be famous for a "wet look" mirror polish Python blue, but they're polishing quality has fallen.
https://fordsguns.com/

These are nationally known as being the best standard refinishers.  Anyone else is a crap shoot.

Last, depending on how old it is, you might get Colt to do it.

I have never been much of a fan of refinishing.
On old classics it drastically reduces value
On working guns it is just going to wear again as you use the gun.
A good quality blue job will cost quite a bit, and not increase the value of the gun.

For example take that gun ( perhaps a 500-600 dollar gun as it sits) reblue it for 400 and you will have a 600 dollar gun.

If it were me, I’d knock the active rust off clean it up as best as I can and shoot the devil out of it.

Even when I lived in a high humidity area, I never had trouble with guns rusting, and let’s say I am pretty lax on maintenance

So far I've stripped it to pieces and sprayed it with Kroil, scrubbed with an old toothbrush, wiped it down, sprayed with more Kroil.

I'd like to get it restored, not museum quality, but decent looking, then send the slide off to have it milled for Novak sights

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Thanks.  It was purchased in 1982, has a "A70B...." serial number  No longer stock, not a museum piece, as I recall the list of changes are:

• replaced plunger tube once
• barrel link pin was peened to keep it attached to the barrel
• the finger collet bushing broke and replaced with solid one made by Colt for a Gold Cup
• Pachymahr grips
• flat mainspring housing
• Colt long trigger
• full length guide rod
• original sights replaced with cheap higher gun show sights
• think the thumb safety was replace at one time

Not building a race gun but trying to modernize it a bit

I've had guns reblued twice and both times I regretted it.  Not so much regret, but from a financial standpoint neither project made sense.  A decent blueing job these days is probably $400 assuming you can find someone to do it in less than a year.  If that were my gun I clean it up as best I could, hit it with some Oxpho Blue and shoot the snot out it.  It's a working piece not an heirloom.

Thanks for all the tips.  

The Kroil did remove the rust but obviously doesn't repair the pitting.

Path I'm leaning towards is to get the Novak sight cuts on the slide and put on some fake ivory grips to give it contrast vs the Pachymar wrap arounds.

Consider refinishing sometime next year

Why not fine-grit blasted and parkerized?  A whole lot cheaper and durable for a fighting-carry gun.

This is a parkerized Series 70:

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This is a mutt build on a Springfield frame with an old 1948 Colt slide:

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Update:

Today I took all the parts, starting with everything except the frame and slide and hand wiped the Kroil off, used bronze wood on the grip and thumb safety and got rid of most of the pitting without damaging what blueing was left

Then I did the slide and it turned out pretty good.

I spent over an hour on the frame itself and used a lot of bronze wool and got rid of most of the pitting but there's still some stubborn spots, the spots were under the grips

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I then sprayed the bejesuz out of it with Breakfree CLP and put the small parts in a plastic tub, didn't have one big enough for the slide and frame, so put those in quart sized food baggies

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Thinking the frame and slide would benefit nicely from a polish and blue job.  But since I want the slide milled for Novak dovetails and usually they don't refinish the slide when doing that, I'll send the slide off to have it milled, reassemble the pistol, and have it refinished later.

The barrel did have one small pitted area in it, used bronze wool wrapped around a brass cleaning rod tip and scrubbed and scrubbed alas, it's still pitted.  Shouldn't matter much anyway but when I shoot it again and find I'm getting large groups, an aftermarket barrel may be in my future.

The wrap around grips were rubber and had rust from the frame on it,  this rust wiped off easily with a small cotton rag and Armor All.

For blue vs parkerizing will go with reblueing since if a part breaks such as slide release or thumb safety,  I'd like to get a genuine Colt part and they come blued.

how about the stubborn pitting I couldn't get rid of, shouldn't it be down to the bare metal?  Thinking it might continue to rust. Maybe get more aggressive with fine steel wool? Thanks

NOKAKs

Ed Brown beavertail grip safety

parkerize

yeah, considering parkerizing vs blueing, blued parts like grip safety, collet, slide stop, etc can stay blue and give it some contrast.

Thanks

If you are going to rust blue the gun, it would be best to remove the pitting, first. Sanding with very fine grit sand paper and being careful around markings and sharp edges you wish to keep intact. Wrap paper around a flat edge to insure you end up with a flat surface.

Watch a few Gunfather restoration videos.

How much money do you want to spend?

You could send it back to Colt's Custom Shop and get the "Tactical Package" applied to it...it would run you a good bit of money, $1800 or so, but it would be checkered, cut for Novak night sights, reliability and trigger jobs, etc. Kill like 8 birds with one expensive stone

Evaporust will remove all the rust, and the bluing as well.
You want all the old bluing off before you reblue.
Take a sanding block and some progressively finer grits of wet sandpaper. I would probably use some oil/clp type lube instead of water to lube the sandpaper.  

It can be done at home, just gotta research it and buy the stuff.

I did a desert eagle and barrels at home:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/My-first-attempt-at-hot-salt-bluing/49-526449/

If you were close to north/central AL, we could totally do it. I still have all the stuff.

You can immerse the degreased slide in boiling water for a couple of minutes to change the rusts to magnetite - rust blue it, essentially.

Of course, this won't make it look polished and beautiful, but at least it will stop rusting while you figure out your next move.

APW Cogan does a nice Chrome job.  

Send it to Colt.