I foolishly left my Desert Eagle in the care of another, and it was allowed to rust.  It is the black oxide model, of course.  I only purchased the black oxide model at the time ( almost 7 years ago), because I found a used one for $1000. I’ve always wanted a nickel/chrome/stainless one anyway. Now I have an excuse to refinish it.  What’s the best option for these pistols? I’m leaning towards hard chrome simply because of how well my AR15 BCG’s in hard chrome hold up.  Robar has gone out of business, but a quick google search brought up this :

Slik Shot

Sounds like a nickel Teflon competitor to me.  My priorities for the finish are for it to increase reliability, decrease cleaning time, and of course corrosion resistance.  I don’t require it to take a high polish, but it doesn’t hurt either.

Cerekote

I thought about it, but if I’m not getting a nice shiny .50 I would just get it melonited black.

Looking online, I can’t find someone who will do a full pistol in NIB-X.  Seems everyone just wants barrel/slide and bcg.  Anyone know if WMD will do full pistols?  Only info I could find on them is that they’re shutdown for COVID

Industrial hard chrome.

It should be the only finish the gun is available in

My question is how much will this cost to do the whole pistol?
I'm thinking to do everything (small parts included to make it all match) might be quite expensive. Though I do not know for sure, I just have a feeling it might not be cheap. So my question is how much in total will you have invested in this gun? If it is going to cost as much as a whole pistol, it would not be worth it.
Have you considered you might be better off to find one already in the stainless or chrome you want? Buy the model you want in the finish you want and then sell the old one, even if it is at a slight loss, you might still be money ahead.

How bad is the rust? Just surface or are there pits? Is the person who let it rust paying to fix it?

You might try Cogan Custom.  www.APWCogan.com

or Cummings Custom Refinishing (CCR) www.ccrrefinishing.com

Tony

ETA:  This one was done by CCR.  If you know anything about AMT, they come standard with a gravel blasted finish.

I got it for somewhat of a steel back in 2012.  $1,050 total.  So I was hoping the coating ends up cheaper than 500-600 to make the total investment about the same as new.

Have gotten any quotes yet for the refinish?
While I have no desire to do mine in any type of coating like that, I am still curious.
Also how bad is the rust? Is it just surface rust that will blast off easy, or are there pits?

I haven’t gotten a quote for hard chrome (the finish I actually want), but I was quoted about a 6 week turnaround and $600 dollar charge for nickel boron.  

Now that shops are opening up again, I’m hoping to get a quote for hard chrome.  I wonder what Magnum Research would charge?

Is hard chrome as durable as it is pretty?

The rust is almost purely surface.  It might be very lightly pitted in a few spots, but I plan on keeping the gun forever so I don’t care.

The NB price does not seem too bad.
However, not sure if you would be very happy with it. I have two AR-15 bolt carrier groups that have the NB coating. When new they looked perfect. After many rounds, the finish has darkened/stained. It is not as shiny or pretty as it was new. It still works and cleans very easy, just does not look as shiny as it once was.
Now I have not tried to do anything like polish it as it is a BCG and it is not that big of deal. So I am not sure if it will polish out or not.
I have no idea if the hard chrome does the same or not as I have zero experience with it. But I would think probably not?

Yeah im thinking I’ll do hardcrhome unless the prices are just unreasonable.  I’ve got around 400 rounds on a hard chrome bolt carrier group and it still wipes clean like brand new.  Very cool coating, assuming it doesn’t flake.

I'm a big fan of cerakote. My DE was a tad rusty when I bought it (price was right), so I had it media blasted and cerakoted. $200 out the door. Not shiny per say, but it stands out.

I had my first pistol hard chromed about 17 years ago... Cost less than $200 to do the entire pistol back then. Turnaround was long though. That finish is touch as nails, doesn't discolor, never flaked, and actually made the internal contact surfaces (feed ramp) slicker.

I bought an Ithaca 12 gauge Riot Pump shotty in their Hard Chrome finish from the factory... Same deal as above and all surfaces are slick as snot and permanently protected from rust.

I also have a nickel plated Smith M36 I bought that way. Finish is beautiful and weather resistant but not nearly as tough as the Hard Chrome is to resist scratches and discoloration.

My vote would be the Hard Chrome as well.

ETA: found a pic of the Hard Chromed Ithaca Riot next to my Parkerized Ithaca Riot... Good contrast and they complement each other well...