Hey guys,

Last week half my house got burned down. Don't worry no one got hurt but my two babies that I had outside the safe got damaged. The frames are okay but the slides are oit for the count. The fire did something to the slide that when water touched it it immediately started to rust. The two babies that got damaged were a gen3 19 and a M&P. The M&P was the worst to get hit. It looks like a piece of bare steel got exposed to the elements for a week. The 19 only got the rear of the slide damaged. On both I need to change the sights.

My question is does anyone know of a company that can help me get my two babies back to life. I need them to get the rust off or as much as possible and coat it with what ever they have that can keep the rust away. Also ghe barrel on the M&P needs work on the exposed areas, I might just get an aftermarket barrel for that one but the slides are my main concern. Also one of the barrels on my rifles need to get changed (Ruger RPR). I'm getting an LRI for that one later on. Any and all help you guys can give is appreciated.

Thanks

Options:

Send the S&W in to S&W for restoration.  This would likely be to the Performance Center.  They can remove the rust and refinish with the original spec finish.
Same for the Glock.  Glock may simply replace the slide unless you ask for restoration.  They also can apply the original type finish.

Send them to a TOP gun refinisher service like APW/Cogan.
They can remove the rust and apply any number of different finishes.  Probably the best would be hard chrome.
Talk to whoever you choose before sending them in:

http://www.apwcogan.com/

Hey, if I can send send them to the factory for a refinish, that would be AWSOME!!! I'll call both today and find out if it's possible.

Also, I had some time back a Cogan Custom 38 Super 1911. Very nice work they do.

Got off the phone with S&W and they said they will not touch a gun that was in a fire.

I then called Cogan and they said they will be happy to work on it. In part they told me that they specialized in damaged guns. When Katrina came they worked on over 400 guns because of her. So that made me feel  good inside.

Now I have to wait on Glock because when I called a message told me they are out for the holiday's. Get to working I guess.

Guns that have been in a fire can lose their heat treating and be dangerous to shoot.

See if Robar will do it.
They do np3 and other coatings

And that may not fail on the first shot.
Or the tenth shot.

It's probably going to cheaper to just replace them. Depending on how hot they got they may not be safe. I certainly wouldn't carry either one until a licensed armored gave me the ok. Sorry about the fire but glad nobody was hurt.

Add them to the insurance claim and replace them would be my advice.

Sounds like they got hot enough to burn off any oil you had on them.

Hot steel rusts something fast when cooled by water.

Anything that became that hot has screwed up heat treat now.

It may be so hard it is actually brittle.

I am going to have to disagree with the majority here.

If 2 polymer framed pistols were exposed to heat sufficient enough to harm the slides, they would not be functional anyway.

If the springs haven't been damaged, (which is an easy check), and the polymer frames are still functional, they should be plenty safe to shoot.

Remember, a century ago Colt and S&W didn't even heat treat their frames.

They didn't hold up as well as modern guns, service life was shorter, but they weren't dangerous to fire.

And then came that newfangled smokeless powder.

No one though twice about forging things either.

Not all plastics "melt."

Many (nylon is one) lose plasticizers used to keep them soft and become hard and brittle.

Thermoset is not the same as thermoplastic.

Bakelite is another thermoset plastic.

I would turn it in to the insurance anyway. One of my closest friends had his house burn to the ground with over $100,000 gun collection in ashes. He tried to salvage some ammo that didn't get burned up and had a 70% misfire rate.

Because it doesn't look like it got too hot doesn't mean it didn't. You can always contact S&W and Glock and ask their opinion, but normally they won't guarantee anything they repair if they know it's been in a fire. They might make for interesting conversation pieces and paperweights while you shoot two new guns covered under your insurance.

OP, if you haven't gotten any help yet, please PM me. I'd like to help you out and see if your guns can be saved with all the labor on us. All you'd have to pay is parts.

I dont know if the polymer is the same but ive seen a hk p2000 that was hidden in an oven buy a guy who forgot to tell his wife i guess. It was a big droopy glob. Other than that it was fine, lol.