I need to refinish the target slide on my pistol, this picture is what the model looks like, but is not my actual piece (A slight tinge of blue exists).  A few years back I moved out and had a roomate take care of this little boy, when I got it back there was an awful lot of rust on the slide (lesson learned) I'd like to refinish it myself but am unsure about color variations.  If I reblue it, I may very well have an extreme mismatch with the rest of the pistol.  So in that respect I am unsure, though, I have complete confidence in the actual process of rebluing.
http://www.vzavenue.net/~mrequivocal/pistol/g3282smo1.jpg

I'd really appreciate your guys' input, thank you in advance!

If you cold-blue it, you very likely will get some variations.  But most hot-blues will actually be black if done properly.  Since the rest of the gun is aluminum and probably either anodized or painted black, I don't think you have much to worry about.

The key to controlling the tint of a hot blue job is metal preparation.  A very polished surface will appear more blue, while a matte surface will look black.   If you want more information on an easy hot blue process that can be done with household chemicals, visit my site at www.geocities.com/kemays.  

Then again you could just paint it with any of the various gun coatings, or simply use very high temp BBQ grill spray paint.

Ken Mays
Moderator, Cleaning & Maintenance Forum

What kinds of coatings/paints?

Quoted:What kinds of coatings/paints?

Brownell's sells several kinds: baking lacquer, teflon-moly, GunKote, Aluma-Hyde.  Or you can send the slide off to Mac's at www.shootiniron.com. He refinishes with GunKote at a reasonable price.

Generally all you need to do it yourself is an oven.

Quoted:Ken. Have you ever used Gun Kote? I'm getting a fixed sight slide for my hi-power and was thinking about finishing it in gun-kote for a two tone affect. I also have a .22 rifle that needs to be redone.

No, I haven't personally used it.  A friend had his Kimber frame done by Mac's and it looked great.  The thing about GunKote is that the part must be abrasive-blasted for the coating to properly adhere (or so claims Brownell's.)  You can buy the stuff in bulk at www.kgcoatings.com.  Or Mac's will do it for $30 or so.

I have used the teflon-moly finish with success, and I like it.  I would prefer to be able to thin it out since it tends to clog my airbrush, but it works well once you get it on the gun.

I used Aluma-Hyde II on a steel frame and I can tell you it isn't worth a f*ck.  It went on nice and pretty but took 1 week to cure and has roughly the abrasion resistance of Krylon.  It would probably be better used on plastic or aluminum.

Brownell's used to sell John Norrell's moly resin finish but for some reason they don't anymore (guess they realized it was a competitor to their teflon-moly paint.)  I bought a couple pints directly from Norrell, it comes in several colors.  I like it because you can buy it in bulk instead of depending on the lame aerosol cans.  It can be thinned and cleaned up with MEK, and some claim that the military is currently using it to refinish their AR-15's.  Haven't used it yet (waiting on a good project) but have heard good things about it.