I have a Kimber Stainless TLE II and I would like to have it coated with a tough, durable and corrosion resistant finish. Hopefully in black. My questions are:

1: What finish should I look at?

2: How much will it cost?

3: How do they maintain slide to frame tolerances?

I'd go with Cerakote. About 200.

I've had good luck with Springfield's Armory Kote. You can get it black or choose from several other colors.

NP3 is an excellent and very tough finish you might consider. I had my 1911 done and am very pleased. It isn't black, but is a pleasing gray color.

I had my Series 70 Colt Commander hard chromed some 15 years ago. After all those years of hard use, not a mark on it, and no rust.

Yep. I have a Les Baer that's been hard chromed, and it's amazingly tough and corrosion resistant.

Kimber offers a proprietary frinish they call "KimPro". It's tough!

If BLACK is your preference, there's not quite as many options to choose from. Hard-chrome (generically speaking) is probably the best all-around finish, but nobody has come up with a decent application in a "dark" color yet.

The newest ceramic-based coatings seem to provide the best qualities in a "spray-on" finish.

Here's a couple of places you might find helpful:

http://www.apwcogan.com/Greetings.htm

http://www.howardguideservice.com/calendar.html

Melonite and IonBond would be two metal treatments to look at that aren't spray and bake and can have a dark tone.

Man, a good two-tone is hard to beat, IMO....I'm a sucker for it!