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I've been wanting a Browning Hi Power lately. There is an abundance of them on gunbroker ranging from Rough imported surplus pistols to Nighthawks. If you bought one of these 400.00 surplus pistols and had the means to clean the old finish off, would cerakote cover the pitting.
What would you guys recommend to refinish with that can be done at home, or would I be better off just paying more from the start and leave refinishing to those that have a sentimental attachment to a gun?

Very few of the surplus guns have the features I want anyways, like the ambidextrous safety, wood grips, and I think some of the 80's and newer models have better sights.

Any thoughts appreciated, Lonnie.

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Just buy a MKIII, they have the ambi and the good sights to start with. No finish that I'm aware of will cover pits and depending on their depth it may take a lot of polishing to get rid of them, at which point you're likely to be removing lettering and making a bigger mess.

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takes alittle more work to get rid of pits but it can be done. I surface plate over the pits and then refinish

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I bought this well worn Hi Power off Gunbroker a few months ago, rust blued it over a weekend. My first time rust bluing and it was pretty easy-
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

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That came out nice. I guess the moral of the story is to pass on the pistols with pitting and go for those with worn finishes only. How did you prep the surface?


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Used naval jelly to remove what little finish was left then sanded with 320 grit

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Originally Posted by bt8897
[Linked Image]


That looks great. I've got a CZ-85 that looks a lot like that "before" picture. It's probably my favorite semi-auto and I may give rust bluing a try on it.

Thanks for sharing.

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If it's too pitted to sand them all the way out, you could parkerize it. You have to sand blast it prior to parking anyway so it will disguise small to medium pits.

I parked this H&R specifically for that reason. If you look close you can see the bigger pits that were there but most of them went away.
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


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Unless it is for the love of projects, I would recommend finding a reasonably priced High Power that does not need refinishing. Once you spray on Cerrakote, a $400 fixer upper becomes a $300 pistol. I have seen some $600 High Powers that are pretty nice.


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