So, I got a wild hair a couple weeks ago and thought, those nickel plated revolvers always look cool. My Colt Stainless Steel 1911 is kind of shiny, but not full gloss, so why not polish it up and see how it looks? From a tactical perspective this is a really bad idea, but it is sort of shiny already and it is sort of a range/safe queen, so why not?
I stripped it down to bare lower and upper and started polishing the already partial gloss stainless steel sections. The critical grip sections are still textured for functionality.
That’s the fun part of photography (I’m absolutely not a photographer!)
Getting that perfect shot, especially for an amateur is tough!
This shot is less about profiling the gun, more about profiling the reflection off of the gun….
So stand it up somehow (rod through the trigger guard?) and have a high contrast background reflecting off of the polished surface…. Even if you have to take the shot from an off angle that doesn’t fully display the weapon.
The lettering is all filled in black on the other side. I honestly don’t have an idea how to fill in the “Delta Elite” lettering. Would love to have some guidance
You can use nail polish. I’d do the letters black and the Delta symbol red. Just dab the letters with a toothpick tip lightly immersed into the polish until the depression is filled. Them run a rubber squeegee or something similar over the lettering while still wet. Let it dry and clean up any excess later with nail polish remover/acetone. If you screw up the nail polish will clean up with acetone and a q-tip and you can try again. It’s really easy.
BTW those flexible rubber spatulas the wife keeps in the kitchen work well as little squeegees. When she asks where it is just tell her you have no idea where it went. They’re cheap at Walmart
You may not remember, but it’s partially your fault I have this gunn Just like you helped push me over the edge on the S&W 686-6, but that’s another story …
Oh if you decide on two colors don’t do them together. They’ll run into each other. Do one and let it dry and clean up completely then do the second color. And don’t wipe the squeegee horizontal to the slide. Go from top to bottom of slide. Best way to a clean wipe.
Finding the right color is tricky, unless you stick to black, white or red.
FYI, I would stay away from GEL nail polish which requires a nail polish lamp for curing.
Good old fast drying nail polish works great. Gel seems to be the latest fad!
I don’t know if the firearm has any collector interest, but if it does, you have just greatly decreased collector interest in the firearm. Had a customer come to me with a sad tale about an antique lamp. He had received a handsome offer for the lamp and decided to polish the lamp to increase the value. He not only did not increase the value, the purported buyer refused the transaction telling the owner he had ruined the value of the lamp by polishing it. I have heard of cases which had similar results when the owner “improved” the looks of the piece to have collectors reject the firearm because part of the value was the patina of age associated with the firearm.
I actually thought about that, but decided to proceed forward despite whether value increased or decreased. This will never be sold by me.
At the time I bought this I had never shot a 10mm. I was going into open heart surgery at that time and just got it probably as a distraction from possibility dying very soon. I had 6 bypasses and am still here 3 years later. Since I enjoy working on stuff this has been a fun project for me.
Edit: This is one I worked on earlier this year I did respect the potential collector interest in:
