Colt Goldcup - refinish or not?

T

Tankist

New member
Just wondering if anyone here has used and can give some opinions on Colt's refinishing services. I have a series 80 Colt Goldcup stainless. Its in pretty good shape except for some wear mostly around the sand blasted areas at the front and top of the slide. I've also had a persistent issue with front and rear sights wondering a bit from time to time. I've spoke with Colt customer reps and they offered to refinish the slide for $70 + shipping or entire pistol for $175 + shipping.

Couple of questions. Does it make any sense to refinish slide only? Will there be a noticeable contrast between the newly sandblasted areas on the slide and the original sandblasted areas on the frame? Would it be ok if I strip the slide completely? I have a number of high end aftermarket components in there that I would prefer not to "get lost". I know they like to test fire guns before sending them back.

I have not mailed any firearms related material in quite some time. Am I correct in assuming that mailing slide only via Fedex/UPS would be relatively painless when compared to mailing the entire pistol? Any pointers on the shipping?

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Colt bluing will "probably" look the same, but NO guarantee unless they do the other parts too.

Shipping the slide is easy and cheap, since it's just a part, NOT a gun.

Unless the bluing looks pretty bad, you'll take a big hit on value if you have it re-blued, although the hit will less if Colt does the work.
Personally, due to the value of older Gold Cups, I'd be very hesitant to re-finish.
 
Personally, I would not pay much attention to a few rubbed areas on a stainless steel gun. I would be more concerned about the wondering (wandering?) sights. Where do they wander off to?

You have one thing right, do not let the factory get hold of any aftermarket or modified parts. I do not know about Colt, but Ruger will steal anything that has been changed. If you want to send in the slide, strip it down so they don't see anything but the finish wear and the sights.
 
Oops, missed the "Stainless" part.

Colt could easily refurbish your stainless Gold Cup slide to look like new.
Price would likely be very reasonable, and turn around will be about 3 weeks.

If you're having problems with the sights, they can fix that too, since the sight would probably need to be removed anyway.
 
Sights seem to move left-right just a tad.

I've take a closer look at the sand blasted areas and they are rather beat up. It would probably make much more sense to refinish the entire pistol.

I wonder... is there any way to spot repair sand blasted finish?
 
About the only way to spot a bad bead blast job is to look for blasting "over the line" into areas that shouldn't be blasted, and for a non-uniform texture.

The "over the line" means that the blasting was allowed to go over onto the side flats that should be polished.
If you look at your Gold Cup, you'll see that there's a VERY distinct "line" between the bead blasted areas and the polished side flats of the slide.

A non-uniform job will show some areas that have a different look to them. One area will look rougher or smoother than another, and the difference will be noticeable.

If you have Colt do the job, there'll be NONE of that, the job will be good and there'll be no way to tell it was re-done.
 
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