My lovely wife got me a Beretta (Uberti) Stampede for Christmas a few years back. It's a nice piece, sort of in the New Vaquero vein - safety bar ignition system and all that - but I'd always cringed at the garish look of the "color case hardened" finish on the frame. Case hardened my butt! It was painted on foolishness and it was bloody obvious but hey, it was a gift so I certainly wasn't going to say anything about that nor could I sell/trade off the piece.
It's hard to tell in this shot of the pistol when it was new but the colors were very glossy and rich and just didn't "look right" if you know what I mean:
Fast forward to this past weekend. I got home after a bit of a shoot out with the boys and grabbed my cleaners and started to clean pistols but when it was time to flush before oiling I goofed and grabbed a regular can of "Gun Scrubber" instead of the "Polymer & Finish Safe" variety. Imagine my horror as the entire frame of the Stampede got an instant case of snake-shedding-its'-skin right before my eyes! Egads, it was terrible. I had no choice but to grab a rag, start rubbing, and see what came off.
About half of the varnish or lacquer (or whatever the heck it was) that they'd painted the frame with came off so it was a disaster but what caught my eye was that the parts under the silly high-gloss junk looked great! I got some tools, stripped the gun down all the way to the frame/barrel, coated that puppy good with the same product (no turning back at this point after all), and started wiping and scrubbing until the offending shalaque was all off and on the rags. The end result looked great! A bit washed out and grey but not bad by any means.
Well I could have lived with it as it was but I had an idea that I figured I could test on the area under the grip frame so I grabbed a bottle of cold blue and rubbed a bit on/flushed it off just to see what would happen. As I'd hoped, whatever was left on the frame kept the cold blue from taking hard so it added just enough darkness that It looked great and actually pulled some of the colors back out. Hubba hubba! I wiped down the whole frame, flushed, oiled it up, got it back together and I think it looks much better. It has a soft sheen as if the frame was glass bead blasted or tumbled in media after machining but not buffed at all (which wouldn't surprise me at all frankly given the painted on finish) with some color still visible here and there (some kind of die I suspect).
Krikey that was close! I thought for sure I'd buggered my heater but good but it looks and shoots just great. I suspect it's not going to prove very durable and also I suspect that there isn't much rust protection going on but that's fine because I'll eventually send it off for refinishing some day. Maybe nickel.
At any rate, if you've got one of these be careful what products you use on it! And don't hesitate to strip off that awful glossy junk it came painted up with.
Best,
Oly
It's hard to tell in this shot of the pistol when it was new but the colors were very glossy and rich and just didn't "look right" if you know what I mean:
Fast forward to this past weekend. I got home after a bit of a shoot out with the boys and grabbed my cleaners and started to clean pistols but when it was time to flush before oiling I goofed and grabbed a regular can of "Gun Scrubber" instead of the "Polymer & Finish Safe" variety. Imagine my horror as the entire frame of the Stampede got an instant case of snake-shedding-its'-skin right before my eyes! Egads, it was terrible. I had no choice but to grab a rag, start rubbing, and see what came off.
About half of the varnish or lacquer (or whatever the heck it was) that they'd painted the frame with came off so it was a disaster but what caught my eye was that the parts under the silly high-gloss junk looked great! I got some tools, stripped the gun down all the way to the frame/barrel, coated that puppy good with the same product (no turning back at this point after all), and started wiping and scrubbing until the offending shalaque was all off and on the rags. The end result looked great! A bit washed out and grey but not bad by any means.
Well I could have lived with it as it was but I had an idea that I figured I could test on the area under the grip frame so I grabbed a bottle of cold blue and rubbed a bit on/flushed it off just to see what would happen. As I'd hoped, whatever was left on the frame kept the cold blue from taking hard so it added just enough darkness that It looked great and actually pulled some of the colors back out. Hubba hubba! I wiped down the whole frame, flushed, oiled it up, got it back together and I think it looks much better. It has a soft sheen as if the frame was glass bead blasted or tumbled in media after machining but not buffed at all (which wouldn't surprise me at all frankly given the painted on finish) with some color still visible here and there (some kind of die I suspect).
Krikey that was close! I thought for sure I'd buggered my heater but good but it looks and shoots just great. I suspect it's not going to prove very durable and also I suspect that there isn't much rust protection going on but that's fine because I'll eventually send it off for refinishing some day. Maybe nickel.
At any rate, if you've got one of these be careful what products you use on it! And don't hesitate to strip off that awful glossy junk it came painted up with.
Best,
Oly
