VHT?

B

BOOGIE the oily

New member
Ok, some of you may remember I bought a Bersa Thunder 9 Pro XT with some "cosmetic details", a couple of months ago.
Now, that gun is known to have some trouble with hard primers, and, since I intend to start reloading soon enough, and all I can get in my country are primers that are famous for having that kind of problems, I bought an extra hammer, and been working on it, and, today, I got a can of flat black VHT for it.
Then it occurred to me: being that I never liked the weapon's duotone, could I paint the frame with VHT?

So here are my questions:

1. How durable would VHT be?

And the most important one:

2. Being that the gun's frame is made of 7075 aluminum, would the baking process damage it, or weaken it? VHT has to be baked in 3 steps, 1st, 30 minutes @ 250° F, then another 30 minutes @ 400° F, and finally 30 more minutes @ 600° F, with 30 minute cool down periods in between. Now, all I could find about annealing 7075 says 900° F for 2 hours. Would I be safe doing it?

Thanks in advance. :)
 
Buy some paint intended for firearms. Firearms get exposed to solvents and a lot of handling, something header paint may not do well with. Brownells and Lauer sell bake-on firearms finishes.
 
I can't buy online. Don't have a credit card.
That, and the bureaucracy and extra cost surrounding the international purchase of anything firearms related would make it easier (and cheaper) for me to go and cerakote the thing. And cerakoting a handgun in here is about U$S 135, so it's not an option, for the time being.

So my options are VHT, or leaving the gun as it is. I just want to know how viable an option VHT is.
 
VHT paint cures with the help of the heat. I think your gun is aluminum alloy so it should be fine with the heat. Another option might be to bead blast to get a raw finish.
 
VHT is a ceramic coating. Once cured with the proper application of heat it is as close to a permanent finish as you can get. The curing temperatures will not hurt your guns metal parts but you will want to make sure that only metal parts are heated.
 
You can't anneal aluminum. You can, however melt it.
400 degrees is where you will begin to anneal the heat treating of steel parts. 600 degrees is simply too hot.
If you must use VHT, keep the curing temp under 350 degrees to be safe.
 
I just bought an aluminum flashlight, that came in the most hideous shade of purple I've seen in a while. So it will be my Guinea pig to test the effect of the baking on the aluminum. If the aluminum can take the temperature, I'm doing it.
 
Ok, a little update for those that may be thinking about using VHT on your firearms: don't.
This morning, while I was waiting for the VHT to dry on my gun's frame, it occurred to me to put some silicone furniture spray on a hammer I had worked on, and which I had painted with VHT (and cured as per the instructions), when I started this thread.
ALL THE VHT CAME RIGHT OFF, WITH JUST SOME RUBBING WITH A SOFT CLOTH! :eek:

So be warned: unless there's some trick I don't know about, and that's not in the instructions, VHT is garbage.
 
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