gun polishing

[wind953]

Hey guys. I have an ARMY full metal 1911 MEU and I am planning to polish the outer barrel and hammer. I've seen photos in the galleries of guns polished to a gorgeous chrome-silver finish. How in the world do I do that?

I have no experience in this part and I don't want to end up with a bunch of nasty scratches on the gun. I can't seem to find some kind of a tutorial on this site.

Can someone give me pointers as to what type of sanding paper to buy and what to do after sanding, as well as what to watch out for?


Thanks a bundle!

[wind953]

Anyone?

[kalnaren]

Just clean it. I wouldn't put polish on it. The ones you see in pictures are probably much higher quality pistols with a much higher quality finish.

[TCLP]

Alot of those photos are of pistols that have high end parts like Airsoft Surgeon and Shooters Design. Also good lighting helps make things stand out nicely.

[wind953]

So no sanding or anything?

[Amos]

Your gun will turn a tarnished grey within a week of you polishing it. Your gun isn't made out of any specific metal, It's a mixture of all sorts of different low quality metals.

The polished ones you see are made out of high quality aluminum and steel, metals that can be polished properly.

[SHÖCK]

The ones you see are aluminum or steel and actually chromed from the factory that come that way. Polishing is not something people actually do.

You can sand down a cheap pot metal part, but it will just look like brushed metal and it won't look like chrome.

If you really want to do this, you need to progressively get to finer and finer sandpaper and use plenty of water with wet n' dry sandpaper going from 400 grit all the way to 1200 Grit and higher.