GunKote

I have a beat up 1997 Kimber Classic that has been shot so much that the parkerizing was gone. The thing would rust if I looked at it. It was just sitting in the safe and I was going to move it on to someone who could use it. I saw an add for GunKote and I thought why not? So I gave it a try.

I followed the directions. Definitely best to degrease, then bake, and then degrease as oil can hide in small places.I sprayed it with a Iwata HP-C airbrush. I found that the Dark Earth Brown wouldn't spray unless it was thinned to about 50/50 with MEK. The Flat Black was very thin and sprayed well. I found that spraying the Slide was difficult because it is very difficult to see the variations in thickness. I removed the tip on the Iwata when spraying the frame and let the airbrush sputter it on. Worked quite well. If I did it again I would've sputtered everything - the finish is better.

One thing I noticed is that MIM parts don't paint as well as parkerized - not sure why. Also, the flat black seems to attract dirt, which I show in the picture.

Here is the result: