Nickel Plating Almost All Shot

[SandHill]

I am thinking about bidding on an auction site for a revolver that was originally nickel plated, but only has about 20% left. If I did buy it, I am wondering what I would do with it.

Did a little Googling, and most posters seem to the think varioius chemicals are the best way to take off the plating, but I am wondering what that would do to the rest of the gun.

Toying with the idea of leaving the remaining plating on, and refinishing the rest with Cerakote or something in a chrome color or stainless steel color or something close.

I know the result wil llook like crap and the gun will have no collector value. Just want a shooter that won't be rusting before my eyes.

What would you guys do in this situation?

[hermosabeach]

It depends

What does gun cost?

What does an excellent copy cost?


If it's $300 more for excellent - don't spend more than than $300 on the upgrade project.

[SandHill]

Well, its an auction, so I don't know what it will go for in the end. It is pretty unusual, so hard to say what one in excellent condition would cost.

Sorry to be so coy but don't want more auction competition. I say it is "unusual" rather than "rare" because I don't think there is much collecter interest and I may be able to get it cheap.

I certainly do not want to pay to send it off to someplace to "do it right" and spend hundreds. If i can buy it cheap, play around with it an hopefully get it running and not rusting, I will declare victory.

[highpower]

Do yourself a favor and resist the urge to paint it. Painting an old gun just makes it look awful and while it might be a bit more effort to do a proper re-nickel if it's done right, the results would be far more rewarding.

It is not all that hard to remove old nickel using electrolysis and that is the only proper way to do it. There are several videos on You Tube that detail the process. You will have to completely strip the gun to do it right of course, but you would have to do that anyway even if you decide to paint it.

You use the reverse of the removal process to re-nickel. I have done it and it's really quite easy. Surface prep is the key if you want it to look nice.

I recently bought a German made Sig P220 that had a truly terrible paint job, with orange peel and runs all over. In addition, the paint was slathered on so thick you could barely read the serial number. I stripped it and soaked the parts in lacquer thinner and found that there was a still quite serviceable original finish under the paint.

[pitfighter]

I am in the UK on a job and a very fine and quite rare WW2 knife was available locally,.
It has been nickel plated I got quite excited and examined it, there is literally no other militaria for sale in this county, lol.
As is often the case, it has been so heavily buffed and sanded prior to plating even if I were successful in removing the nickel and re-finished the knife, it would still look terrible.
This nickel process was done on ships I believe in theater, prior to returning home as a way to sparkle up the guns or bring backs, or out of boredom, they are best left nickel plated as historical pieces that represent just that.

Just my two cents

[SandHill]

Do yourself a favor and resist the urge to paint it. Painting an old gun just makes it look awful and while it might be a bit more effort to do a proper re-nickel if it's done right, the results would be far more rewarding.

It is not all that hard to remove old nickel using electrolysis and that is the only proper way to do it. There are several videos on You Tube that detail the process. You will have to completely strip the gun to do it right of course, but you would have to do that anyway even if you decide to paint it.

You use the reverse of the removal process to re-nickel. I have done it and it's really quite easy. Surface prep is the key if you want it to look nice.

I recently bought a German made Sig P220 that had a truly terrible paint job, with orange peel and runs all over. In addition, the paint was slathered on so thick you could barely read the serial number. I stripped it and soaked the parts in lacquer thinner and found that there was a still quite serviceable original finish under the paint.

Interesting. Maybe I will give it a try. I did an electroplating project for science fair when I was in elementary school (I won!) and as you say it wasn't that hard. It would be very cool if this revolver actually came out looking presentable. Thanks!

[hambam105]

Refinishing a pistol is 99% of the time a bad move.

[SandHill]

Refinishing a pistol is 99% of the time a bad move.

So what else would yo udo with a nickel plated revolver with 80% of the nickel gone if you weren't smart enough to run away screaming? Just keep a lot of oil on it?

[hambam105]

Well, yah. I suppose.

The pistol in question isn't disintegrating in front of your eyes is it? Calm down.

[Ora Serrata]

SandHill, good luck on the auction and keep us posted. A couple years ago I ended up winning a piece on auction that sounds very similar. It looks awful so I’d like to see your progress if you get it.