Duracoat

[NCIC105]

I'm thinking about taking my old S&W-915 and dura coating it "Desert Sand"...How good does this hold up?


Would it hold up better if you baked it on?

 

[BigSlick]

I have heard that the Ceracote (spelling?) is more durable than the Duracote. I have an old Raven pistol that is all busted up and was wanting to try out coating a gun to see how it would look and hold up.

 

[FlatFrog]

I did my ar build with a coat of air dry cerakote in coyote tan as a base and krylon for camo. Holds up great. Did a shotgun and an old SW Sigma that was stolen out of my car and found 7 years later. Prep is the key. All I had researched while waiting for some parts cerakote is the way to go.

 

[FlatFrog]

If you are going to do barrel or muzzle break on rifle air cure is for high temp applications. That is why I chose to do my whole rifle in air cure/c series. Plus scope and red dot because I'm not putting optics in the oven. Lol. Also have used micro slick on bolt carrier for ar and shotgun.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[Rich78]

I used Duracoat on 2 ARs. One was arctic white and light grey and the other was Flat Dark Earth. I used the spray on type with an air compressor (you don't needs powerful one if all your using it for is painting). I didn't want the bake on because I was doing plastic parts and optics as well. As was stated above prep is the key. I soaked all parts in acetone, brushed, then rinsed in acetone and hung to dry. Be careful with the plastic parts. They can't be left in the acetone bath too long as they will be eaten away. Luckily I spot tested with a piece of junk hand guard before I started! Make sure you don't wait too long before painting as the parts will have no protection and will rust quickly!

 

[Rich78]

The Duracoat has held up perfectly! Even on the gas block and barrel. No signs of wear on the parts with heavy contact/rubbing either.

 

[BluesStringer]

This one isn't mine, but I had the same knife (Becker BK-2) Up-Armored in the exact same pattern maybe 3 years ago, and they use Duracoat. I'm not positive if they bake or not, I think they do, but as far as durability on a gun, I've put my knife through one Randall Adventure Training course over near Fort Payne, AL, and used it on four or five week-long camping trips before I got a malady in my foot that has just made that kind of activity impossible anymore, and there is only one area right in the middle of the blade where batoning (splitting) small logs wore on the coating down to the surface steel. It's certainly not wear-proof, but it is a much tougher coating than what came on that knife, or any other of the hundreds of knives I've bought and sold over the years.

Unfortunately (or not), Up-Armor doesn't do firearms due to the expense and hassle of shipping them back and forth. But it sounds like you want to do it yourself anyway, and I'm just telling you what I know about how well the coating can work.

I would think with the abuse the coating on my knife has stood up to, that the worst wear you might find on a firearm would be after a LOT of holster-wear. There are very minor wear marks from taking my knife in and out its Kydex sheath. You would have to be careful not to foul the mating surfaces of the slide and frame though, as the coating definitely would cause drag on the racking cycle.

It's a great product. If you end up using it (or Ceracoat), it won't count when you tell us about it unless you post some pics of it too. :biggrin:

Blues