Rust in Slide Serations

[Winner]

:confused:What is the best way to remove rust from the serations of the slide?

[CJB]

What finish?

Stainless? Does rust... Try the age old oily patch, or... if that doesn't work, something soft like BonAmi or SoftScrub which wont degrade the fine blasted finish, but will cut the surface rust. Could be its not rust, but just dried crud too

DLC black... trickier, but I think I'd use the same approach. The light scouring abrasives "should be" ok on the DLC, which is very hard.

Pictures?

[Winner]

It's stainless,I've scraped on it with a plastic pick, let it soak with oil and solvents,rubbed and repeated but there are still some spots.I'm leary of trying sandpaper.

[tv_racin_fan]

What about a stiff toothbrush type gun cleaning brush (toothbrushes work too)?

Next thing would be a brass gun cleaning brush. I really attacked a blued barrel recently... not that I was really worried about the finish but in general it wont hurt it (this thing was really bad). You might want to try some KROIL with the brush as it is a penetrating oil it will get down in that rust. I used hoppes on that barrel and pretty much saved the finish, there are a few spots but it wouldn't have mattered if I tried an ultrasonic cleaner those spots were toast before I touched it.

After you get that rust taken care of really burnish some oil into the steel. I know it is stainless but YOU have found out that stainless isn't truely stainless it can and will rust and some are better than others at resisting that. IF you burnish oil down into the metal it takes much longer for that rust to form.

[Winner]

I'll try that .Thanks for all the replies.

[KMA]

You do not say how bad the rust is. Since the slide is stainless steel the easiest way is to sandblast it and it will be like new again; that would make your life so much easier. But if you do not want to do it you can try other way.

There are two different types of rust, surface rust and pit rust. Surface rust it is not hard to remove and it can be mitigated at the earliest times of detection; you can just brush or wipe it away using for example Flitz, but be aware that surface rust sometimes leaves a stain. The bad news is that once a firearm have gotten surface rust you will have to take more care of it so the rust does not come back after removing it.

Fixing pit rust will take a little more time; you can try to do following. First of all you need to find out how bad it really is.

Strip the slide.
Soak the slide in a container with Rust Buster of WD40 for a couple of days or more if necessary. Make sure that the slide is flooded all the time.
Take a stainless steel brush with soft stainless bristles and brush the rust out of the pits. Since the bristles are soft, if you use the brush in a gentle way they will not scratch the slide.
When most of the rust/all the rust is gone use a fine steel wool to completely remove the rust from the surface.
When the rust is totally gone degrease the slide using a good degreaser.
Heating the slide first, re-oil the slide using Militec-1. Following link explains how to do it, http://www.militec-1.com/applicationinstructions1.html. Instead of shooting the firearm you can heat up the slide in the oven (DO NOT USE THE MICROWAVE!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_yg5eKjA4U/)) or with a heat gun.
Reassemble the slide.
When not carrying the firearm always take it out of the holster. Every day wipe down the firearm with an oil cloth in order to prevent rust.


I have done it in this way and it works very well. Whatever you decide to do I wish you good luck!:)

[muggsy]

You might try 0000 steel wool dipped in Hoppe's bore solvent. A light rub should be all that's necessary.

[jocko]

not to sound cocky or arogant, but ur gonna have tolive with it. stainless has iron in its content and iron can rust. I serioulsy doubt if it will be a piting rust but a discoloration no less. what these guys stated is ur best avenue.

[cesande]

not to sound cocky or arogant, but ur gonna have tolive with it. stainless has iron in its content and iron can rust. I serioulsy doubt if it will be a piting rust but a discoloration no less. what these guys stated is ur best avenue.

Hate to sound like a shill for it ... but.... Gunzilla....

NO I am not with the company... just found a product I really REALLY like...

[KMA]

Hate to sound like a shill for it ... but.... Gunzilla....

NO I am not with the company... just found a product I really REALLY like...

When my MK9 got surface rust I began using Gunzilla because of all good reviews. Not only that it did not remove the rust very well, the rust always came back after just a few days even when the pistol was almost dripping Gunzilla; after a short time the surface rust had turned into pit rust. Almost the same happened to an old revolver, fortunately I quit using Gunzilla before the revolver had gotten pit rust and I started to use Militec-1 and Eezox; the rust never came back. I live in an extremely hot and humid place, and perhaps I was unlucky too, but I do not think Gunzilla is such a good product as many people say.

[CJB]

steel wool on stainless... deposits more soft steel in the pores of the stainless... eventual more rust

tellin' ya... the sink scrubber BonAmi, or SoftScrub...

[tv_racin_fan]

Copper chore boy...

[TennSCN]

@CJB - "deposits more soft steel in the pores of the stainless... eventual more rust"

Yep, I was thinking the same thing all the way down this page. They do make stainless steel wool... - but why? Use the Bon Ami and a toothbrush, it gets those stainless pots clean!

[CJB]

We got a believer...!

And you gotta try and I mean really try to mess up the factory bead blast finish with BonAmi too.

[Winner]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that Bon Ami and see if I can put som pictures up.