Polishing & Re-Painting GBB Metal Slide
 

So I have the Taiwan slide for my USPC, the same one as the ASC website sells. The finish is a bit too glossy and unrealistic for my tastes, and I'd like to sand down the paint and re-do it. My only concern is the trades. I'm a trade whore, and I'm worried if I sand down and re-paint, the trades will be worn away.

Has anyone had any experience with this/will this happen for sure? Thanks

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=17876

In short, no it won't hurt the engravings. There are some good tips in there too.
*Although you have to keep in mind, your paint will be nowhere near as durable as the factory job. It may well rub off and chip just from holstering it, etc.

Are the trades engraved or etched? Big difference. Sanding an etched trade will most likely remove it.

Tuna, how is your slide doing? Any pics?

i've got the taiwanese slide myself, and the markings appear to be etched, or even simply painted on. you'll probably have to get it engraved or re-trademarked, i can barely even tell if it's actually indented in the metal on mine.

Hmm, I was under the impression that taiwan (TW?) slides had good deep engravings (at least, as I gathered from G18C reviews... the USP may be very different).

And on a big thread nabbing note (sorry :D )
Crappy impromptu webcam photo ahoy!
http://i5.pbase.com/o6/88/746088/1/7...cture_0011.jpg

*and it doesn't work... haha, I'm working on it* ...screw it, link edited in...

Yeah, haven't gotten the engravings done yet...

well, it's the plain-jane "KSC" metal slide, which I have presumed to be the "Taiwan" slides? Slap me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression I was under...

Yeah, that's what I thought too... Odd...
Most of the G18C reviews I've read complained about the shallow trades on plastic and commended the deep ones on (KSC/TW/whatever) metal. No idea about the USP though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...t/000_1338.jpg

this is mine, and as you can see, they're hardly engraved (if at all). you might not completely remove them if you sand it down very very very lightly, but beyond that...

Those are etched and painted. I wouldn't attempt to sand that.

I think it all depends on how deep your trades are and how deep you go when you are sanding it down. You don't have to remove much material to get down to the base metal. You cant see the trades well from this pic and I don't have the gun anymore, but when I polished this slide and barrel it was pretty hacked before I got it. You can still see the trades on the barrel even though it was sanded poorly before I got it and I had to sand it some more. Forget stripping with chemicals, just hit it with some wet sandpaper, probably start with a 200 and go up from there until there are no more scratches. If you want a polished look like this gun, hit it with a polishing wheel. Takes no time at all.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/kimhusted/Chromed-glock.gif

VERY nice job man.

Damn thats gorgeous! I actually wanted a duller black/metal finish to make it look more "real" but b.c. the trades look etched I'll probably forgo it, thanks guys.

You can try using gunblue to darken it, but it really depends on the type of metal you are using it on. I've gotten brass to go completely black, some aluminum goes dark black as well, other types of aluminum goes an ugly splotchy brown colour, pot metal can and sometimes does go pitch black as well (cleaned up a scratched TM mag catch last weekend, made it look good as new.) Since it goes into the metal as opposed to just sitting on top, the finish could look better than painting it. It also could not, all you gotta do is try a small area and see what happens.

i use a KSC metal slide kit for my USP.45 when i skirm with it. yeah the trades are etched on, and i just basically engraved them myself using a small flathead screwdriver. going over each word a few times gets you a nice deep engraving and it looks a hella lot nicer than before. I find that the painted/etched on crap tends to go yellow/brown after wear.

... My SR's trades are looking like alien piss. o_O;

Rub over all the lines 90deg with a white Crayola crayon, then use your funger to rub off the excess on the upper surface, it also packs and smooths the surface of your trades making them look like paint that won't yellow.

I'll add this, not all metal slides are milled out of a solid piece of a luminum like this, some are just pot metal (namely G&G crappy slides) that won't polish like this.

Even though I think polished or even just silver Glock slides look like ass I gotta admit that one is nice!

wont the crayon come off eventually? I mean.. it's not like crayon is an adhesive .. Is there any prep involved, or does it just go straight on?

I agree that chrome or silveresque guns only look good if they match your teeth, and I normally wouldn't have done it, but I bought the gun second hand and someone already tried to half ass sand off the slide. I thought I'd giver er a whirl and see how easy it was. I sold it shortly after as it's a hard piece to match with your kit. Sorry to semi jack your thread.

More off topic as it winds on -
On yellowed trades, is there any way to whiten non-engraved and/or etched trades?
(namely, the ones on my TM Mk23 silencer, which are also starting to look like 'alien piss')

Non engraved trades are just paint, if you want to clean them up use mild soap and water. If they are too far gone, you'll probably want to get a detailing brush, a whole bunch of spare time, and touch them back up with some white paint.

Ingraved trades that are dirty as well can be 'cleaned out' with a pin or similar then 're-rubbed' with crayon as metioned.

In places yes, eventually it'll wear off, but just have to reapply it every year or as needed. The reason you rub it with pressure and vigourously is to pack/compress the wax into the trades, as well as rub off the stuff on the surface. I still have full trades on a well worn KSC M11 that are intact (incidentally I used white all over but used red crayon on the FIRE part of the selector.)