The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

So while I am new to this site, I am not new to P-64 ownership. The first one I owned was a practically mint one I got from my brother. The second was one I bought off J&G for 180. Unfortunately, the first two I owned before I had my CCL, and so I ended up eventually selling them. However, I saw that Classic Firearms had them on sale for 220, so I sold my Kahr CM40 and bought one the same night. I paid extra for the "hand-select" option, and picked it up yesterday- a 1968 model with two mags. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the cosmetic quality of this particular model. The same thing happened with the one I bought from J&G- paid extra for hand select, yet received a piece of subpar cosmetic quality. Haven't fired it yet, but I've put it through its paces and everything mechanical seems to be fine.
To make a long story short, I am wanting to get it refinished, and was thinking of getting it cerakoted. For the most part, I've never been terribly interested in cerakote, probably because people seem to use it to make their guns a silly color, but I did a little googling and found some very handsome examples of P-64s that were cerakoted a simple flat or graphite black.
So, has anyone had any experience having a P-64 cerakoted? What are your thoughts and opinions? From the research I've done, it seems that cerakote is supposed to be the pinnacle of durable and hardwearing.
My piece has a lot of...something, I'm not sure if its just missing finish, rust, or pitting, and I was wondering if cerakote would eliminate these issues- I've put a couple pictures of it below.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to the forum.

Have you tried cleaning the finish?

Here are some discussions regarding cerakoting.

search.php?keywords=cerakoted&terms=all ... mit=Search

I gave it a field strip and soak in Hoppe's #9 last night, but I have not taken any steel wool to it yet. I'm a bit nervous that I'll end up stripping off what finish it has if I use steel wool. Might just have to take the plunge since the finish isnt in great shape in the first place.

13thguards wrote:I gave it a field strip and soak in Hoppe's #9 last night, but I have not taken any steel wool to it yet. I'm a bit nervous that I'll end up stripping off what finish it has if I use steel wool. Might just have to take the plunge since the finish isnt in great shape in the first place.

I don't think that you'll need to worry about "stripping" bluing with steel wool.

I would use something like kerosene or another gun cleaning agent first before I went to oil and steel wool.

I bought my P64 when Mach1Arsenal was selling them a couple of years ago. Mine is a matte black finish(not sure what product they used) that looks great and has held up beautifully.

Well there's a place here locally called FTW Coatings that is supposed to do pretty good cerakote work, so I'm planning on taking it by Monday to see what they can do for it. Hopefully there will be cerakote pics to come!

I think hard chrome is the toughest and I just sent a CZ82 to Mahovsky's Metalife. I am considering having my P-64 done this way.

LantanaTX wrote:I think hard chrome is the toughest and I just sent a CZ82 to Mahovsky's Metalife. I am considering having my P-64 done this way.

I'm sure that you'll be happy. Ron does great work.

Looks like they "hand picked" the worst-looking P64 I've ever seen.

snailman153624 wrote:Looks like they "hand picked" the worst-looking P64 I've ever seen.

Usually handpick is the best out of the next 5 or so in the box, pile or whatever so you can imagine what the other 4 looked like.

13thguards wrote:Well there's a place here locally called FTW Coatings that is supposed to do pretty good cerakote work, so I'm planning on taking it by Monday to see what they can do for it. Hopefully there will be cerakote pics to come!

Did you go see them? Have you decided to have it cerakoted?