The Problem:

A customer purchased a used COLT Gold Cup at a local gunshow. The gun was in generally nice shape but had a small amount of surface rusting on the top of the slide. If you've seen these before you know that Colt builds these slides with fine ribbing going down the length of the slide. The rust had etched into this ribbing on a small patch which was unacceptable to the customer.

Options:

Evaluation of the piece indicated that there were a few options. The customer did not wish to replace the slide for obvious cost reasons. Although it would be possible to re-cut the ribbing it would require obtaining special tooling and the size of the original ribbing could not easily or cheaply be replicated. The last option, which was adopted, was to remove the ribbing and replace it with a smooth, anti-glare surface.

The Work:

To do this job the front and rear sights were removed to allow the entire top surface to be worked. The ribbing was carefully filed down to a smooth flat surface. Great care was required to avoid filing down too much material, especially near the rear sight mounting pin. Once this was complete the sides of the slide were masked off and the top surface was sandblasted to produce a smooth, matte surface per the customers request. The parts were reblued and re-assembled.