ltwguns.com

I am thinking about sending my blued Rock River Arms to Tripp Research for Hard Chrome but am a little concerned about the guns functioning after it is refinished since it is quite tight (tighter then Wilson's but not as tight as baers), it works now 100%. Is there any reason to be concerned?
Thanks in advance!

Hard chrome is a pretty thin finish--thin enough that I doubt any issues would arise. Rest easy.


Be well!

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damian@adcofirearms.com
http://www.adcofirearms.com

Thanks for the info!
I wonder if they hard chrome the feed ramp and internals (sear, disconnector....) too or if it is suggested to do so.

Tod,
If you have your frame hc'd then the feed ramp will get covered. HCing the sear and disconnect is not necessary. Your gun will function fine after plating. You should be happy.

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Heirloom Precision, LLC.
480-804-1911

"If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking."
- General George Patton Jr

Speaking of hard chrome, I got an Email today from Chris Peters at Metaloy, sort of a promotional. I've never used them before but will give them a try next time chrome is called for. Any experiences anyone would like to share?

Thanks for all the info guys! I would be interested too to hear about expiriences with metaloy (results, turn-around time..).

I used Metaloy for an Ed Brown Kobra. I was pleased with the results. It took about 3 weeks, if I remember correctly. At any rate, the time they estimated was the time it took.

The gun functioned perfectly afterwards. I did not notice any changes due to the hard chrome.

Tom

Ned, When Tripp quit plating, I used Metaloy, but this was prior to Chris taking over. I had no complaints with them, they were pretty quick and did a nice job. I talked to Chris just after he took over, and he seemed very anxious to please.

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Don Williams
http://www.theactionworks.com
http://www.ltwguns.com

Thanks Zuma!
I gave metaloy a call and they estimated 2 - 3 weeks, cost is $133 and if you ship the gun dissasembled it costs only $15 return shipping. I like the pictures they have on their homepage - the chrome job looks excellent. My only problem is that I want to have the rear of the slide serrated and the slide stop pin hole beveled and the pin recessed. They don't do any gun smith work but tripp research does. Did anybody send a gun to tripp for gun smith work? Or can somebody suggest a good gun smith in the houston area for the work I want to have done? Thanks

I had read somewhere that Virgil was doing gunsmithing. If that's true, and you can get in, there's no doubt he'll do a great job. I mean, the guy's background in this stuff is tremendous, and although I have yet to meet him personally, I know a sharp mind when I talk to one on the phone. And if I know Virgil he's got something else going on in the background that will surprise us all.

BTW he's got the coolest 1911 T-shirts. They are black Hanes shirts with a 6" white emblem in the middle saying John Moses Browning, 1855-1926, with this across the top:
IIIOIIIOIII
....which is "1911" in binary. An eye-catching shirt even if you have no idea who JMB was.

Thanks for the info! his site says please call for gun smithing services. I guess he is the way to go since all is done in the same house and the turn aound time is pretty fast which is important for me as long as the quality doesn't has to suffer because of it.

BTW; the shirt does sound cool!

I know Tripp did a great job hard chroming the Delta Elite that Ted Yost did for me.

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Sean Smith
"Hey don't worry, I can handle it. I took something. I can see things no one else can see. Why are you dressed like that?" -Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China

Proving once again that good guys DO wear black.........

FWIW, I haven't used Metaloy in years (since Jim Kelley had it), so I can't offer any help there, but Virgil has done my hard chroming for a while and his Cobra Chrome is exemplary.

Cheers, Tim

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CT Brian Custom
'Blending Art With Firepower'

Todesengel.
I've seen a couple of guns locally done by Metaloy recently. Both were as good as I've seen. As a matter of fact, I've got a Kimber TLE I've been working on. As soon as I get the last two parts in, I'm ging to drop iot off at Metaloy and have the frame hc'd.

Thanks for input! I think i'll go with Tripp since he does custom work too.

Virgil does fantastic work.

Here are a few pictures of a custom Caspian he built for me last year. It's built with all good parts and shoots like a dream.

I had a Caspian and Colt 10mm done by Mahovsky's Metalife and they were very friendly to work with, had great turn around times and their price was about the same as everyone else.

If I wasn't an idiot I'd post a photo of the two.

I prefer the look of blue but HC is freakishly durable and I'm really pleased I had it done to these two guns as they see a lot of range time and no longer are showing wear and tear.

Brent

I have used metaloy for two pistols so far, however I used the black tactikote finish on both, not HC. But I can say that their customer service was top-notch and the turnaround time at least in my experience was very fast. For the original poster, the slight gunsmithing work he wants done is listed on metaloys website as available. Highly recommended.

Metalife buggered up one of my guns, and took forever to fix it. The mags they did with the gun had black splotches on them as well. While they did fix the issues, the gun never should have left the shop with them. I would not use them again. I have a custom 1911 done by a local 'smith that needs refinishing and some minor repair work, and it's going to Virgil.

tokarev-

Nice looking blaster you got there! Thanks for sharing.

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Sic Semper Tyrannis

I have nothing but good to say about Metaloy.I sent Chris a PITA job that I should have researched more prior,and he bent over backwards to make it perfect.He was open and willing to teach some stuff to a smith starting out. I was happy and so was my customer.Will I use him again? Yup. Thanks again Chris!

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hand checkering chambers since 1997!

No argument- my negative experience was with Metalife, not Metaloy. I had a BHP done by Metaloy via Cylinder and Slide many years ago, and it was very good work. That was long before the current owner took over, but I hear he does great work as well.

I used Metaloy 4-5 times years ago....... back when Jim Kelly still did the work and I was always happy with the work.

Just my .02

Gary

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Gary Pennington
email........ brewdog57@hotmail.com


I've learned age is a very high price to pay for maturity

Virgil Tripp recently did a little bit of a custom build up on one of my stock, blued Colt Series 70 re-issues.

He flattened the slide top, serrated the slide top, hi-cut & serrated the front strap. Lowered & flared the port. Installed Novak combats. Light dehorning. Trigger job. Polished slide flats. Hard chromed it all. It's an awesome gun... stone reliable, cool looking, and just beautiful. I highly recommend Virgil for both customizing and hard chroming. I'm planning on creating some pics of it soon.

And Virgil's smithing prices are reasonable.