Polycoat and kydex?

[GTTom]

Have a new CZ 75 Shadow Line Compact Custom coming in. Question. How does the Polycoat finish hold up with a kydex holster? My Compact will be mainly for range and defensive pistol courses. So lots of holster draws.

[M1A4ME]

My CZ75 Compact would go in/out of the holster "kydex" on both sides 2 to 4 times a day.  In less than a year the finish was wearing off the front of the slide on both sides and off the controls.  I reblued the worn areas on the slide stop and safeties and they wore off again in a week or so.

Next step is something more durable, not sure exactly what yet.

[Raven45]

The only thing that I have found that holds up to repeated draws from Kydex holsters is unfinished stainless steel and NP3 or NP3+ finishes from Robar.  The "Tennifer" finish on the older Glock pistols comes close.  Not sure, but I think the durability of the finish of the Glock pistols diminished in the mid-90's on the 3rd Generation pistols. 

I personally think that holster wear on a pistol gives the pistol character, as long aas the pistol isn't beat and dinged up, but just worn.  Tastes vary, though.

[Walt Sherrill]

The "Tennifer" finish on the older Glock pistols comes close.

A lot of folks have complained that the finishes on their newer Glocks don't hold up like the older finishes did -- and that may be true -- but TENIFER isn't what's wearing on the guns.  TENIFER is Glock's proprietary name for a surface hardening treatment (a form of nitro-carburization) that's applied to the metal before they apply that color coating.  Some gun makers use the same basic process and change the forumula a tiny bit, so they can claim theirs is better.  Melontie is another example.  CZ used a similar nitro-carburization process on it's barrels.   

Glock has apparently changed the colored finish, which is applied after the metal is given that case-hardening treatment.  (The Tenifer process was also changed, because the original form caused EPA problems and couldn't be used in the U.S.  I think they've changed in Europe, now, too.  I don't think that change explains the wear on the colored finish.)

For most Polycoat problems, almost any matte black auto-body touch-up paint works quite well.  (Dupli-Color is an exact match.) 

I don't have a polycoated CZ now, but when I did, I'd get a spray can of the matte black paint from an auto parts store, spray a bit on aluminum foil (as a paint holder) and then use a fine brush to apply some of the pain from the aluminum foil to the scatch or chip.  (A small paper cup will work as well -- there's nothing magic about the aluminum foil.)  The spray version (rather than the small touch-up bottles) is thinner, and generally seems to work better for minor problems. You often couldn't tell it has been touched up.   In the case of the original poster, that would probably be a temporary treament, but cold bluing won't really have much effect

[George16]

The kydex ate up the polycoat on my shadow 2 pretty quick. Granted I dryfire 5-6 days a week so the gun goes in and out of my kydex holster multiple times each Dry Fire session.

[GTTom]

OK not what I was hoping to hear not not unexpected either . I have a Safariland kydex holster with a suade liner for my P226 Legion. The Legion finish is not known to be durable but after 10,000rds still looks good. Suspect the suade liner helps. Does anybody make a suade lined kydex holster that will fit the CZ 75 Compact? I didn?t see many options when I looked. I did order the Com-Tac holster.

[George16]

I have a comptac holster. I had problems with the mag release being inadvertently pressed during my draw and cost me some time during a match. When it?s pressed a little bit, it unlatched the mag but doesn?t drop it so I can Fire the first shot but no round goes into the chamber afterwards.

I ordered a new kydex holster from Brendan (Iksyotas from Brian Enos forum) and I used it at last weekends match. It was way better than my old Comptac holster. Draw was more consistent and smoother. Best of all, no more accidental mag release operation.

Here are some pictures. I also posted them in the holster subforum.


Old comptac and new holster. The comptac was single layer while the new one is double layered.




The new holster doesn?t cover the mag release like the comptac does. Since it?s covered on the comptac, that?s when I accidentally pressed the mag release against it during my draw.

[badwrench]

The only reason that I can think of as to why CZ still clings to the polycoat finish is,
A. It's cheap.
B. On the steel framed pistols, as we all know these are cast, from time to time, small imperfections show up on the castings, small pits, inclusions, are probably more common that we know, anyway polycoat being a thick coating can be used to cover up some of these smaller flaws in the castings..I myself have a 99021 that I had the frame, barrel, slide, saftey levers, and slide stop black nitrided..When the polycoat was removed from the frame there were two very small pits just above the rail on the right hand side of the frame. I guess that CZ felt that these were cosmetic (which I agree with) and simply sprayed the polycoat on it, and covered them up.

If CZ wanted to go to another coating or process, then they'll need to be much more critical of what passes and what dose'nt. Or, they could spend a bunch of money and start forging the steel frames, and get rid of the problems entirely..

[Walt Sherrill]

B. On the steel framed pistols, as we all know these are cast, from time to time, small imperfections show up on the castings, small pits, inclusions, are probably more common that we know, anyway polycoat being a thick coating can be used to cover up some of these smaller flaws in the castings..I myself have a 99021 that I had the frame, barrel, slide, saftey levers, and slide stop black nitrided..When the polycoat was removed from the frame there were two very small pits just above the rail on the right hand side of the frame. I guess that CZ felt that these were cosmetic (which I agree with) and simply sprayed the polycoat on it, and covered them up.

How thick is polycoat?  Does anyone know? 

While it may be true that CZ uses polycoat to cover up imperfections,  I would think that if polycoat  was thick enough to cover imperfections, it would  also be thick enough to soften or subtly fill in the required markings on the slide and frame, and that doesn't seem to be the case. 

Imperfections (small pits) just above the rail on one spot might be present on guns that aren't polycoated,  Were the pits still visible when the gun was refinished?    Were there any other imperfections to be seen elsewhere on the slide or frame?

The stainless models seem to very nicely done without a lot of imperfections, too, but I don't know whether they are cast or forged.  (I know that stainless can be cast.)   If they are forged, I would expect them to make that a selling point. 

I wonder if the claim that polycoat is used to cover surface flaws is a fact, or another of the many internet "urban" myths we hear about CZs.

[lagg300]

I have a little bit of wear from my Dara kydex holster.

Here's a picture album showing the wear.

https://imgur.com/a/zRdkHXK

[badwrench]

B. On the steel framed pistols, as we all know these are cast, from time to time, small imperfections show up on the castings, small pits, inclusions, are probably more common that we know, anyway polycoat being a thick coating can be used to cover up some of these smaller flaws in the castings..I myself have a 99021 that I had the frame, barrel, slide, saftey levers, and slide stop black nitrided..When the polycoat was removed from the frame there were two very small pits just above the rail on the right hand side of the frame. I guess that CZ felt that these were cosmetic (which I agree with) and simply sprayed the polycoat on it, and covered them up.

How thick is polycoat?  Does anyone know? 

While it may be true that CZ uses polycoat to cover up imperfections,  I would think that if polycoat  was thick enough to cover imperfections, it would  also be thick enough to soften or subtly fill in the required markings on the slide and frame, and that doesn't seem to be the case. 

Imperfections (small pits) just above the rail on one spot might be present on guns that aren't polycoated,  Were the pits still visible when the gun was refinished?    Were there any other imperfections to be seen elsewhere on the slide or frame?

The stainless models seem to very nicely done without a lot of imperfections, too, but I don't know whether they are cast or forged.  (I know that stainless can be cast.)   If they are forged, I would expect them to make that a selling point. 

I wonder if the claim that polycoat is used to cover surface flaws is a fact, or another of the many internet "urban" myths we hear about CZs.

It's a fact. I own an example, if posting pics wasn't such a PITA, I'd gladly do it..  I'd be willing to email anyone on this board pics of the pits on my pistol if they want to take the time to post them on this board..I'd guess that part of the reason you don't see many stainless pistols is because the frames have to be completly flawless, as they are likely cast. It would'nt make much sense to forge stainless frames, and not steel frames as well. As far as differences on lettering on the slides, I have seen examples that were lighter, and not as crisp as others, now, is that a result of polycoat? I don't know, but, if it's thick enough to fill in small sand pits leftover from casting, I suppose it's possible.

[andrew1220]

Hard chrome is a popular and durable finish.