So I'm kinda tempted to buy a beat up surplus 75 and get it refinished. But I know nothing about any of the processes, costs or what I should expect on the back end.
Remember google is your friend.
you can google for the many and various finishes and look at the process. Google for it. Ask it a question.
you can look for comparisons or reviews of the various finishes too.
as far as the cost, once you figure out on 1 or 2, you can go online again and look for the shops that do that and they may have a general price list. But the prices may just be an "estimate".
worse case you email/call/mail or walk up to the shop and ask for an "estimate". they will probably have questions for you so just be prepared to answer some.
Once you get an idea on what you want to do then you can dive in and get more details if you want. Chances are the shop will want to chat with you anyway and so it will give you an opportunity on any details you may have questions about.
one thing too, they will want to know what, as in parts, you want finished.
This is purely for my own enjoyment, I have no illusions about ever breaking even if I were to try selling it. I'm also no gunsmith, I'd be sending it out for all work.
I would hope that its for you. But you could always do all of it and give the gun to someone like me or anyone on here too. Just saying....
Is there someplace a guy like me can go to learn about what options are out there and where to start?
Again, google is your friend.
there are already people posting on their favorite finish. you can start there.
FWIW, if you have any guns shows in your area, you can also check there. You may find some gunsmiths or shops advertising the various finishes currently HOT or on the market or what they offer. And then you ask some questions about their finish and so forth. you can also pickup a business card and use it as a reference and jot down their estimate to do a CZ 75 for you. that way you can keep things in order. Whats nice about finding vendors at a show is that you can look at their work (quality wise) and see what its all about. You can do the touchy feely thingy and see how it feels in your hands and also the "looks" part if you go "WOW, i have to have that finish".
and again, FWIW, i did what you want to do. I bought 3 used CZ and had them all finished the same since i was going to give 1 to my bro and maybe give another 1 away and to keep 1 for myself.
To me, i just did it to see how the fit/finish is and how well it wears. But i dont get out much to shoot them, so its slow going.
