Painted Grips And Speed Holsters

[38superman]

While I must admit I have never had any issues with holsters, now suddenly that has changed.

I recently had Jim Shannahan paint a grip for my Edge.

Jim did a beautiful job and I had the grip installed a couple of weeks ago.

Today was my first day shooting the gun from a holster and my new grip went from shiney and new to chewed up in a matter of a few minutes.

My holster is an Ultimate Ghost that I have been using for several years.

Apparently the numerous coats of paint and stippling on the front of the trigger guard was sufficient to make the gun a poor fit for the holster.

The gun didn't want to seat easily into the holster and when it did slip into place it refused to lock up.

The gun dragged badly coming out of the holster and the paint chipped on both sides of the trigger guard.

Once started, it all the paint on the trigger guard began to flake off quickly.

So much for the shiney new grip.

Tony

Edited October 11, 2006 by tlshores

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I don't know about the painted grips but in the car world that is called bad prep work. You may want to call your painter and ask what he thinks happened. I had a car painted one time and the paint came off very easily from stone chips(race car). I asked the painter what happened and he said they got oil and water in the paint mix from there compressor and added a fish eye additive to try to fix the problem. Needless to say he had to repaint a couple of cars. Hope this helps. Thanks Eric

[Yar1180]

You can also modify the holster to better fit the gun. There is a locking tab on the inside of the holster that can be profiled a bit. On my ghost I sanded it down with a nail file and changed the angle a bit. Much smoother.

[rwmagnus]

My expierence with painted grips is they are slippery and there isn't an easy way to keep paint on the trigger guard since most speed rigs grip the gun there. They look way cool however.

I'd like to know if there is a way to get paint to stay on the trigger guard.

[timamal]

all my grips are painted.. Must put on primer

[38superman]

My grips were painted by Jim Shannahan at Advanced Performance Shooting.

Jim does a great job and I don't believe my problem has anything to do with the quality of the paint process.

He uses automotive grade paint and puts on several coats of paint and clearcoat.

He also modifies the profile of the trigger guard and textures the surface of the grip.

After taking another look, it appears that the problem is that the factory STI trigger guard is a very tight fit inside the frame of the holster.

When adding four or five coats of paint the build-up makes the trigger guard too big to fit in the slot.

Force it in and out a few times as I did and you destroy the paint job.

Once I sanded the paint off each side of the trigger guard the problem was solved.

Since the color scheme I chose was black on top that fades to grey at the bottom.

I could have saved myself some grief if I just had Jim paint the grip only and leave the trigger guard black.

If any of you guys are using painted grips in a Ghost or other speed holster I would be curious to know how it went for you.

Tony

Edited October 16, 2006 by tlshores

[deltafred]

i wonder why would your painter guy use Auto paint when there is "GUN" paint out there that does a superb job. i personally use Duracoat and it seems to do the job, havent had any problems yet.

i know people that use Norells and they swear by it. wierd, sorry you had the problem though.

[Rocket35]

I just recieved my painted grip today! Looks great, but does seem kinda slippery and am concerned now with the problems mentioned here.

[mike_pinto]

i wonder why would your painter guy use Auto paint when there is "GUN" paint out there that does a superb job. i personally use Duracoat and it seems to do the job, havent had any problems yet.

i know people that use Norells and they swear by it. wierd, sorry you had the problem though.

I think because the STI's are plastic!!?? "Gun" paint is usually baked on or uses some sort of heat to mend it. If he did that, he would have a ball of plastic formerly known as an STI.

[uscbigdawg]

Okay. I've got 3 grips from Jim and here's the deal (especially for Ghost Holsters as it's what I use).

The Ghost Holster, dimensionally is close to the dimensions of the triggerguard. Makes sense since it's what the holster is grabbing on to. The less lateral play the better. When you add paint, primer, whatever, IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER, that dimension just got bigger and the allowable space that you had available, just got smaller.

So, you have to choices, you can either thin down the trigger guard (it's what I do as it's the easiest) or just thin out the inside of the Ghost. Either one will fix the problem.

Rich

[deltafred]

i wonder why would your painter guy use Auto paint when there is "GUN" paint out there that does a superb job. i personally use Duracoat and it seems to do the job, havent had any problems yet.

i know people that use Norells and they swear by it. wierd, sorry you had the problem though.

I think because the STI's are plastic!!?? "Gun" paint is usually baked on or uses some sort of heat to mend it. If he did that, he would have a ball of plastic formerly known as an STI.

thanks for the info, but Duracoat requires no baking. i did however use the warm sun to heat my XD before each coat.

anyways, i hope you get it worked out.