Gear Review: KG Industries 1911 Coating

This is part two of my review on the KG Coating system. The first part was a custom camouflage job they put together for me. I loved it, but I wanted to see what they could do with something a bit more “beat up.” And boy, did I have just the gun. See below for the “before” pictures . . .

My friend purchased this Kimber Custom II over a year ago with the intent of having a fine range gun, bedside table, and general “I deserve this” pistol. At the time, the LGS wasn’t able to get a model from Kimber with Trijicon sights so he bought a Custom II, ordered a set of sights, and took it back to the LGS for installation. What you see above is the result of months of angry phone calls, online orders, and asshattery. A long, sad story short, the LGS mangled the first set of sights so badly that a second set was ordered. In the process, my friend’s slide was marred as well. With his investment at just a touch shy of a $1000, he was crushed. He rarely shot the pistol, any mention of it sent him spiraling into a depressed state (perhaps I’m being inflammatory).

So when KG offered to coat a beat up pistol for me, I knew just the gun. As you can see, there were dings, scratches, and some surface rust on the barrel. I dropped the gun off and some weeks later, I picked up the following.

Which was all fine and good and wonderful until I noticed this little guy below.

I called my friend and broke the news. It was better, but not great. I offered to let him have it back and spend the weekend thinking about it. At the same time, I emailed Chris at KG to tell him that it wasn’t perfect. He responded immediately to my email and told me to bring it back and they’d fix it no questions asked. My buddy took the gun shooting over the weekend, and brought it back to me on Monday to tell me that he did want to get it recoated. Neither of our schedules allowed us to drive out to Taylor that week so I shipped just the slide. Huge mistake.

A few weeks went by and the slide came back. The imperfections are gone and it looked perfect. The only problem? It didn’t match the receiver. At this point, my friend was on the verge of not talking to me. So the slide and receiver made one more trip to KG, the final coating was done, and I got my friend’s 1911 back.

Prepare for picture overload

I’m happy with the coating as I feel it does a good job of protecting the gun from errant scratches and dings. However, given my experience with KG applying the coating, I’d recommend finding an independent coating shop (KG is happy to make a recommendation) to do the work.

Specifications: KG Coatings Pistol Coating

• Type: 2400 Series Gun Kote
• Turnaround Time: 2 weeks to 6 months
• Contact: 800-348-9558
• Price: Varies
  • Handguns – $150
  • Rifles & Shotguns – $195
  • Rifle Barrel – $85
  • Barreled Actions – $135
  • AR-15 Receivers – $85
  • Additional Colors – $25/color

Ratings (subjective & based on five star maximum)

Durability * * * *

Much like the camo coating on my rifle, this coating is tough as all hell and seems to be impervious to scratches and abrasions from clothing, leather, and Kydex. However, metal on metal seems to wear the coating thin ever so slightly as you can see on the grip safety in the pictures above. Subsequently, I award four stars.