S&W 686 Trigger Refinishing

[AdventureTeamJoe]

Recently picked up my first wheel gun and am pleased with the look of the stainless 686 with one exception.....the trigger. Any way to clean up the dark, dirty appearance of the trigger?

 

[Magyars]

Fine steel wool and oil is what I use for surface rust/ discoloration.
Dremel?

 

[Jaybird1980]

Depends on which trigger your's has. Is it color case hardened?
Post a pic of it.

 

[AdventureTeamJoe]

Fine steel wool and oil is what I use for surface rust/ discoloration.
Dremel?

Fine steel wool is a good place for me to start. Staying away from a Dremel for now.

 

[AdventureTeamJoe]

Depends on which trigger your's has. Is it color case hardened?
Post a pic of it.

It's a newer 686 so the trigger is MIM.

 

[Jaybird1980]

It's a newer 686 so the trigger is MIM.

You can polish it up, but it will take a quite a bit of work. Get a tub of polish and go to work. The surface hardness is pretty thin on mim, so go easy on contact surfaces.

This is the polish I have on hand.

 

[gregkl]

I polished mine to a very shiny appearance. I used progressively finer sandpaper and then finished it up with Flitz.

But I'm going to go back and round over the edges a little more. It's still a touch sharp.

I may bob the hammer while I'm at it.

Mine is a color case hardened on my 586.

 

[sloughfoot]

Cratex wheel and dremel. Hammer and trigger. 30 plus years experience.

 

[Bosshoss]

You can polish it up, but it will take a quite a bit of work. Get a tub of polish and go to work. The surface hardness is pretty thin on mim, so go easy on contact surfaces.

This is the polish I have on hand.
View attachment 163960

The MIM parts are hardened to approximately same depth as the old forged parts.

 

[Jaybird1980]

The MIM parts are hardened to approximately same depth as the old forged parts.

That's good to hear. I have only polished up a couple MIM parts and one definitely wore faster than it should have. Probably just a bad one from the start then. Probably don't need to worry about it then.

 

[999cs]

Yeah I have one as well and always thought the trigger made it look very used. If you do the recommended steps above and have good results, please post up a pic of how it turned out. Would love to see how it looks. I've also contemplated selling mine as I don't shoot it too often.