I have a P230SL and a P232 - but have have been looking for a shooter for several years. A member here offered a very nice one but it didn't have the box and I'm anal about boxes. Fast forward to today and a pretty clean one was offered on the local gun trader. The picture was taken with a flash so the slide looks a little shopworn. I haven't done it for years but I should be able to clean the slide flats up pretty well. I have used a large eraser and (I think) Flitz before to polish out slide flats on S&W 2nd Gen stainless autos. It'll be pocket carried, anyway, so I'm not too worried. Worse come to worse - there's a gent over on S&W Forum who can bead-blast it and he does great work. It won't look factory-original afterwards but there won't be any scratches!! What do you think for $390?

Edited to add: I don't claim to be an expert on polishing stainless. Anyone found a better way to polish out those slide flats while still keeping some of the factory grain in the finish??

Looks superb. I've always liked the look of those, but not the magazine release. Don't know enough about whether it is a good price. Have fun shooting it...

I refuse to buy firearms based on looks, but I've always stared longingly at the P230 SL. I simply have no use for a single stack, much less in .380. When they were discontinued the price jumped unreasonably for a few months, but have definitely resumed normalcy now. I finally broke down after decades of holding out and got a police trade in for $375 shipped a few years ago, but it had noticeable wear. Actually, now that I think about it, it would've been $390 after the FFL xfer. So nice score!

The nice thing about the stainless is the easy refinish. Take a jewelers file to any really bad spots first. Have your buddy blast it. Then some very fine grit oiled sand paper, but only go one direction, front to back, and only on the flat sides. The rounding up to the top should stay bead blasted. Do just enough to restore the original finish look...you don't want to remove markings.

As best as I've figured, the original finish was blasted frame, blasted rounded top of slide, and between serrations. Only the slide flats are brushed. No parts are polished to the best of my knowledge. If I'm wrong, don't worry, this is the Internet and someone will answer the "OMG someone is wrong on the Internet" klaxons shortly.

I'd say pretty good deal. I hope you have extra mags and parts. If you plan on shooting it, you might want to get Hogue rubber grips to help with the recoil. Enjoy it.

Congratulations. I have the same West German P230SL with Hogue G10 checkered grips. Picked it up a few years ago from an LEO trade in. To me the prettiest pistol in the Sig Fleet. Conceals great. One of the better point and shoot pistols out there.

Congrats!! I'm not a collector, although I seem to be buying more guns than I can shoot, but that is one I really would love to have. I love the way they look.

quote:

Originally posted by GeoJelly:
I don't claim to be an expert on polishing stainless. Anyone found a better way to polish out those slide flats while still keeping some of the factory grain in the finish??

How deep are the gouges?

M&M Gunsmithing used to be down in Alexandria, VA. Mike cleaned up a S&W Model 640 for me that had scratch on the cylinder. The scratch was very obvious, but you could not fee it. He was able to buff it out.

I can't tell from the picture, but my guess is that the flats have a brushed finish to them and you want to keep that and not make it high polished.

beautiful, that was my first Sig. Sadly sold it. Nice deal. Not really a joy to shoot as I remember. But still a great little gorgeous Sig. Congrats.

That’s a beautiful specimen! I think the 230/232 is about the most beautiful firearm ever made for their flowing lines. I have a 232SL, but I haven’t shot it in a while because of the slide bite I get. But I sure love the way it looks and would never part with it. As I recall mine shoots great, but I have to be careful to keep my fat thumb down out of the way. Enjoy yours!

quote:

Originally posted by SigFan:
That’s a beautiful specimen! I think the 230/232 is about the most beautiful firearm ever made for their flowing lines.

Me too.

I decided to take mine out for a couple pics.

Note I haven't bead blasted yet. I took a file to a couple high points near the muzzle end, and ran the slide flats across a sheet of oiled fine grit (800 I think) sandpaper. It was really just a test before I did blasting. The frame definitely needs a blast.

You can see on the left side towards the muzzle there's a mark, and also one that may not show between the "P230" and "SL" marks. The right side has some wear by the muzzle I hope will be appearance smoothed by blasting.

Anyway, my photography skills are nil, but here's some cell pics I hope don't have too much glare.

Looks a lot better than mine that I bought used and carried for many years. I still think the 230/232 is one of the best looking pistols ever made with all those curves. As compared to Glocks that look more like a kleenex box to me.

I just wish they had made or actually offered the same in 9mm ... I think they were in Europe.... seems like I might have seen one on gun broker a few months back for an outrageous price.

Oh, and mine came with the Hogue grips like above and I really like them on this gun.

Thanks, Gents for the recommendations and comments - and the photos! I hasten to clarify that I have not yet picked it up. I'm going to the (known) sellers office tomorrow. That said, this thread has me worried that he didn't post a picture of the right side! I'm reasonably sure that it doesn't have any marks that BB won't cover up - but blasting it will make it non-original & that bothers me more than it should. Sounds like the solution for the small marks is some 800-ish grit oiled sand or emery paper on a flat surface. I haven't tried that before and we have a glass top on our dining room table plus SWMBO is working tomorrow and won't see it ... . I will post "after" pictures once I have picked it up.

It's not a collector piece, even your thread title says it's a shooter. Don't worry about original finish or not.

If the blemishes are not that bad, use 1000 and/or 1500 grit black oxide automotive type sandpaper will polish the oem factory back to original. Start with 1500 which is the finest. If it doesn't yield what you want, try the 1000, but use the least abrasive first.

Lightly apply in one direction along the length of the slide. Mask off the bead blasted areas to protect them. After the sandpaper application, you can follow up with metal polish. I use only WENOL. A metal polishing trick is to use corn starch on a soft towel to really bring out a scratch free finish.

If the dings are deep, I'd leave it alone. A DIY refinish will never fix gouges that your fingernail catches.

Be very careful you don't lose any springs on that pistol. There was a thread recently that had links to EBAY auctions. Sellers were asking/getting way to much money for a single spring. But they're not readily available, so...

I too love the styling and looks of these, however I can not shoot them without getting the web of my hand sliced up from the slide, and I find the recoil obnoxious due to the blowback design. But they are beautiful little pistols just the same.

More good input - Thanks again, Guys. I picked it up today and I'm pretty happy with the slide. There are a couple of hairline scratches on the left which don't show up in the photo - but nothing to bother my anality. But, there is a rest of the story. The right side - which hurts me so much I couldn't even take a photo - has several 'fingernail' scratches in it. I guess I shoulda known there was a reason it was priced so low ... But, Happy Thoughts, the box is 99%.

Although the frame looks good in the photo, it is marred up quite a bit on the frontstrap and in front of the trigger guard. Plus, and heaven forbid, someone used the decock lever so it is worn shiny there. I decided to call SIG to see if they would BB the frame. Sure enough, they will, and she said she'll ask them to BB one mag. One of the mags I got from the CDNN buy is pretty seriously scratched up. The mags look plated to me so they may hesitate - but it didn't hurt to ask. The CS Rep - Amy was her name I think - was pretty helpful and cut me some slack on shipping so the BB plus RT FedEx was $99.



Edited to add: the slide was surgically clean and lubed when I got it home. Maybe someone has an ultrasonic cleaner. I didn't yet take a picture but the feed ramp shows zero use and the exterior of the barrel looks near new. And, last but not least, it doesn't have the dreaded trigger wiggle (loose trigger pivot pin) that seems to plague some P230's.

Good deal for sure. Put a picture up after it comes back from Sig.

quote:

Originally posted by Warhorse:
I too love the styling and looks of these, however I can not shoot them without getting the web of my hand sliced up from the slide, and I find the recoil obnoxious due to the blowback design. But they are beautiful little pistols just the same.

I quickly learned correct hand placement the first time I shot my P-232. OUCH! Blood thinners did not help either.

A grey Scotchbrite pad, single direction strokes, following the original “grain” will do wonders to renew abrushed stainless finish.