If It Don't Exist, Make It

By James Nicholas

I had a customer send me an XDM to make a Grey bi-tone pistol for them. I recommended they keep the small parts black and they took my advice. First it was cheaper. Second the small parts on the frame would continue to match and carry over to the accent parts on the slide. So instead of a bi-tone you end up with a triton pistol that looks great.

To complete the project you will have to 100% disassemble the pistols frame. Then you will need to degrease the frame. What separates me from others though is that I go the extra step and abrasive blast the plastic just like I would any metal part. This gives the plastic some tooth and scuffs it up so the coating adheres to it better and more evenly. You are opening the pores slightly and letting the coat just grab onto and become one with the plastic. Take a close look at the assembled pictures paying attention to the pin holes. Even though you have to drive the pins back into place in the frame, you will not see any chipping of the coating. A second chemical cleaning to remove any other oils and spray her up.

For the coating we used the 1200 series KG Gunkote - 1203F Flat Grey. Notice on the close up picture of the XDM's grip how crisp and defined the letters and edging are even after coating. Too often you see coated pistols were the coating has been applied thick and you loose detail. When refinishing firearms you want to refinish them not REFINISH them. You get a factory look without going overboard.

If you have a project in mind, send us an e-mail and see what we can do for you. This project cost the customer 60.00 to refinish the frame in one color.

XDM 22LR Conversion Kit

By James Nicholas

A couple months ago Advantage arms released their Springfield Armory XD 22LR conversion kit. The 940-4 works with the Classic XD service/tactical models in 9mm, 40SW and 357Sig. Not wanting XDM owners to left out Advantage Arms is now working on developing their next Kit. This new upper would work with the full sized frame XDM's like the 4.5 and 5.25 in 9mm and 40SW. As of yet we do not have a model number for the XDM kit since the prototype shown is a modified 940-4 kit.

Tentative plans include to keep the shape of the new XDM 22LR slide the same as the classic XD 22LR slides. This would mean the prototype picture shown would be an accurate depiction of what the new kit would look. We were told that the XDM kit would not have the dual disassembly lever relief cuts that the prototype has. I was told some advantages of going this route would be to speed up the release date for the XDM kit as well as keeping the cost as low as possible. Since Advantage Arms is already tooled up for this shape slide, the cost is minimal to adjust it for the XDM. Since the XDM is shaped differently is is a much more complicated design to try to replicate and would add significantly to the cost. This is actually evident since Springfield charges several hundred dollars more for an XDM then they do for an XD so it makes sense.

Please remember this is an early prototype that may or may not even be released for full production. But what it does show that Advantage Arms is working on some great future products. I have it from a good source that they are even working on some new magazines that will fit the XD-45ACP so that means you XD 45ACP owners are not going to be left out of 22LR fun. I do not have any timelines for any releases since these products are in development, so please give Advantage Arms time to work on making them a reality.