I am buying a black finish 908. Both the slide and frame have a good amount of nicks, scratches and normal wear that they are in need of a new finish.

To that end would be be better to bead blast it? Would that work to completely take off the old finish? and then have it cerakoted?

I don't know of another way to get it cleaned up. Anything deep would be addressed first as best as possible. I am hoping to make it an EDC once in a while.

My first thought would be to leave it as is and use it if possible. It is never going to be a "valuable collector's item", but has every chance of being a good shooter if in good mechanical shape. If intervention is needed to protect it from deteriorating that is a different matter.

The receiver is aluminum and would have been anodized, which actually penetrates the aluminum just a tiny bit, gives it color and a hardened surface. The slide would be blued carbon steel. I know a lot of people will sand or sand blast the aluminum and spray it with Cerakote and bake it, but the best finishes for aluminum would be anodizing or nickel plating, neither are inexpensive. Given that these were S&W's "cheap" metal receiver pistols, I'd recommend leaving it as-is or go DIY. You can use cold blue on the slide to make it look a little better and Brownell's used to sell a product call Alumi-black, if I recall correctly, that will blacken any exposed aluminum. I see that Birchwood-Casey now sells a solution that will blacken aluminum.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

Refinish your 908 - I would not as that would be a bad investment and the original finish was a matt finish of S&W Value line . Parts can be bought for the 3913 , some as upgrades . so be sure you can buy parts you will need .

You could do a cerakote refinish at home too.

I touched up my slide on my 908 with Birchwood Caseys cold blue. Cleaned it good with alcohol, then followed the instructions. Pretty much went over the whole slide. Turned out pretty good. Left the frame alone.

Rosewood

I will try the aluminum black. I bought some for a 5906TSW rail. It didn't do anything to it. I will work on getting the the dings out and using cold blue on the slide. I think I'm jumping the gun on trying to invest too much into a value line 20 year old pistol.

If you can do it yourself, it is satisfying. Paying someone else to do it would be wasting money unless it had sentimental value.

As for that rail:
It may be that rail isn't pure aluminum?? Also, you have to make sure it is completely clean, no oil etc on it. (you probably did that already)

Also, warming the metal with a hair dryer might help it take the coloring??

Rosewood

Here's what BlueDot37 said about touching up the anodized frame on a value line pistol, his CS40:
"My CS40 had quit a bit of holster wear on the slide's muzzle & dust shield when I got it.

I bought this touch-up paint, Birchwood Super Black (Flat Black) & tried it on the front of the dust cover.

I didn't try it on the slide because it's more of a charcoal color -vs- the dust cover's flat black.

It gave a reasonably good match with the factory's color.

Now we'll see how well it sticks to the metal:-) "

There is a photo of the touch up pen and a photo of the pistol which looks great.

You might read/search here on this forum about what our friend Guzzitaco is doing to these guns.
You might also see what BMCM master pistol smith is doing with these guns.
You must expect that you will never get your money back, but when you have it the way you are proud to carry it, there is nobody who can put a price on that!

Congratulations on the find.
BrianD

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696-6906-457-38-3913-CS40-411

What Brian posted above.

Otherwise, FWIW:
I bought my blued 908 when they first arrived in my part of CA. Long before the stainless version was made. Hardchroming the slide fixed the rusting (I sweat in those hot summers). I’ve never worried about finish wear of the frame. Replacing the unusual sights was expensive then…

It still shoots fine for me, prefers 147gr ammo.

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July 4, 1776 not Jan 30, 1909

Warming the metal always makes cold coloring products work better. The purpose of warming is to evaporate any moisture that is held on the surface of the metal. Once the moisture is gone, you can get 100% contact between the metal and the coloring agent.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA