Crap! M&P Rusted- Help and Re-Finishing Opinions Please?

[Jellybean]

So being a dumbass I decided to store my M&P in my super humid basement. Yeah, I know- brilliant idea.

I went to retrieve it about a week later and saw, to my dismay a good bunch of rust all over the slide, rear sight, and slide release button, as well as some on the magazine I had in it.

I was literally walking out the door on vacation with no time to research, so in my spur of the moment "holy crap- do something NOW" freakout, I hit it with some steel wool and oil (apparently this is a bad thing?).
The good news is I got most of it off as it hadn't quite set in yet. And it doesn't seem to have gotten into the internals or barrel.

The bad news is I couldn't get it all off- especially in the serrations. And after leaving it for a week, some of it seems to slowly be coming back. You can also see a little bit in the pictures below where I managed to rub off some of the finish on the right side of the slide's serrations trying to get at the rust in there.

I just read through a couple threads here about this, and apparently, the go-to option here is to holler at S&W.
BUT I absolutely refuse to let them steal my APEX parts!

For anyone who's had to send in parts for rust, can I just send the slide in? Or will I have to send the whole gun?
Yes, I know theres an APEX part in the slide too, but if I can find my originals, I can replace that one part fairly easily before I send it in.

What about sending it straight off to be refinished by Robar or such? Will having a pre-existing condition screw up the new finish? Or not an issue since it will be getting re-finished and probably stripped off anyway?

As far as further prevention goes, what's a good option to stop this from happening again?
Obviously, gun care 101, keep it oiled and such (that being said it was in VERY good shape when I put it away before this happened- I take care of my stuff). Apparently I will be removing it from it's original case ASAP as well.
Would a coating on the slide, and maybe even internals and such help?
Cerakote?
Nickel Boron?
Robar NP3?

I have heard good things about NP3- expensive though.
I've not done much research yet, but I've heard rumors one can DIY a cerakote job? How rust-resistant is Cerakote, VS NP3/NiB?

Some pictures of the carnage:

Magazine:


The spot I rubbed off on the serrations. D'oh!:


Left side serrations and rear sight:


General slide rust marks- there was a LOT more than this originally:


Right side serration detail:


Left side again:

[JBecker 72]

Tooth brush + gun oil of your choice + elbow grease = problem solved.

[Ty_B]

Before you have the gun refinished, you may want to ask yourself if that is necessary for the purpose of the gun. Obviously it would fix the problem, but I for one would not waste the money.

If you think they look nice and that is important to you, then fine, but you're adding nothing to the performance of the gun. The opportunity cost will be several hundred rounds of training ammo.

[mkmckinley]

That's nothing. Definitely not worth a refinish. Just scrub it with a toothbrush and CLP like has been suggested and drive on.

[Curly]

For anyone who's had to send in parts for rust, can I just send the slide in? Or will I have to send the whole gun?
Yes, I know theres an APEX part in the slide too, but if I can find my originals, I can replace that one part fairly easily before I send it in.

My M&P 45 was an older model that started to rust, S&W replaced the slide free of charge. I sent the entire pistol in, but they also issued a call tag and covered all shipping.

Judging from your sights, it looks like a newer model so you may not be able to slip one past S&W since the rusting issues on M&P's were early on. I will say if you send it to them, remove any APEX parts, unless you don't want them back.

[SE Flyer]

Froglube will take that right off and prevent it from coming back.

[Jellybean]

Before you have the gun refinished, you may want to ask yourself if that is necessary for the purpose of the gun. Obviously it would fix the problem, but I for one would not waste the money.

If you think they look nice and that is important to you, then fine, but you're adding nothing to the performance of the gun. The opportunity cost will be several hundred rounds of training ammo.

Well, in all fairness, I wouldn't say it adds "nothing" to the performance of the gun- it would be adding enhanced durability, prevention of rust/corrosion, and in some cases smoother functioning.

Now, would I rather spend the money on ammo? Of course. Besides which, I really don't relish the thought of dumping out money I don't have right now anyway.
However, will I find the money to spend if this gets to annoying to deal with? You bet.

That's nothing. Definitely not worth a refinish. Just scrub it with a toothbrush and CLP like has been suggested and drive on.

I will give it another go again tommorrow.
I don't have any cool stuff like CLP or Froglube- just some cheap Outers gun oil, and Slip 2000- I don't think the Slip will work very well for this?
That being said, the pictures up here are from after the first cleaning about a week ago- it was a good bit worse when I first pulled it out then (although not quite as bad as some previously documented here).

[VIP3R 237]

Ive had similar problems with a Glock and a IWI baby desert eagle. Get yourself some Birchwood Casey Barricade and that will help alleviate your problem. Its a dedicated rust preventative and it works wonders. The Slip 2000 you have isn't bad either.

Froglube will take that right off and prevent it from coming back.

Oh and froglube has been shown to be not very good at rust prevention. https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=103924

[G34]

There's no pragmatic reason to have the weapon refinished. Expect your weapons to rust some time before they're all used up and that you'll wipe it off with some oil and keep shooting.

[Arik]

I had that on my M&P45 2 years ago after a wet weekend of camping. I used some CLP and 0000 steel wool. took 10 seconds and has been rust free ever since.