Author Topic: Painting your Gun For Protection  (Read 13628 times)

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Offline Graybeard

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« on: January 23, 2003, 12:36:29 PM »
Once a long time ago back about 1983 or maybe 1984 right after I had bought a new Remington Model 7 I decided I wanted it to be a gun that required little in the way of up keep. So I decided to paint it to prevent rust and glare.

I'm often asked about the procedure I used and in fact just finished writing it up again to answer a question on the Gunsmithing Forum. So while it is fresh on my mind and I have it copied I'm gonna paste it here for all to see and in the future I can just refer folks to here.

Here is what I wrote on the Gunsmithing Forum just a few minutes ago:


I used Rustoleum paint. I took the stock off and bolt out. Stuffed the inside of receiver full of kleenex as I did the end of barrel. Either use modeling clay or masking tape to cover any and all other places you do not want paint to stick. I used acetone to clean and remove all traces of oils and grease.

I then sprayed first using rust colored primer and let it set and dry thoroughly. I then used flat black which was the final finish I wanted. After this was dry to the touch I removed all the kleenex, clay and tape and put it all back together. I think the secret to the success of my project was what I then did next.

I took it to show my best friend Billy Doss (now deceased) what I had done. This was on a HOT summer day and the rifle stayed in the gun rack in my truck with windows closed all day with truck standing in the sun. Got REAL WARM inside and seemed to back the paint on.

That was almost 20 years ago now. The rifle still has about 90%+ coverage of the original paint still on it. The only places some is missing it where the barrel contacted the gun rack in the truck and around the trigger guard and bolt handle, those from wear from use. It has never required any care to the outside and has not a single trace of rust in almost 20 years since the painting job.

It works great and you can use any color or combination of colors you wish. Just be sure to clean all oils and grease from it to include any finger prints. Use Rustoleum as it is designed to prevent rust. Bake it on afterward as I did in the hot vehicle on a hot sunny day and you should have excellent success with it as I have.

GB


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Online JeffG

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2003, 04:56:47 PM »
Recently, I cammo'd my AR15 with auto paint. I cut out "lightning bolts" in some file folders, and used them for spray stencils.  I decided on urban camo, so I alternated between black, white and gray to get the vertical tiger stipe pattern I wanted.  Works great.  It all comes off with automotive brake part cleaner spray.   :D
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Offline rickyp

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2003, 06:13:25 AM »
lets see a picture of the rifle

Online JeffG

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2003, 03:57:55 PM »
Here we go, found another way to post.  The urban camo seems to do well every where, it could use a little more white in the winter.   :D

http://www.anycities.com/user1/irondog54/Ar15%20deck.jpg
http://www.anycities.com/user1/irondog54/Ar15%20snowshoes.jpg
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Online JeffG

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2003, 04:18:23 PM »
Sorry for the above goof-up, I will try something else.  :D   Does any one know why hunting-pictures.com is down?

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Offline Tom W.

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2003, 03:18:15 PM »
I did it with an SKS I bought. Got A Ramline Sporter stock for it, and it just didn't seem right with that shiney bolt. Got a can of Rustoleum barbeque flat black and went to painting.. didn't hurt a thing, and looks a whole lot better!
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Offline Moose in KY

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2003, 07:22:14 AM »
GreyBeard,

Did your Model 7 have a wood stock?

I have a NEF shotgun that I would like to weatherproof.

Thanks
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Offline grendel

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #7 on: April 03, 2003, 01:25:47 PM »
Had to have been about 18 years ago I did the same thing with an new Mauser Mark X in .270.  One extra step I did was to spray paint a coat of Zink Chromate first then the "Flat Primer Black" coat.  Cammo on top has needed touching up from time to time but other then a few scratches, the only place that has worn down to blue is the bolt handle.

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Offline Glanceblamm

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Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2004, 06:16:35 AM »
Saw a used Ruger M77 at a gun show. Had been painted black, wood stock & all.
Know what though? it looked pretty good.

Offline HuntingGuy

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2006, 08:39:30 AM »
Good ideare GB
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Offline Scibaer

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2007, 10:11:42 AM »
Other then heating up the barrel in my truck, how would I bake the paint on my barrel ? .. when i used to paint bow parts in this way, i set the parts in water and boil them, pull them out and they'd dry nearly instantly, wait to let them cool some, and paint, it would bake on that way.. but not to sure about heating my barrel up .. got any ideas for this ? ..
Glenn

Offline Graybeard

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2007, 11:44:23 AM »
Boy this old thread doesn't get brought back up very often and it looks like I missed it the last few times.

Scibaer if your barrel will fit into your oven you could warm it in there to 200 degrees or so. If not you might lay it in the summer sun on a dark surface and it should get hot enough but then the summer sun won't be around for a few more days will it?  ;D

Moose in KY, yes it has the wood stock.

grendel, Zinc Chromate is normally used for aluminum. I guess it wouldn't hurt for use on steel but that's not its normal mission I don't think. I just used the Rustoleum primer instead as it's mission in life is to go on steel and protect it.


Bill aka the Graybeard
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Offline Scibaer

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2007, 11:55:41 AM »
right, so summer sun,lol to my dissappointment.. the oven is not an option, mama would kill me. i may turn up my hot water heater, run the tub and heat the barrel like that.. not the best , but the best i could come up with ... or maybe use 2 heat lamps.. now theres an idea !

Offline montveil

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2007, 05:23:22 AM »
I live in the mountains of NC and we do get snow on and off.
When I want to dampen the black I just run a couple of pieces of masking tape up the sides. It is not white but it does break the siloutte of the black barrel. Actually a little black showing through aids in the break up also.
 It is easily removed whemn the snow clears
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Offline Land_Owner

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #14 on: February 24, 2007, 04:15:28 AM »
Graybeard...While in the service of the USCG, in the early 70's, we used a form of zinc (that I thought was chromate) on all steel surfaces and bulkheads of Uncle Sam's Yacht Club.  We called it Blue Death.  It came in 6 gallon pails with an internal gallon of acid that had to be mixed with the paint before using.  It was almost as thin as solvent, had an unmistakable smell, and would chemically burn you if not removed with mineral spirits in short order from exposed skin.  Another manufacturer provided the "classic" yellow-green colored pre-mixed chromate that is much more identifiable today.  It was all a bear to get off of a bulkhead with a needle gun and wire wheel.   

We also used 55 gallon open drums of the now "dreaded" trichloroethylene.  Stick your arm in, get a bare hand full on your rag, wipe down surfaces prior to painting.  Three years of this, two to three hours per day, half dozen days per month and I don't exhibit cancer, three eyes, or deformed children 30 years after.  Guess some genetics are hardier than others.

...which, while I am thinging about it, makes me remember that historically lab reports came back with zero or 0.00 or None Detected as the result.  Then advancing technology moved the number of places to the right of the decimal point and zero vanished.  We can now detect more and more minute traces of substances in almost everything.  Practically sixteen decimal places worth! 

What to do with that small number?  OSHA does not know.  Make rats eat enough to kill them so we have something to put on the MSDS pages.  Who thought that up?  Make good press on the herbicide and insecticide bottles. 

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Offline rockbilly

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2007, 09:25:29 AM »
A young COP friend is using some type of paint (finish) that is like paint, and very hard after it is put on.  He is glass beading the gun, spraying the finish on, then putting it in an oven and baking it for 30-40 minutes.  The stuff he is using is OD in color, and according to him, last indefinate.  He is on the SWAT Team and uses the gun daily, for training, or actual situations.

Online JeffG

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #16 on: May 21, 2007, 05:45:30 PM »
I have been meaning to fix the photo of my AR, here it is...JeffG
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Offline superjay01

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2007, 10:59:15 AM »
JeffG, nice looking paint job on your AR, makes me think I should try a camo job on one of my guns.
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Offline DDelle338

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #18 on: June 06, 2007, 05:29:22 AM »
  Bought one of those $300. Savages from Wal-Mart. Nice little gun, shoots great! But I hate synthetic stocks. So I decide to paint it up. I bought some of that Krylon plastic paint. Used a kind of tan for the base, then flat black for leaf and stick patterns. Then coated it with a clear satin. While I was doing this I decided to paint all the metal also. I found a paint called “Steel-it” or “Steels-it” or something to that effect. It uses stainless steel powder for the silver pigment in it. After a good cleaning and masking. I used one of the wife’s old combination curling/hair dryer, hung the barrel from the rafters and tied the dryer under the action, blowing up through and around the whole thing, left her cook for a couple of hours before I shot it with the first coat. It left a nice satin stainless steel coating that is very wear resistant.
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Offline 44 Man

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #19 on: October 01, 2007, 08:04:44 AM »
I have done this several times to get the glare off stainless guns or change a scope from silver to black.  I work at a Harley Dealer and one of our distributors offers a paint called PJ Satin Black Case Paint, meant for the aluminum of motorcycle engines.  It is not shiny or flat, but rather a very appealing 'satin' finish.  I bought a little Savage in 22 Mag and after fixing the trigger, I found it was very accurate.  (I'll never knock .22 Mag accuracy again!  This gun would shoot 1" 3 shot groups at 100 yds!  Of course I weighed and sorted the ammo by weight.)  Anyway, I painted Both the stock and barrel and action after spraying it down with carb cleaner.  It worked great!  I also picked up a bull barrel Marlin 60 in .22.  That gun had a synthetic stock and a black anodized receiver.  I decided I didn't like the looks of the blued barrel with everything else black so I painted it also.  I put Simmons 2X7 .22 scopes on both guns.  That Marlin proved to be very accurate also.  It's the only gun I have ever owned that just LOVES CCI stingers!  So that is all I feed it anymore.  I really would like to do the same treatment on my FA83 Stalker but have never gotten up the nerve!  44 Man
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Offline powhs

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #20 on: October 09, 2007, 04:42:56 PM »
I once worked at government gun shop rebuilding M-16's. The aluminum receivers would be discolored at times after a refinish. We would paint them with  cheap flat black paint. And then warm them up for about a hour in a oven set to low heat. I think it was only 200 or so degrees. I tried some semi gloss black on my well worn Browning A5 about ten years ago and it still looks fine still.

Offline Sourdough

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #21 on: October 20, 2007, 10:30:42 AM »
I did the same procedure using gray primer, and a tan paint on two of my Handis.  I also used the paint Rustolium makes that resumbles stone for the stock, then covered it with clear coat. 
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Offline Oscar2287

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #22 on: December 22, 2008, 05:41:10 AM »
I know this is an old post, but since there are a bunch of good ideas already listed I figured I would just add one.  I've attached a link below to Brownells for a product called Gun Kote hat is a bake on finish and requires that you use an oven (300 degrees).  It is designed for metal parts (steel or aluminum) but it might work for wood or synthetic stocks as well.  I’ve only ever used it for metal parts (refinished several handguns and a black powder rifle with it).  It lets you pick from a variety of colors and is very hard once it goes on.  The really nice thing is that it goes on super thin and designed to cover internal parts without interfering with the action.

I used momma’s oven when she was away for a day and "no harm – no foul".  Didn’t leave any evidence at all since you paint it and let it dry before you bake it.  Did make a funny smell in the house, but nothing you couldn't cover up with air fresheners  ;D

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1150&title=GUN-KOTE?%20OVEN%20CURE,%20GUN%20FINISH 
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Offline Badnews Bob

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #23 on: January 16, 2009, 07:55:04 AM »
Pullin up old treads again. As for a baking enviorment what if you made a box your stuuf would fit in  paint the inside black and put a glass lid on it . Set that in the sun for a couple hours and you'd bake anything in it. I know you can heat water hot enuff to scald you that way even in the dead of winter as long as my sun is out. 8)
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Offline bluecow

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #24 on: February 07, 2009, 03:09:07 AM »
a friend gave me an old single barrel shotgun for parts.  ended up putting it together for a shooter.  used  black engine paint.  a coulpe of years letter by mishap all my guns got left in a wet envionment.  the only gun to get no rust was the painted one.  like that rust blue and brown but...
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Offline 44 Man

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #25 on: February 09, 2009, 03:01:58 PM »
I just got back from spending a weekend with my son in Houston.  He had a friend over and he showed me his 3 AR's.  All painted a camoflage with tan/OD/and the 'forest green' paint.  They looked great!  Sorry I did not get pics, didn't think of it at the time.  I know when we head back for Michigan, we are going by there again and he said he would paint my black Bushmaster the same for me.  I can't wait!  44 Man
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Offline drdougrx

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #26 on: February 09, 2009, 03:03:13 PM »
Hey 44,

Do you think that Satin Black Harley paint would work on gloss scopes????
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Online JeffG

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #27 on: March 07, 2009, 06:13:18 AM »
Hey Doug,

I will jump in on that, yes, just clean the scope body with acetone or denatured alcohol.  Fill the scope ends with foam rubber and tape.  That particular paint is duable and looks great!  JeffG
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Offline 44 Man

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #28 on: April 29, 2009, 10:03:37 PM »
And a second 'yes' to that.  I have a favorite Nikon pistol scope that was cheap when I bought it, I think because it was a shiney silver.  It is now 'satin black' and on a hunting gun.  I have done several scopes to black when needed.  I have also removed the black when going on a stainless gun, but that takes a lot longer.  As Jeff said, fill the ends with something soft and put masking tape over them.  I also have some pinstriping tape (you can use any color) that I put on each side of the adjustment ring of a variable scope.  I showed off a bit and also ran some around the gold ring on the scope, just to look a little classy.  When removed, it looked very nice.  I do the same thing to softhen 'glossy' scopes to a nice, stain finish for hunting.  44 Man
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Offline Davemuzz

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Re: Painting your Gun For Protection
« Reply #29 on: August 05, 2009, 05:56:38 AM »
I was going to order some of the more expensive paint from an on-line store so I could camo-paint my barrel, action, & scope (Bushnell) of my Stevens 200 that I just re-barreled in 17 Fireball. I don't want it all nice 'n shiny blue for a keen eyed fox to see.

But, before I ordered the paint I decided to do a search on GB of "paint", and I came across this post. Well, I'm glad I did. The acetone does a great job of removing all gun oil's, and the Rustolium paint sticks to the barrel, scope and action like superglue. I've only got the first base coat of brown on now, and I'm going to put two coats of lighter brown and then tan for the camo finish.

What worked in 2003 (and I'm sure before that) still works today. I'm sure the fox won't notice the less expensive kind of paint.  ;D

Dave