Painting stainless steel???

[jpshaw]

Need opinions on spray painting a stainless steel rifle.  Yes, I'm talking about the Krylon rattle can in flat black and I know it will chip or wear off fairly quickly but I want to know how long it would last.  It's a cheap .22 so I'm not worried about it too much.  I hate bright shiny rifles.

[Nobade]

I don't think the material it's made of matters a bit. The prep is everything - make it super clean and degreased and the paint job will be as good as it's going to get.

If you have a way to bake it after painting (and not in the kitchen oven!) the paint will get way harder.

[mechanic]

On stainless metal that I use at work, I do a white vinegar wash...this preps the surface...don't ask me why it's just what I was shown many years ago...
 
Ben

[jpshaw]

Thanks for the replys guys.  I do remember the vinegar wash for galvanized metal so I quess it preps stainless also.

[Mikey]

JP:  here's one for you.  I believe you can bead blast and then blue stainless steel and get a matt finish as a result.  I had Smith and Wesson rebarrel a blue steel Model 29 with a 4" stainless Mountain Gun barrel - smoothed stainless steel.  To match the finishes, the Custom Shop bead blasted the entire piece and then blued it, resulting in a totally functional and really good looking matt finished field piece.  You might be able to do the same or get a similar result.  Vinegar is a acid and works on steel.  Vinegar is a light acid that works slowly (much more slowly than something like Sulphuric or Hydrocloric acid) and should be able to prep your rifle for either paint or bluing.
As for paint - I have used wheel rim paint before and it really works well.  I am not talking about the Krylon stuff with a krinkle finish, although I am certain you can find that in a wheel rim paint.  The stuff I have used goes on evenly and gives you complete coverage and you can still read the stamped letters and numbers on the rim, which are similar to stampings and numbers on firearms.  The nice thing about wheel rim paint is that it will protect against salts and other corrosives - heck, the stuff stands up to neu yawk winters and all the crud they lay on the roads in the name of vehicle safety, liability and higher restoration and rust repair costs.  Good luck.  HTH.

[Bugflipper]

I did a stainless 10-22 about 5 or 6 years ago. I think it was krylon brand. It was the ultra flat camo spray paint. Painted the whole thing brown and added green and black. It is coming off a little on the grip of the rubber coated stock. The stainless is still covered. In a worst case it would need touched up every so often. The paint stinks to high heaven though. I mixed up baking soda and water after about 4 months and squirted it down several times allowing to dry in between. It finally quit stinking. I put it in the oven at 250 then sprayed it while hot. The paint was dry to the touch in seconds. So guessing it bonded better that way.


BTW I just stripped paint from an hk 91 a week or so ago. Wasn't hard to do and didn't mess up anything. It was done at the same time and had no wear to the paint. Just thinking of getting rid of it. So it's only semi-permanent to spray can one if it is all metal and plastic. I imagine the stripper would eat the varnish off of a wood stock and that would have to be redone to make like factory. I think the hk has a fiberglass forend and plastic grip and butt stock. Finish was parkerized matte black under the camo.

[swifty22]

JP- Painted lots of them, barrel's, actions, scopes, stocks ect. I use hardeware store flat colors, bow paints, ect, but Brownell's sells several colors of gun paints. Was at a gun show a month ago and a guy had a Melvin Forbes NULA rifle (he wanted 3 grand) and the factory paint job on the stock was the same as my old 700 Rem 7 mag, used Cedar bows for a stencil !-Muddy 

[tacklebury]

I used camoflage duct tape to do my .22 years ago.  It's been on there for 25 years and just starting to peel.