Finishing up an HK33 and the "peanut butter" trick

Just putting the finishing touches on an HK33 build and got down to looking at the plastic furniture. The stock had a well-used look with remnants of white painted rack numbers on both sides and some wear from previous numbers having been sanded off.



I have a build thread going on this gun on weaponsguild and asked what others were doing to restore the plastic back to near original condition. One of the fellows posted that on a Jeep forum they use peanut butter on the black plastic fender flares to restore them so I thought I'd give it a try. First I glass beaded the stock completely with fine beads at 80 psi. That took off the paint and dulled the plastic, but I also got to parkerize the metal hardware on the stock.

Here it is out of the park tank:


I coated all the plastic parts with a layer of peanut butter and put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 190 degrees for 45 minutes. The peanut butter just started bubbling in the thick areas when I took them out. I figured that by using the oven I'd stand a better chance of the PB oil making it into the pores of the plastic.



Here's the stock after it was wiped down:





I forgot to paint the aluminum cocking handle, didn't realize it until after I saw the pic. Took it apart again and shot it with some paint before I left for work:

That is an awesome trick/idea - did you simply rub the baked butter off or wash with a dish soap?

No dish soap. It would have been faster but also would've removed the oil from the pores. I used paper towels and toothpicks for the unbuttering.

that looks really good..

Does it smell like peanut butter after the cleaning?

I'll have to check it out tomorrow when my nose isn't accustomed to it!

I might have to try that tonite. Peanut butter, who would thought?

Someone asked why I didn't just use peanut oil to save the messy cleanup, food for thought... I was told the Jeep fix involved peanut butter, not peanut oil but in retrospect it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

Here's a better photo in the sunlight. The stock was glass beaded but the forearm and pistol grip was not.

So do you think someone with a peanut allergy would react to shooting that?

Food for thought. That shit can kill you in less than 15 minutes.

looks great

neat trick with the PB,wonder if CLP would do the same?

Actually, pretty much any petroleum based oil would probably work. When someone told me the Jeep forum guys were using peanut butter I just had to check it out to see if there was something special about it. I guess now I gotta put a sticker on it that says "Warning! this weapon contains peanut products!"

Interesting. I use kiwi black leather dye to refinish the mouldings on my car; I bet it would work with those stocks too.

Ill have to try his on my green stock set.

Did you take the metal off to park or just dump the whole deal into the tank?

Everything went into the tank. 185~195 degrees isn't enough to hurt anything.

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