Do you guys dissassemble your magazines before painting? How do you prep before painting?

Thanks

For steel or aluminum, I strip them down and mask off the top 1-2". For aluminum I may or may not use self etching paint. What I have been doing lately is spraying the part of the magazine that sticks down from the lower with Rubberized UnderCoating, it makes the magazine easier to grip. I dont bother painting the top 1-2" of the magazine as it will just get tore up going in and out of the AR and the bolt riding on the top of it.

Hold 'em by the top (part that goes in mag well), drop piece of laundry bag on it, spray, flip over, spray again.

painters tape along the top part and to cover the feed lips. Paint the body tan and then hit a few stencils with green and light tan splotches, quick and easy.

I've recoated dozens of G.I. mags with either a bake-on coating or Alumahyde II (epoxy air-dry, needs about a week to fully harden unless kept in a hot dry place, like a shed in the summer). I use the 'Dark Parkerizing' color either way (Brownell's 'Gun-Kote' products, like Oven Cure Teflon/Moly). Definitely take the mag apart. I coat the whole exterior - there's no need to avoid the feed lips. I usually will do the base plate in black. All you have to do is wash the mag in hot water with a strong solution of dish soap and a toothbrush. Rinse in hot water. Put in oven and cook off any water while the mag pre-heats. Make some kind of stick or wire device that will fit inside the mag and give you a handle for turning it while you paint as well as support the mag while drying. If you use a bake-on, you'll also need a wire bracket to hold it in the oven, keeping the painted surfaces off the rack. Bake-on paint is typically fragile before heating. Here's one I did with the Alumahyde II. I like the 'warmer' color (mag on left) better than the standard anodized finish.

I take them apart, wipe them down with denatured alcohol, and then paint away.  Regular spray paint dries pretty quick, but takes an honest week or so to stop smelling like paint.  No taping things off, or worrying about paint thickness.  Light coat goes on first, then a couple heavier layers until I'm happy.

I don't disassemble my magazines.  I just hold or place a piece of cardboard over the top portion of the mag that gets inserted into the rifle and spray from the cardboard down.  This results in me painting only what is observed/exposed when inserted into the rifle.  I don't paint the entire magazine.

I take my mags apart before painting.  I will hang them with a coat hanger on a wood dowel over the stairs to my basement.

If y'all don't mind an old fart asking a noob question... why the painting? Cosmetic reasons or is there a functional benefit?

I would have to say cosmetic, I spray painted some mags to they can match my painted accessories.

Ahh. More power to you; I was young once too. Had cool fog lights on my 1970 Dodge Dart, and an 8-track player & CB radio too. (Could only afford the 23-channel CB though, not the 40-channel SSB units that the cool guys had...)  

I spray the bottom 2" or so of all my Pmags with a grey AlumaHyde that I got from Brownsville. I do it to all my mags regardless of the base color. It lets me tell my mags from anyone else's at a glance.

I completely disassemble mine.