Not that this is practical or cost-effective, but you can easily renew the appearance of an aluminum magazine and it will last about as long as the original finish. The product is Brownell's Teflon/Moly Oven Cure, Dark Parkerizing. The mag just has to be clean with only original or no finish - any dry-film lubricant or paint will have to be removed if you want a really nice job. Take the spring and follwer out and set the base plate aside to be painted black - most any flat black will do or you could use an oven cure for this too. Most of us know how to use a spray paint, but this paint contains a lot more solids than any other. You should have a number of items to paint and plan to use the whole can, or else you have to be diligent in inverting the can and blowing out the pick-up tube and nozzle when done, then pull the nozzle and clean it with lacquer thinner. Try to warm the can and mags in the sun before using. The best time is a warm, dry day with low wind.
Anyway, after drying for a few minutes, pop the items into the oven at 300F for 30 minutes. Cut the oven off and let it cool before opening to ensure a full cure. That's it, all you have to do is reassemble the mag. Somebody gave me three mags - one was okay and already had a Magpul follower. The other two had been painted some kind of very dark brown - I thought it was black at first. One had a yellow magpul follower and the other had an old light green follower. I had to soak them in solvent and use a brass wire brush to get the old paint and tape residue off. Anyway, here is what the mags look like now. At the current price for new G.I.-type mags, there's no way this is cost effective, but I just like doing stuff like this. And, if mags ever go sky-high again, I guess this would be good to know.

Looks fantastic.

Thanks. I like this finish much better than the original. I've also used it on guns, like this Taurus frame. the slide is the same finish but matte black.

Very nice, I still prefer these mags than P-Mags. I like the old school vibe. Nice job.

Today I took my other 24 G.I. mags (most are pre-'94) and installed 'Foliage Green' Magpul followers in them. It looks like I now have 45 30-rd mags and 15 20-rd. In 30s I have G.I., Brownell's tan follower, Lancer L5, Lancer AWM and C Products steel (I know). In 20s I have Colt, C Products and D&H curved.
When changing followers or any time you pull the follower out of the mag, take the time to check that the spring is not deformed where it makes the 90 degree bend to connect to the follower. If the 180 degree bend there is opened up some, the sides of the spring could drag in the magazine - you can bend it to correct. After installing each follower, I always take the ruler and work the follower all the way down and let it go. They sometimes will take a few pumps before they get right. Plus you almost always have to straighten the floor plate after taking it out so I have my small non-marring hammer ready. There's an armorer's trick that you may have noticed - ever see a G.I. mag with a convex floor plate? Armorers use a ball peen hammer and a piece of wood with a trough in it to make that revision, which makes the floor plate stronger so it doesn't give up and dump your ammo when trying to lock-in against a closed bolt.

When you factor in time and materials it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Just saying.

Absolutely right. I was careful to stress that fact in the OP. This is definitely a 'labor of love'. There's no way I could just throw away a good mag body that was simply ugly or the finish was worn off. I had the paint left over from the pistol project and I know how to use it.....a project is born. These mags will be around for many more years and will serve those who get my guns in the future. The Magpul followers are great and make a huge difference - these are a big improvement over the old green followers. Pretty much the only thing left to replace is the springs but I've never worn out a 30 rd AR mag spring. I use 20 rd mags at the range but only load three rounds most of the time.

That looks really good!

I just paint my rifle to make it the ugliest part of my kit and then everything kinda matches.

How about high heat engine primer and paint baked on? I got loads on closeout cheap, cheap, cheap.

Years ago I powder coated a bunch of 20 rd and 30 rd mags od green and flat black. I bought them for $2 each and they looked like crap. Functioned great, but we're ugly as sin.
The powder coat made them look really nice. The urethane base made them really slick also.

I take it a step further and install Magpul Ranger L floorplates, the stainless steel insert isn't going to ever deform.

and that reminded me of a certain mag refinisher from southern Illinois.   fifteen years ago.   (paul3o8)

Many years ago, I refinished a bunch with Perma Slik -G  dry film lubricant.  It is the original finish that is put on them.

I don't miss those days.  Just ordering them from PSA for 7 bucks is much easier.

United States vs Podhorn

Interesting; I didn't know about those base plates, and unfortunately I like them! Looks like I'll be dumping more money into these old mags!

Yep. Back in the day I refinished all of mine with Permasilk.

Now it doesn't make sense to unless you are doing it for the fun of it.

Yes, a lot of us did this back in the old days.
I paid $100 for a garbage bag full of 20 and 30 round GI mags at that time and refinished over 60 mags over period of couple weeks.
I learned you can buy expired Perma Slik -G dry film lubricant from lubricant suppliers for just few bucks and use it to refinish mags.  I also used high-temp BBQ grill spray paint to refinish floor plates.
Every mag looked new when finished.

Just saw those for the first time at a local store just a few days ago. Thinking of getting some for my 6.8 mags to be able to them apart at a glance.

Where can we buy the expired Permanent slick G for a couple bucks ?

Oh my, hadn't heard that name in a long time. The Great Mag Finishing Debacle made for some great reading.

Was this a thread, or?

Alumahyde II works great.  Permasilk comes off if you look at it hard.

Yes the mag issues during the ban sucked.

It is very good. It has an extended cure time but you can use it on materials that you can't bake. The 'Dark Parkerizing' is extremely good. I try to use it in the summertime, putting the painted pieces out in the hot shed for a week or so - that does the trick.