I'm refinishing my wasr, which just has a parked finish. Want to get some good paint on it for a better moisture barrier.

Then I will take it down completely. All moving parts out.

Degreasing... I'm planning on doing a thorough cleaning and then soaking in mineral spirits to get out any oil left in any nooks and crannies.

Painting, tape off bore, then spray nice light coats, with drying in between, until all the metal is covered. My biggest concern is building up too much in paint in an area that may impede function, what do I need to do or avoid here?

Then let dry, bake if needed, then reassemble.

Trying to decide between engine enamel or the appliance paint, I have heard that both are very durable.

Am I missing anything important here or doing anything wrong that I need to know about?

Thanks, Hodges

Your mineral spirits may get a lot of the grease & oil off the metal parts but could leave a oil based film on the metal parts. You should clean with denatured alcohol or acetone to remove all oil from the metal surface before painting.
http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/engineenamel/
I use the VHT engine enamel on my AK builds. The only thing I would suggest is to tape off the top of the top rails when painting. I had one gun that got real tight after painting it was stiff when charging but it worked OK & loosened up after a few hundred rounds.

Definitely stay away from mineral spirits for degrease. Use acetone as suggested. Buy in bulk.


I typically degrease, blast, degrease, hit with a heat gun, one more soak in the acetone, then once that's dry a manganese park, and then either leave as is and oil liberally, or it goes to the spray finish depending. My bfpu and kp guns just get a park. The nice ones (polish uf, aks74, krinks, etc.) get molyresin or cerakote.

well... I already did it, and it sounds like I f'ed up. I did rub it down with alcohol rags after I soaked in min. spirits... so hopefully its not too screwed up.

at least its parked underneath