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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:09:08 PM EDT
I have been trying to detail my rifle in preperation for refinishing. My biggest problem is that the rifle had been painted with Krylon Khaki spray paint and therefore there is paint in every small little crevice. Well someone suggests to me, drop the parts in Castrol Super Clean (CSC). People who collect models and such do this when they want to strip all the paint off without harming the metal or plastic. So I say okay. I buy a bunch of bottles of this CSC and pour it into a bucket. It actually works awesome on most of the parts. Then I drop my lower receiver into the bucket. I turn away for maybe 3 minutes and happen to glance at the bucket. What I see scares me. The bucket is frothing, churning, and boiling with bubbles rising to the surface. I know something is wrong. Without even putting on my safety gloves I reach into the churning liquid and grab.....slime. Finally it dawns on me that its the lower covered in something. I yank it out and almost drop it at the site. The lower is covered in some kind of goo. I grab a can of brake cleaner and begin spraying at the lower. What emerged is the following. I have included before pictures.
Before the khaki spray paint, it was a very dark matte black color.    After, and no, the sunlight is not washing out the lower color, it is now literally that Colt greyish look and bare anadized alluminum in some spots.     One good thing to add, there is not a speck of Krylon Khaki paint on the lower now. So the CSC did work. I just wanted to add, it had nothing to do with the lower or its quality. It had everything to do with my own screw up. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:15:02 PM EDT
[#1]
Sorry about your lower, it does give it that old worn look though.
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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:20:04 PM EDT
[#2]
The metal still looks good. You should be good to go, I would think.
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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:26:10 PM EDT
[#3]
Looks to me almost like the flat grey finish that is left is the original anodized finish on the receiver. I'd kinda guess from the pattern of bare aluminum showing that someone sanded it before they spray painted it with Krylon and that the bubbling you were seeing from the solvent, and all the goo that came off was the paint.
At any rate, it doesn't really look like any major harm was done to the metal, but you are pretty much going to have to re-finish it from scratch now. I am not sure what is going to work best to cover over what is still there, or strip it off so you can get a uniform coloration in your new finish. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:35:55 PM EDT
[#4]
I'll give ya $40 for it..
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Posted: 7/3/2005 2:57:54 PM EDT
[#5]
Just as a reminder to all readers, Castrol super clean's main ingredient is LYE. yes, drain opener. use on aluminum parts with extreme caution. i used to wash my aluminum car carrier deck with the stuff and it is a very powerful cleaner. The stuff will eat away at sharp machined edges without much effort.
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:05:53 PM EDT
[#6]
welp i guess ya gotta do a dura kote cammo finnish on it now
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:20:01 PM EDT
[#7]
Jeez!
Glad I found this! I tried starting a thread about de-camo'ing and what would/wouldn't work... I guess that's one down... Good luck getting her back into shape! |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:21:13 PM EDT
[#8]
I was thinking the same thing +1 sorry for the lower 
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:21:23 PM EDT
[#9]
It wasnt sanded as I was the one who spray painted it. I had posted a question before, do differnt base colors affect the color of Moly Resin after application. Mainly in regards to two seperately colored upper and lower. It was everyones opinion that it does not. . |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:25:19 PM EDT
[#10]
I do have to say, for the small parts that are not aluminum, like the FCG, A2 rear site, and a few other bits and piece, it worked awesome. A few minutes soaking in the CSC then spray down with brake cleaner and the paint came right off. It also works on quality/hard plastic parts like the pistol grip. For all the other parts that were painted, I used a combination of techniques that seems to have worked really well. Once the whole rifle was refinsihed I was going to do a write up on the process I used from start to finish. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:41:56 PM EDT
[#11]
I would say that you certainly got it clean.
 Don't sweat it, make sure you degrease it one more time before you spray, and when you are done, you will never know it looked like death. Below is a picture of a receiver that looked as bad as yours. Once coated with Norrells, it looks fantastic. 
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Posted: 7/3/2005 3:53:50 PM EDT
[#12]
Dang, that does look good! I think I've just found my finish method of choice! |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 4:02:33 PM EDT
[#13]
+1 I'm gonna give that a try. If I can get the nerve to actually do it! |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 4:07:55 PM EDT
[#14]
Any alkaline subtance will eat away at aluminum, including dish soap if used for to long...
Simple Green will also do that. Have a look at what they say
Common household bar soap has a pH of 9. It will dull up a piece of aluminum quickly. I am curious if you can call the company and find out what the pH of castrol super clean is. You should be careful not to use other chemicals (brake cleaner) to rinse off other chemicals. You could end up with a really bad reaction. Always use cold water. I would give that thing a really good rinsing in cold water to make sure you got all of the solution off. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 4:23:29 PM EDT
[#15]
I used acetone when stripping soem paint off my lowe receiver. works great.
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Posted: 7/3/2005 5:03:37 PM EDT
[#16]
My guess is that you didn't coat it with Duracote. I caught hell trying to remover Duracote from an old ACE stock. Acetone did next to nothing, finally I broke down and had it blasted. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 6:42:57 PM EDT
[#17]
Hell I wouldn't refinish it....
-sc |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:07:10 PM EDT
[#18]
It would be one beat looking rifle. 
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:13:56 PM EDT
[#19]
I'd be interested to see what Norrell's looks like on that... |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:24:48 PM EDT
[#20]
Ever seen a heavily used GI M16? Thats about what they look like. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:26:38 PM EDT
[#21]
Its getting done in NMR next weekend if I can get the stuff before then, I do not know how long they take to ship to Az. I have to order it on Tuesday. Unless someone has a source for some in Az or the Southwest. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:58:25 PM EDT
[#22]
 super cool results though.sorry for your misfortune |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 7:58:47 PM EDT
[#23]
Leave it like it is! It looks like the M4 I have at work...old, busted and trusty. |
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Posted: 7/3/2005 8:05:21 PM EDT
[#24]
Find some sort of matte clear-coat and run it!
(never have to worry about scratching it ever again...)
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Posted: 7/3/2005 8:26:19 PM EDT
[#25]
Looks like it's been in the sandbox since Gulf War 1!
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Posted: 7/3/2005 8:35:50 PM EDT
[#26]
Time For OD paint!!!!
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Posted: 7/3/2005 9:25:03 PM EDT
[#27]
Fixed it for you!! I love it when my rifles look like that! I purchased an SP1 that looked like it went through 8 year in Viet Nam. I was one of my favorites. |
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Posted: 7/4/2005 2:30:35 AM EDT
[#28]
Did the grip threads suffer any damage? I had the aluminum heads on my bike worked on once and when they soaked them in the carbon cleaner it ate a lot of the sparks plug threads out.
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Posted: 7/4/2005 6:24:19 AM EDT
[#29]
When I bought my SPII lower it was covered with paint.
I scratched some off (from under the pistol grip area) and it had like 4 different color layers. I bought that really evil paint stripper from Home Depot and that ate all the paint off and left me with the original Colt gray finish in no time. stripping the paint also reveled all the mistakes the previous owner did while assembling. lots of hammer marks. bare aluminum showing where pins were pounded in. |
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Posted: 7/4/2005 6:51:22 AM EDT
[#30]
Thats one of the first things I thought about. That maybe the aluminum had been eaten away. I test fitted all the parts that didnt need roll pins and they fit fine, just as before. The threads for the grips were not messed up at all. Like I said before, the lower was in the solution for less then 3 minutes, maybe it was even one minute. I think it simply ate away at the finish and dyes and not the actual aluminum. |
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Posted: 7/4/2005 7:43:46 AM EDT
[#31]
You can still see the anodizing. It looks like some of the dye was removed though/ |
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Posted: 7/4/2005 12:43:29 PM EDT
[#32]
If you want to bring it in I will have it refinished free of charge....I'm getting ready to send some lowers out to be anodized and will include the lower in the batch I'm sending.
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Posted: 7/4/2005 3:54:34 PM EDT
[#33]
That's what I was thinking. In college I used to make hydrogen gas (hence the bubbles) with aluminum foil and a sodium hydroxide solution. You're left with a solution of soluble sodium aluminate. |
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Posted: 7/4/2005 4:36:41 PM EDT
[#34]
That's one Hell of a kind gesture right there. |
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Posted: 7/5/2005 6:09:55 AM EDT
[#35]
That would be cool to have it refinished. I would have it bead blasted first...
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Posted: 7/5/2005 9:23:23 AM EDT
[#36]
+1 |
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Posted: 7/5/2005 5:46:07 PM EDT
[#37]
Where are those "how do I make my rifle look used" guys when you need them?
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Posted: 7/5/2005 6:07:46 PM EDT
[#38]
A brand new lower will look like that after a year or two anyway. I say leave it the way it is and buy a new lower so you have an excuse to buy a new upper to go with it.
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Posted: 7/5/2005 6:10:23 PM EDT
[#39]
paintballers use lye to strip anno right off their markers frame
it works in seconds |
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Posted: 7/5/2005 7:47:28 PM EDT
[#40]
did the aluminum pit???
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Posted: 7/5/2005 11:20:39 PM EDT
[#41]
It really doesn't look appreciably worse than some of the M16A2s and GUU-5/P Carbines I have sitting in racks here. Of course, the Air Force converted some really OLD M16s and A1s into A2s....
I have a couple of what began life as Colt Model 01s and 02s here. Grab a can of spray-something and hit it with that! Or else, send it out and have it re-anodized. hug.gif |
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