I bought some Molly Resin a while ago to finish a AR15 but haven't gotten around to it yet.  After reading the instructions the other day, they state you should sandblast the parts before finish.

I have searched but found nothing regarding my question with AK's

My question is  . . .

Does/should an AK parts kit have to be sandblasted before application of Molly Resin?

I am not looking for a museum quality piece, but don't want the finish to flake off either.

Thanks

I don't know, but I would go ahead and sandblast it just to be safe.  Most AK's are blued or enamelled and I don't know if moly-resin adheres to those finishes.  

Sandblast and then park works best.  As a minimum, use a phosphoric acid treatment like Jasco Prime and Prep to etch the surface.

The Jasco stuff looks interesting. . . .

I don't have a sand blaster, and don't really want to buy one (as I have already spent WAY more dinero building these AK's than I planned for) and can only think of one place that might have one I could use (but I don't know how wild the Auto Hobby Shop personal would be if I brought a bunch of mostly assembled AK47 in there, not to mention SF at the gate).

There is definitely nothing cheap or easy about building these!

Yes, you should definitely sandblast.

I am trying to do this on the cheap for two reasons:  I have already spent way too much dinero building these and secondly I just don't have any more room in the garage for a blast cabinet.

Would something like this from HF work?



What type of media should be used?  And what is it's enviromental impact?  

I am not a hippie tree hugger but sice I will have to do this outside (if the above is used) I don't want a big brown spot in my nice green lawn this summer either.

the guys at the offutt auto skills have had no issues with me blasting and even using the press (before i got my own) to demill and build.

just don't bring in all the parts to complete a rifle and you'll be fine--i.e., leave the bolts, fire control groups, furniture, mags, etc. at home.  bring in only the items to which you'll be applying the molyresin and you shouldn't have any problems.

i wouldn't trust in the judgement of some security forces personnel--i had to contact the armory to ask their opinion on bringing in a rifle i was building for a friend who lived in the dorms.  he had decided to store it in the armory (at least at that point he had) and i asked if they would be okay with me bringing in the bare, serialized Global Trades receiver for them to fill out the paperwork with, or if they wanted to wait until it was completely built then bring it in.  I guess i figured they'd be happy to have me bring in something that couldn't possibly be dangerous in and of itself (bare receiver), and therefore it would be safer for everyone in the building right?

well, apparently according to the guy at the armory AND his first sergeant, building your own semi-auto AK is against federal law.  

I had the local Agent In Charge of the omaha field office (ATF) come on base and explain to them, with copies of the sections from U.S. code highlighted and even a couple of diagrams and pictures, how what i was doing was well within the scope of "legal" under federal regulations.

It felt great to serve those cocky bastards like I did.  Fortunately it's been my experience around here that they were exceptions to the norm as far as our SFS goes.

So anyway....yeah. I'll stop rambling.  Use your hobby shop.  Just be smart about what parts you bring with you, and bring them disassembled and ready for the blaster.  

I blast the receiver with silica using a $20 HF sand blaster before spraying GunKote and baking.
Most of the rest of the parts are nice enough that I don't bother refinishing them.
Seems to work fine for me.

I use the cabinet sandblaster at work using ground glass as the blast media. I take only one or two pieces at a time and never anything that looks like a completed firearm. It works great, with the only problem being that I have to feed new media to blast with because the media in the cabinet is contaminated with corriosive acids fom blasting pump parts. Yes, I work in a chemical plant.