I'm looking at replacing my SAR-1's wood and welded folder (wolder?) with a K-VAR plum stock set, as well as cleaning up the century trigger group and polishing the charging handle.  Since it's all going to be pulled apart anyway, I figure I'm just a "couple" steps short of refinishing the receiver itself.

Can anyone steer me towards a walkthrough or how-to on doing this?  Failing that, some guidance on what I need to do to actually do that without destroying the rifle?  My understanding now is disassemble, give the recv a good cleaning ala brake degreaser or equally de-dirt-ifying cleaner, and then paint with some high temp engine paint or so and bake it.  That's my understanding, and I'm probably missing a few things.  So, any spares clues for the clueless?  I want to do this "on the cheap", so the higher-end finishes are probably out--I want a uniform, clean-looking black that will last for a few years.

You guys help me out, I'll do before-and-after pics!

Cheap and good means hi-temp engine paint. Clean, clean, clean, cork the bbl ends, hang from garage rafters/rear tang, spray light coats because do-overs from paint runs sucks (how do I know...)

Quoted: Cheap and good means hi-temp engine paint. Clean, clean, clean, cork the bbl ends, hang from garage rafters/rear tang, spray light coats because do-overs from paint runs sucks (how do I know...)

Roger that, go easy on the spray trigger.  Hypothetically, if I screw up, what's a good approach to a do over, getting that paint off?  Paint thinner?

Also, how many coats of the high temp paint are good for something like this?

Thinner should be fine, maybe with 0000 grade steel wool if a big glop forms. Probably only 2 light coats can do it if not starting with bare metal. Depends on the paint as well as what is light. Krylon is resisitant to runs due to a high percentage of evaporative thinners and less paint per can. If the letters/numbers on the side are getting hard to read, stop spraying.

PS- If you get sold on bedliner paint, know that the distance you spray from the object usually varies the texture from heavy matte to pebble. Test on objects first...

Well I decided that I wanted to do mine a little better than engine paint and more of a gun finish, so here’s what I did when I decided to use John Norrell Moly Resin on my 2003 SAR-1:

I did a total strip the weapon.  Trigger group, wood, etc. I then sandblasted every external viewable piece to completely remove all old finish. I then used 4 cans of brake cleaner to completely degrease the weapon and then baked it at 250Degrees for around an hour. It was then degreased again using an entire can.

Following the directions on the Moly Resin www.molyresin.com website and using an airbrush, I sprayed several coats onto the weapon while keeping it hot with my heat gun.  I used the flat black and it came out great.  I picked up a badger 350 airbrush from Ebay for $20 and it worked great. I then baked for another hour at manufacturer recommended baking temp.

The metal looked great that that point so I turned to the wood and spent several days sanding.  I then used Minwax golden pecan and BLO (Boiled Linseed oil) to refinsh the laminated stock.  It is smooth as a baby’s ass and looks 100% better than the original finish.  I put it all back together and coated the metal with CLP to protect it. I added a RSA trigger group and made a new pistol grip as I hated the black plastic and could not find a wooden grip that was made in the USA to keep it 922 legal.  I then decided to bead blast the bolt carrier at work to make it look better and that’s how I did it.  All in all  I had a great time working on it and it is “MY” rifle.  100% how I want it.  Next up is the AMD-63 screw build using the Vulcan receiver, and then after that a Polish Underfolder that I reckon will be complete sometime in September ;-)

Echap