I want to do 2 things, one is refinish the wood.  I would like something easy to do, cheap, and so that it will turn into that reddish color.  The other things is the refinish the metal.  I also need something cheap and easy, has anyone tried FORMULA 44/40 INSTANT GUN BLUE from brownells?

for the wood, you need to sand off all the lacquer and then use a stain.  Colonial maple is a reddish color, but look a what the hardwar store has.  Follow the directions and you will be good to go.  after it's dry, a coat of varnish will seal it back to a water resistant state.

For a more durable finish on the metal, KG from a spray can will work great.  It goes on like regular spray paint, and when you bake it it wil be set for good.  Bluing is just controlled rusting...if you like that look.

There was a thread in the AK forum (under Romanian) that gave direction for redish-orange refinishing. You could use it but use a red rit dye in the place of the iodine solution.

Iodine pic below. (weapon is parkerized, but I am considering going Norrells semi-gloss black over top of it.)



Iodine lower handguard (upper handguard is bakolite)

I wouldn't recommend doing one of those insta-blue jobs.

When I refinished my Romanian, I ended up going the Norrell's route with SOCOM black. I'm glad I did. It was worth the extra pain of baking the parts in the oven. I redo all my preban 30's in SOCOM as well.

Hit the paint store. Pic up some spray on finsh stripper KLEAN STRIP follow directions it will take off the varnish on the wood.Then I stained it with formbeys Wood stain. Followed with several coats of spray on mat lacure. Then Metal was Duracoated HK black has that semi gloss type fish that was on the other metal parts.

Don't use insta blue!  I use it on the inside of the gun, since I built off of a flat.  But the finish isn't that great, good enough for the inside of the gun.  

Semi-gloss black might be very shiny.  I used Duplicolor Low Gloss Black Engine Enamel.  I had tried Semi-gloss Duplicolor but it was very shiny.