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Posted: 8/8/2010 7:24:13 PM EDT
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Hey guy's, I'm thinking of painting my Bulgy ssr85c, so I got a few questions.
1, what to use to degrease it? 2, what color and finish, like black semi, black matte etc...? 3, what paint should I use Aluma Hyde II, Gun Kote, engine paint? 4, how many coats 5, any tricks you have would be appreciated, I'd love to see some pic's of finished pieces. Thanks in advance! |
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A good degreasing method is to use one of the strong liquid soap cleaners like Greased Lightning or Simply green.
Spray plenty on then scrub with a toothbrush. Rinse really well with hot water. Dry by blowing dry with compressed air and/or use a hair dryer to warm the metal. NO EXCESS HEAT...warm not HOT. Then use a "gun scrubber" spray de-greaser or automotive brake cleaner to liberally spray and flush everything. Dry again and look for any signs of lube seeping out of joints, cracks, or rivet heads. If you see any.... more spray cleaner. Once you have it clean, handle only with clean cotton gloves. For paint, there's many you can use. Some need to be baked in the oven (which really smells up the house), some require no baking and air cure. With most gun coatings, one coat is all that's needed. Among the coatings you can use that seem to stand up: Engine block paint. Rustoleum oil based paint, especially if baked on. Aluma-Hyde I or Aluma-Hyde II. I requires baking, II is air curing. Guncoat. Lauer Duracoat. This may be the best. It's a two part epoxy that air cures. Lauer offers MANY colors. It has to be applied with an airbrush, and they sell a cheap airbrush kit to apply it. Lauer hardens up to handle in 24 hours or so, but reaches full hardness in 2 weeks. It's usable in a few days. Since it's a two part epoxy, it's TOUGH when used as directed. Pointers: The cleaner the metal the better it adheres. The best possible job is had by bead blasting the metal. This gives the coating a "tooth" to adhere to and gives a much better bond than smooth metal. This also helps clean the metal and removes the old coating. If you use Rustoleum or other hardware paint, you'll have some problems with gloss. Flat black looks great when fresh, but after you use it the areas where you've been handling it start getting a blotchy look as the flat wears. Gloss is WAY to shiny, and semi-gloss or satin-gloss are usually still too shiny. What I've done with Rustoleum is to add a little gloss black to flat black to "cut" the flat to a very slightly satin finish. This still looks flat black, but has just enough gloss that the finish doesn't develop the blotchy look. This finish is very tough if you bake it in the oven at 300 degrees for an hour. Just spray on a reasonably thick coat that won't run or sag, wait 30 minutes for some of the solvents to out-gas, then bake. Lauer Duracoat comes in several blacks that duplicate the Russian flat black AK coating. Call them to ask which they recommend. The better job you do in cleaning and prep, and application, the better it'll look. Don't apply a coating it in any area that has dust in it that will contaminate the finish, and avoid the mistake of touching or handling the gun until the finish is HARD. Some people just can't resist touching it to see if it's hard yet, only to find out it isn't. |
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Buy a can of Brake Kleen from an auto parts store.
take the weapon completely apart, scuff all metal parts thoroughly with a red scotch brite pad. clean all metal parts with brake kleen and dry with a clean rag or lint free towel. stuff a small piece of tp or paper towel in the chamber and the end of the barrel. lightly shoot all parts with Krylon BBQ paint until it looks even. let dry for roughly 1 hour or until its dry to the touch. bake in an oven for 10-15minutes at 200-220 degrees. I used to use other expensive gun coatings, but on an AK it hardly seems worth it. It's going to get scratched up and nicked up, so why waste 40-50 bucks on expensive coatings? I use krylon on my builds now and have great results, when it is baked on.. its cheap, and it is tough. I shoot my guns, and while I take care of them, they still get used like they should, so there is no sense in putting lipstick on a pig. 
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I use brake cleaner to clean and degrease. That's what it's made for. Whatever doesn't drip off evaporates quickly.
I have used low gloss black enamel engine paint with ceramic sucessfully. If you want a more durable finish, bake it. If durability isn't a concern (or the wife isn't happy  about putting freshly painted things in the oven), don't bother (reapplying the paint isn't much of a problem if it gets scratched  ).
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Laura makes a shake and spray kit for $29.95 - twenty bucks less than their standard kit.
http://www.lauerweaponry.com/item-detail.cfm?ID=DCSNSPR1&storeid=1&image=shaknspray.gif# http://www.lauerweaponry.com/images/shaknspray.gif |
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Ok, I got the balls up to do it, I went to an auto parts store, I bought degreaser and brake clean. I sprayed the receiver down liberally with both in the sun allowing it to hang off a tree and drip dry. When I thought it was clean enough I soaked it again in degreaser and decided to use the M1 Garand stock cleaning method I've used before. Thats right I covered it in degreaser and placed it in the dish washer. Two full cycles soaking with more degreser between cycles. I let it dry in the washer on heat. I wiped off what water was left. I taped it up hung it from the same tree and applied 4 good coats of Duplicoat semi gloss engine paint. I then allowed to dry for an hour and place it in the over @ 200 for 15. min.s. TURNED OUT GREAT!
Thanks, Clark |
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