Best place to get a 9mm Olympic Arms upper?
Best way to refinish STEN mags? Paint?

Try the "equipment exchange board", or post a "WTB" ad..

I got 10 mags for fun and sandblasted them, then had Todd at Ohio Rapid Fire "park them for $3 ea. Look like the same finish as on a MAC-11/9.

Contact "Stokes," Moderator of the EE forums. He has the hookup on the Oly uppers.

Try sending the mags to Mac's Restorations.  He does a nice job for a very reasonable price and is quick about it too.

I will strongly recommend Mac's Shootin' Iron Restorations.

Mac's refinished four Oly converted 9mm mags for me. The communication, price, turnaround and -- most importantly -- the quality of the work ALL were excellent.

If you have a question not answered on their Web page, just e-mail 'em.

www.shootiniron.com/

"Just a satisfied customer."

HTH,
mib2000

I just refinished 12 Sten mags, 10 from Tapco and 2 from other sales with Brownells Alumi-Hyde II in Dark Grey Parkerizing. About $9 a can, unless you send them your C&R license (if you have one), then its about $6 each.

Came out very nice! Just have to make sure you degrease those mags well, completely disassemble them as you'll want to do the baseplates as well. Had a bit of 'grease' still hiding in there somewhere on a couple and it changes the finish color a bit near the weld spots. Doesnt seem to have affected the durability however.

I've had them hanging to cure in the basement for 4 days now - cure time can be as much as 1 week depending upon temperature, and have only reassembled 1 of them. Finish appears that it will hold up well...and if it starts to wear, just give her another once over with the spray.

HKgnnr,
  Did you sand or sandblast the surface before you applied the Brownell's?

Hey Pops - didn't have the mags sandblasted. Most of the mags received were in 65-80% original finish. Some had a little spot rust on them as well. Took some steel wool to the rust marks, but the old finish was pretty much left intact, just made sure there were no 'loose bits' of old finish.

I still heated the mag bodies to about 90% in the oven before applying.

So far, I've done some preliminary tests, and the finish doesnt come off when you scratch at it with your finger nail, and by chance two the the mag bodies 'clanked' together - with no nicks or scrapes. Still going to let them hang for a bit longer - stuff continues to cure for about a week.

As it stands, I was able to apply 2 coats on each mag (12 total), do an AR stockset and theres about 1/4 of the can left. So for $6, it was pretty much worth a shot.

Here's the finished product - sorry if the pics a bit big - but as you can see, its pretty evenly coated.

Dang, that looks good! I did some buttstocks with the brownell's and have had zero problems. I like the A1 buttstocks but first they don't come in green so I refinished one in the Brownell's OD green and it matches my RRA pistol grip and handguards perfect. Then I did another A1 with the matte black and it looks great also. I just figured since I sanded the surfaces that it gave the Brownell's a better hold. I've got some range mags that work perfect but look bad so I'll try the Dark Parkerize Gray on them and see how they do.