Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you this little project, hopefully it can be of use to someone.

I'll post pics about this particular job and also try to make a tutorial on how to inexpensively refinish a firearm at home.

Disclaimer: I strongly advise NOT to do a spray-on refinish to any valuable gun or one that has its original finish. I'd advise to do this only on commonly available guns, that have already been modified, refinished, or are in very poor condition.

What you'll need:
- Detergent and hot water (any degreaser for that matter)
- Fine grit sandpaper (240 to 360 grit)
- 1 can of Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy Paint
- Masking tape
- Kitchen oven
- Time and patience (Total time: 5-8 hours) It can be done in just one day.

I bought a surplus argentine FM Hi Power (these were manufactured under license from FN Belgium from 1969 to 1989). These guns were mainly for military and police use, and they have very rough machining.

The gun was in good shape but had a pretty awful, brownish, poorly done cold blue job.
These guns came from the factory with a black enamel paint finish. My intention with this project was to leave it closer to original.

This is how I got it:


It was an Uruguayan Army gun. This is the Uruguayan crest:

(You can see the ugly browness of the bluing in that pic)

I'll briefly describe the first steps in the refinishing job:

1) Detail strip the gun
2) I filled a bucket with boiling water and detergent. Threw the gun in there and thoroughly degreased it with a sponge. Then air dry.
3) I used Birchwood Casey Blue & Rust Remover to remove the bluing, but you could do without this step.
4) Thoroughly and gently sand with 240 to 360-grit sandpaper
5) Degrease again and let it dry
6) Mask the firing pin area (do not paint the firing pin channel)

Now to the fun part:

This is the paint:


I hung the parts in my backyard and gave two thin coats of paint:


Go easy on the paint. Spray evenly 6 inches away. Practice first on some cardboard to get the hang of it. Two thin coats spaced 15 minutes between them is all it takes.

Left it to dry for half an hour.
Pre-heat your kitchen oven to 390ºF, carefully place the parts inside and bake for one hour.
Open doors and windows because it will smell a bit.

These are the parts after one hour of baking:


The parts are extremely hot. Be careful and let them cool off.

The baking tones down on the shine:




After 24 hours and reassembling... This is the final result:













Sorry for the crummy cellphone pics taken in the kitchen, it was the only place with good lighting!

This paint cures to a really hard, durable finish. I did the same to my Mossberg 500 receiver and it's going strong after two years.

So... what do you think?

Hope you enjoyed the thread and all opinions and suggestions are welcome!

Have a great week!
Diego

Looks good. Good job

Nice job, really looks good!

I think it looks very good!
Please let us know how it holds up i'd worry a bit about chipping but hope you don't have that problem.
Steve W

I think it turned off very well! Nice job.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

Major skills with a rattle can! How are you with duct tape?

VHT epoxy is tough enough for bullet coating. Used it on a FIE E15 some years ago and it still looks good.

Thank you, sir.
For what its worth, I did the same refinish to an old beat-up Mossberg 500, almost two years ago.

It went from this:


To this:


That shotgun goes to the range fairly often and it's my HD gun, and it looks the same to this day.

I only shot 50 rounds with the pistol so far and it has not scratched or chipped. I'll keep you posted!

Not as good as I am with WD-40 and galvanized wire.


No... seriously, I know this is a "bubba" job! Don't worry, I do not advocate this as a "serious" refinish. But it's also not your average rattle can paint. As this gentleman says:

It is indeed a very tough paint (at least after baking it). It does not nick or scratch easily, and it can stand gun cleaning solvents and oil.

Simply amazing! Thank you for taking the time to post all of this. Very interesting.

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Possum—The other white meat!

Nice job sir. I was too chicken to spray my used BHP so I had it media blasted, it had a epoxy coating required by the IDF, and re-blued it.

My only rattle can job was on a Savage .223 bolt rifle that didn't turn out bad. I used that camo spray paint a stretchy mesh red bag that held oranges and cardboard.

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Isaiah 41:10

I have finished many guns similarly using Teflon-containing coatings applied with a spray gun. I have always bead-blasted them first, using very fine blasting media. If you own, or have access to, bead blasting equipment, it is by far the easiest and quickest method to prepare metal surfaces for such coatings. Or even hot oxide bluing and phosphating.

When I read your choice of coating, I had low expectations of the final appearance, but I've got to say it turned out very nice!

Glad to hear that, thank you, sir!

You are most definitely right. My only concerns with bead blasting are:
1) I prefer smooth vs. coarse finishes (as in parkerized guns)
2) After bead blasting, if later you want to strip the finish and reblue the piece, it's gonna be hell to polish.

Other than that, I agree that bead blasting is the best way to prepare metal for painting or parkerizing!

Any pics? I sure would like to see that. Sounds challenging to do!

LOL, I was counting on that. After all, it's a glorified redneck rattle can finish!!

But it works!

So,...you can get "appliance epoxy" in a color other than pea green ??

Actually I like the color you chose, (and your refinish), but I didn't see the exact color choice. ?

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wanna do right-- not right now

Do you have to bake the paint or can it be left to cure at room temperature.

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Release the Kraken

Hi there,
This paint (Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy) comes in three colors: white, silver and black. The one I chose is black.

You could skip the baking but it will be a completely diferent result. It will end up really shiny and not remotely as hard and tough.

Also, this paint (epoxy) takes forever to dry. I would not reccomend skipping the baking part!

I've used brownells alums-Hyde II in the past with awesome results. We wash the area to be touched up. In this case it was the muzzle/gernade launcher area on the end of the barrel. It was bare metal but the rest of the rifle looked like brand new. After washing it free of all oils I used a hair dryer to warm the metal. Once warm I used the aluma Hyde paint in light grey park. It blended in with the orginal part finish. You can't tell it's been epoxy painted it never came off in over two decades.

I recently did a ugly brown norinco plastic rifle stock in black matte aluma Hyde II. I cleaned it, let the hot sun heat it up then shot it. It came out awesome.

Btw, the preperation matters more than the paint we use.

That's great to hear! Yes, I think epoxy paint is good stuff. There's a reason many firearms come stock with that finish.

And you are 100% in that final statement: Preparing the surface accounts for probably 80% of the final result.

"Failing to prepare is preparing to fail"

Very nice. Thank you for sharing that!

Nice job, looks good, thanks for sharing.

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NRA BENEFACTOR MEMBER

Beautiful job well done!

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Life is short,live it fully.

Try white for the next one!!

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Forum consigliere

Thanks everybody! I'm very glad it was of your liking!


LOL Dang, the only thought of that made me cringe.

But I bet silver would look pretty good on some guns!