steyr 95/30 refinishing

[kungfuhippie]

I finally took my steyr m95/30 completely apart to clean and refinsih the stock. It was at some point painted brown. I got it from Big 5 sporting goods so it was an import and not some bubba job. The brown paint is flaking off and only cover 50% of the stock. So, how do I go about taking the paint off, sanding will remove the serial numbers etc. what chemical do you all reccomend? I'll post pictures later when I bring my camera in from the car.

 

[kungfuhippie]

anyone?

 

[GeorgeR]

Paint Removal

I've done a few Enfield Ishapore 2A's that were painted, and found Citri Strip from Home Depot worked the best.
I have also just bead blasted the paint off and then parkerized. All markings etc were more legible after I blasted and parkerized than with the paint job.

 

[GeorgeR]

Correction

I just re read your post and you're referring to only the stock, not the metal, so ignore my parkerizing suggestion. The Citri Strip should work well on the wood.

 

[kungfuhippie]

darn and I was gonna ask you how I could get my stock parkerized

Thanks, I'll be dropping by homedepot/lowes tonight to get some. I've got two guns in pieces right now that's unacceptable!

 

[GeorgeR]

Parkerizing Stock

Har Har. Thought I'd get a lot of email on that one!

 

[Plink]

George is right. Stripper will pull the paint and finish without damaging the wood. A little light sanding to restore edges, perhaps steaming out some dents, and you're ready to refinish. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[kungfuhippie]

got the stripper last night, citri-clean IIRC. It is nice, indoor use is ok. will post some pics of it before, naked, and refinished. I finally figured out the steyr is a 1905 manufacture carbine, rebarreled in 1930's but otherwise the same, all matching numbers. Never thought a Big5 gun could be so hard to research. Found a nice website about the 95/30 steyr mannlichers. thanks again everyone.

http://www.sunblest.net/gun/index.htm

 

[Cosmoline]

I've seen similar brown paint on M-95 carbines and long rifles. It looks like something that would cover second rate furniture. I suspect it was put on there during a rearsenal process, but I've seen it on too many for it to be Bubba's work. Whoever did it didn't bother to clean off the oils underneath, and it always seems to be chipping off. You might try a mild stripper and some heat to encourage it the rest of the way off, with fine steel wool on the remainders. Heck wood soap and some hot water might strip it off. I'd be interested in seeing before and after pics.

 

[kungfuhippie]

ok here are the before photos...

you can see the paint is almost off. It seams the importer may have waxed the wood to help stop the paint from flaking off. Part of why I got it was the wood I could see looked good. I'll be striping it tomorrow and have photos of that too. I hope it will look great, but anything will be an improvement. I got a can of boiled linseed oil for it at the hardware store, not the stuff with aditives for a "high gloss finish" really ticked off the owner when he told me what to get (no additives, just the boiled oil) and I said it'd do great for my gun stock. should have seen the look on his face

 

[Cosmoline]

I'll bet there's some nice European hardwood in there from long-gone forests. If you can expose the grain you may even find some tiger stripes.

 

[kungfuhippie]

re-bluing?

You can see some striping in the forend, hope it turns out nice.

It's metal finish is about 75%, I wasn't planning on re-bluing it. Would that hurt it's value? (I mean at $95 it couldn't depreciate too much )

 

[kungfuhippie]

my rifle got necked!

I used the citristrip, it's my new favorite chemical, smells like oranges and makes ugly paint wipe off. Here are a couple after striping photos. I think I'll be using some mineral spirits to pull out a little more of the oil, grease, dirt...

But some nice wood was hiding under the paint.

 

[Cosmoline]

With hand rubbed BLO that's going to look very nice.

 

[kungfuhippie]

thanks Cosmo,
I just hope a little more clean-up and the iron trick will do the job. This is my first C&R that needed more than cosmoline removal and a quick stock oiling. But I really like the outcome so-far.