Parkerization treatment?

Its just the style of parkerizing you have. You most likely have zinc phosphate parkerizing. Brownells makes a post treatment solution # 083-134-128WB you can use to darken up the color but you need to fully degrease. You'd be better of sandblasting the whole thing and reparkerizing with Palmetto Industries or Brownells manganese phosphate which keeps a true black color.

Cooldill said:

... This gun is parkerized, which I quite like. I have been using Remoil spray to spray it down, and that seems to soak into the parkerization pretty well. However, it doesn't take long for the parkerization to go back to a dry feeling and looking lighter gray color.

What I am wondering is how can I keep my parkerization nice and dark looking? ...

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Well, you could try using some lightweight oil, like real "gun oil".

I've had good luck with RIG grease on parked finishes. Doesn't take much. I've heard of people applying it liberally and letting it sit in the sun on a hot day. Same theory as seasoning an iron skillet I suppose.

Anyways, the RIG sticks longer than light oil. I was using RemOil so that's all i can really compare to.

Another alternative and one used buy a number of countries, and it works very well, is "paint over park".

My HK MP5 got pretty beat up over the years, and I bead blasted it and reparked it, and left it like that awhile.

This was the park finish. If you look close where the stock attaches to the gun, you can see the factory paint finish on the stock.....



Heres another pic where you can see the difference in the factory finish on the stock, vs the park only finish on the rest of the gun.....



As much as I like parkerized finishes, they really are not all that durable, so later on, I painted it with Brownells Aluma Hyde II.....



The AH II, although not "exact", was actually pretty close to the factory finish, and gave a nice job.

I've had good luck with RIG grease on parked finishes. Doesn't take much. I've heard of people applying it liberally and letting it sit in the sun on a hot day. Same theory as seasoning an iron skillet I suppose.

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Ditto. I have done the same thing although I have used a hair dryer to heat the metal and melt the grease.

But in the end the grease still rubs off so I just use oil after cleaning and occasionally when checking my guns.

Pack it in Cosmoline for twenty years....

Classic zinc phosphate treatment. Fid a smith to re park it in manganese . It'll stay jet black and shouldnt cost more than $150.

Ive been thinking of trying renaissance wax on a parkerized finish. My thought is to try to put it on as evenly as possible and then use a heat gun to smooth it out and melt it in.

Anyone think this would be a bad idea?

Dan

The dry light gray color comes from softer steels and less cook time in the tank... Speaking of parkerizing i guess i better get back to the grindstone.. only 8000 give or take a 100 parts left to blast and park ..

I took apart my 590 and soaked the metal, barrel, action bar ass. mag tube, retaining nut, etc. in the oven @ 200F for one hour then douse in RIG, let cool down in oven at least 1 hour. So far so good.

I suppose that I should count myself lucky that the appearance of light-gray zinc-type parkerizing does not trouble me.

Park is park. Some look like barely a simple "wash", while others can look (and feel) almost like emery. All will show wear from use pretty quick.

If what you have bothers you, send it out and get it redone in a more current and better wearing/rust resistant finish. If is a "working" gun, youll be better off in the long run.

If you ever do want to get it done right with the proper deep black finish sandblast it with Ballotinis coarse ground glass and parkerize it with this stuff...

http://www.palmettoenterprises.net/Palmetto_Enterprises/-Welcome-.html

Coat it with a 70/30 mix of WD-40 and chain saw oil and you'll never have a problem with it again.

The zinc phosphate stuff is much lighter from grey o light green and always looks dusty grey like you have there. The Managnese phosphate parkerizing is MUCH darker in IMHO better looking. Some weapons are more period correct with Zinc but HK's really need to be black.

Cooldill said:

Thanks for the tips gang! It's just that in a few days, the finish goes a dry looking light gray again. It really does bum me out.

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I've seen the same thing. Remoil especially does this, as it leaves a Teflon coating but won't stick around like a gun oil or grease will.

You can try a couple different things that I've found to work fairly well.

First, try Ballistol. It does have a certain smell kind of like herbal licorice. But it's basically like mineral oil - it will seep into things and does not appear to "dry up" like some oils can. In fact it keeps that dark/"wet" metal look for quite a while.

Next range trip, you could also try a light coating of grease of some sort. it will penetrate as it melts and get into the Parkerizing nooks, and will stay a darker color. I use Lubriplate 130-A as I have a whole can of it for M1 Garand use. I imagine cheap lithium grease would have the same effect.