engine heat paint as a gun paint?

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brentn

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I have a vz.58s rifle, i bought it new and it came in an incredibly ugly grey spray paint from the factory, the paint job is terrible and not that I really care its really the color thats bugging me...

I'm currently about to paint my rifle, so far I have stripped it entirely except for the front sight assembly, the gas port assembly, and the barrel of the reciever.

I'm in the process of degreasing it, and so far brake cleaner has worked wonders for doing this. The next step is paint stripper and then another cleaning with the brake cleaner. Finally, the last step before painting is a good overall scrubbing with dry steel whool in which I'll blow off any steel whool particals with compressed air.

Thats when I plan to add 3 coats of black low gloss engine paint, and let it cure for about 24-36 hours. I'll then throw it in the oven at 350 degree's for an hour to help do the final cure for the paint.

I had all this planned out, and it sounded pretty solid, but I'm not worried about how the paint will stand up to oil...
I'm not to worried about scratches at all, this rifle is a shooter and is defenitley going to get dinged up and i'm not going to care.

Do any of you have experience with engine paint and guns?
How well does it hold up to oil?

I think after I'm done it'll be a tought paintjob that won't cost me much at all, I really don't want to use gunkote as its not available in my area and I'd have to wait for it to be shipped from an online retailer.

thanks for your time guys, and gals!
 
Logically speaking, I would think engine paint would hold up well to oil :)

Having painted some things with engine paint (such as the calipers of my car), I can tell you that it's pretty tough. Even dealing with all the heat, road grime and debris hitting them, salt from the winters, etc, they still look fine years later.

Dope
 
A gentleman that i sold my P11 to used it to refinish the holster worn slide. it looks great! much better than i thought engine paint would look.

i'd imagine that it'd be fairly durable but even if it isn't, youch up or complete refinishing is easy and quick.

Bobby
 
I used engine paint that included ceramic on one gun a while back. It was a rather "interesting" when I discovered that one coat of the paint was thick enough to change the pin hole diameters. I ended up having to chase every hole on the reciever with a drill bit so I could reassemble it.

Kharn
 
I saw that video for the brownells paint a while back, and it looks to be really good stuff.
Like I mentioned I really don't want to order anything as it takes weeks to get anything up here from the states.
engine paint is widely available here, and I have everything I need to get this going tomorrow afternoon.

I think another good question I have for your guys is baking the part after its been cured for 24-36 hours... This is a reciever with a 15" barrel, the only place I can fit something like that is in my oven lol.

However, will it stink up the whole house if I do this? Is it a smell that I can make go away or is it really not a good idea to bake it in the house?
For the smaller parts I have a little old toaster oven that will work great, just going to stick that outside so smell or anything like that won't matter.

thanks
 
A gentleman that i sold my P11 to used it to refinish the holster worn slide. it looks great! much better than i thought engine paint would look.

i'd imagine that it'd be fairly durable but even if it isn't, youch up or complete refinishing is easy and quick.

Bobby
Click to expand...

That was me. Indeed the Duplicolor Hi-Temp Ceramic Engine paint turned out great. I showed it to a buddy this week and he asked if I'd bought it new.

One minor quibble is a corner of the slide which rubs on my pants has had the paint rub off a bit already. I use a metal belt clip to carry this little Kel-Tec IWB. I'm not surprised by this minor wear, and I somewhat expected it. I still consider it a pretty durable finish, especially for how easy it was to do. I suspect if I was using a proper holster it wouldn't have happened. My main concern was to stave off oxidation anyway, not make a museum piece.

I plan to do the same finish on my AK project.

My Hi-Point is powder coated. Now THAT's a durable finish. There are a few little nicks and bumps on the slide and the powder coating stayed intact, even as the metal underneath was deformed. You can get a powdercoat system at Harbor Freight for pretty cheap.
 
I repainted this using exhaust paint after I converted it: SaigaConversion019.jpg Painted the reciever, but left the dust cover alone (just to see the difference).

It's been two months and about 500 rounds. No issues thus far! If I ever need to repaint, I can spend the $3.50 :D
 
I've used ceramic engine paint and it has held up to any solvent and oil I put on the gun. It also looks good, its easy to touch up, and you can buy it locally at any auto parts store or Walmart. You can even paint your gun Chevy orange or Ford blue if you like.

Another paint that holds up well on plastic stocks is Krylon paint for plastic. It comes in a wide variety of colors also.
 
Engine enamel works fine, and holds up even better if heated to cure it. The head moderator of another gun forum left a gun in the gun rack of his truck to cure the paint (years ago) and all these years later it has stood up quite well.

Think about it, it's made to handle high temps, oils, and solvents. Sounds perfect for a firearm. Just resist the urge to paint it Hemi Orange or Ford Blue... :D

gp911
 
For parts that might be exposed to solvents I use dupli-color wheel paint. It's chemical resistant (wheel cleaners are pretty harsh) and is as tough as any $25 a can gun specific "coating":rolleyes::rolleyes: A.K.A PAINT. I refinished a SMLE with the stuff and the paint didn't even get blown off the crown. When properly applied it's really tough stuff and looks great, or at least the flat black does.
 
i painted an old .22lr rifle about 15 years ago. it held up pretty good. However now it looks pretty bad. Too many chips. If you have the time and money. I would recomend getting it powder coated. It will withstand a lot more than paint. resist most chipping, oil and will last a long long time.
 
I used spraypaint designed for gas grills. It's worked out fine. It's paint, so it can still scratch, but it has been quite durable for me. One thing you need to remember to do after blowing out the particles is degrease it. Any parts with screws? Take them out, degrease the joints, etc., then paint.

-Sans Authoritas
 
Well I stripped the barrel/receiver assembly of all grey paint, well most of it and prepped it for painting.

used brake cleaner to get rid of most of the strippa, then whiped it dry with a towel. Steel whool'd it for an hour and smoothed it out a bit, blew it off of all filings with canned air.
Cleaned it with cotton face pads and pure rubbing alchohol, let it dry and blasted it once more with canned air.

Did 4 coats of low gloss black engine paint, 3 light, last one heavy, she's drying in the basement right now :D
rework.JPG


Just need to throw it in the oven for an hour after it cures for a couple days, the girfriend volenteered her oven!!! can you believe that?
 
sweet, looks nice.

*goes out to get some engine paint in ORange, Blue, Green, Pink, and White.* *mutters to self 'bloomberg is gonna love this'*
 
Works pretty well especially the stuff with ceramic in it. Remember that this stuff needs to be heated before it cures so if you use it on aluminum or polymer it will never really get hard if you don't bake it.

There are also roughly two types of engine paint. One goes up to 350 degrees and the other up to like 1200 degrees.

I used $1.99 can of testers on a parkerized gun and it has held up really well. I think the trick was the parkerizing underneath plus I just barely primed it and then as soon as it was dry, gave it two final coats.

Glossy paint holds up best. I used semi-gloss and it worked well but you can see oil when it's on the gun. No problem though.

I wil not use strong chemical cleaners on that gun though. Just CLP or something similar.

Epoxy paint works well too. It is very chemical resistant but only comes in like three colors and is pretty toxic smelling when wet.
 
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