engine paint curing time?

[old fart]

i used dupli-color engine enamel with ceramic on a nef r92, how long till i can start using the gun? i put the paint on sunday morning, the can says 7 days but thought i would ask here hoping someone has used this and knows. thanks

 

[Magoo]

It depends a lot on environmental conditions.

 

[kingcheese]

Give it two weeks in a dry and warm climate to be safe

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Seven days? For engine paint? I don't know ANYONE who would build and engine then wait seven days for the paint to dry before running it! Paint formulated specifically for guns yes.....but engine paint....nah!

 

[Drail]

It is 7 days under ideal humidity and temperature. I would give it 7 days. If it isn't fully cured you'll get to do it all over again. Some of that stuff really does take that long to cure and harden. The people who made it know what they're talking about.

 

[Patrick Gookin]

7 days sounds about right. I know a lot of automotive paints can take a month or two to fully and completely cure.

 

[old fart]

Update!!!!!!

well its been 7 days and here is the gun, i took it out and fired it and its doing great. i highly recommend dupli-color 500f flat black engine enamel with ceramic, thanks.

 

[Firehand]

Let us know how it holds up over a couple of range sessions

 

[old fart]

yep the gun frame and barrel are great, the cylinder however didn't stay after i fired it. underneath was a dull brass color, i used cold blue and it looks good again. the barrel and frame seems to be tough, the fireing of ammo took the paint off the end of the cylinder but the sides are fine. thanks

 

[HankC]

Holding up against common gun cleaning solvent?

 

[R.W.Dale]

Just an fyi but wheel paint in my experience is more durable and will withstand the harshest gun cleaning solvents.

Duplicolors satin black is a great replacement for suncorite used on British guns and if properly applied will even stay on the crown after firing

 

[old fart]

its staying on to hoppe's and rem oil, barricade, and clp. thanks

 

[481]

OF-

Have you had the chance to see how it holds up to heat from any sort of prolonged firing session?

 

[old fart]

no not alot of firing, just about 20rds so far. the gun barrel and frame did fine with the dupli-color paint but the cylinder the paint came off after fireing. i cleaned it real good and blued the cylinder again. then again and cleaned and blued again. i even heated the metal before i blued, after i finished i left a good amount of oil all over the cylinder. i did this yesterday and i went into the room just a few minutes ago and where i blued the cylinder its got a brownish color on it. it almost looks like dull brass color, there is some blue there but mostley a ole brown color. so i don't have much more money to put in this, so will this hurt anything if i keep it oiled? its going to be a woods gun but i don't want the rust to hurt the gun any. should i try something else?, as i'm out of blueing. or will it be ok and not get worse if i keep it oiled? thanks

 

[481]

Thanks for the response. I kinda figured that you wouldn't be shooting enough to warm it up but I had to ask.

As for the rest of your questions, I am not sure that I am qualified to say. Hopefully someone can do better- I sure ain't no expert.

 

[Capt. Ct.]

I found your post interesting as I used some of the same paint a week ago on the side of the trigger guard on an aluminum frame S&W revolver. Looks great and acts dry but I'm not 100% sure that it is fully cured. I'm going in for cateract surgery next week anyway so it will have plenty of time to get good and dry. Maybe I'll be able to see the sights again.

 

[Presto]

Most of the ceramic paints and coatings that I have used never fully cure until they are heated to a certain point. The carrier solvent evaporates and the coating dries at room temperature, but there is a binder that doesn't activate until they are heated to around at least 300 degrees or so for a period of time. For most applications this isn't a problem becuase ceramic coatings are used in high heat applications that activate the binder on the first use of the item (like a car engine, oven interior, header coating, etc.). With something that doesn't get to curing temperatures (like a gun) the coating will stay a little soft and delicate.

I usually place items coated with ceramics in the oven for an hour or so after the paint is completly dry, just to give it a final cure. After that it should be tough as nails. You shouldn't cook it hot enough to retemper the steel, but an hour at 300 or so shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[brickeyee]

The last time I used engine paint it called for running the engine to help heat and cure the paint.

 

[oldmedik]

paint engine curing ga

i painted a mossberg 500 barrel, reciever, magazine tube, with the hi temp ceramic engine paint, after stripping it to bare metal. i let it hang for an hour, then put it in the oven at 250 degrees. i let it "cook" for an hour and a half. then shut it down, to cool slowly. after it was cool, the paint appeared had to look and touch. it has held up to my 14yo wrecking crew son, and hoppes, clp, even the spray on crud busters. i got the idea while surfing the net for a way to apply the ceramicotes at home. it still looks great, the 2 slide bars are wearing a little, but they were silver when i started. it has been almost a year now.

martin

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

It's been a couple years since I've painted an engine but I seem to recall somewhere in the instructions a note to have care with the finish till the engine was run as running temperatures were the final stages of curing.

Seems I noted this after wondering at the poor retention after using left-overs on a cherry-picker in the shop.

I guess a fella might ultimately need 220 degrees or more with some of the paints.

 

[Firehand]

I wandered down to a auto parts shop and looked the engine and header paints over. Every one says that after the paint dries, the engine/header has to be run to operating temps to fully harden the paint; one of the header paints had a 'heat to this for x minutes, cool, then heat to y' process if you had an oven big enough for the parts.

So yeah, after it dries you'd have to bake the parts to fully cure the stuff.