New Wood for Hand Guard on AK

[WALKERs210]

I have had a Maadi AK for sometime now, when I bought the rifle it had the skeleton stock and the wood on hand guard had been replaced with fiber glass type. I ran across a new set of wood for the AK that I really liked and after a small amount of work sanding/fitting everything is in place except for the wood over the gas tube. The securing parts appear to be spot welded and I don't want to damage anything so its time for members of THR to come to the aid. Pic attached is more or less just to show what is what.
Thanks

 

[Reloadron]

I may still have one complete from many years ago at home (at work now). Anyway, I think (operative word being think) the wood hand guard gets twisted in. Working from the bottom of the metal the wood is twisted around and into the metal. I suck at explaining this. If I still have the piece I think I do I'll post a picture when I get home if nobody else covers this.

Ron

 

[SilentScream]

Ron is correct, when installing the wood, it is started upside down, pushed up and rotated into place.

 

[WALKERs210]

This is why I keep the link for THR first in line on the toolbar. Logic points that it should be something simple or at the most maybe two handed something or the other. It is in one way very embarrassing that this was so easy, and after reading what you posted Ron it took about 30 seconds to have the new wood in place. Thanks and I owe you a cup of coffee.

 

[Reloadron]

Glad it worked out for you and thanks to Silent Scream for pointing out my missing word was Rotate! Long day at work.

Never found the gas tube I thought I had and likely gave it away years ago. Did find some other AK wood and possibly a O3 Springfield piece of wood though. When I retire I need to get some organization to all this stuff.

Ron

 

[WALKERs210]

Ron I was for many many years a complete neat freak. Everything had to be in its place, lined up and sorted by size. Now if things are in the same general area that's good enough.

 

[WALKERs210]

ok since you fine people have jumped into the middle of this with no problem lets throw out the other half of what I was looking at. Who ever had started working on this gun well lets just say he paint left a lot to be desired. As I have mentioned before I am not quit as fussy as I was just a few years ago but the paint finish on the AK needs attention. One thought I had was to disassemble everything that I could and either coating he painted area with paint remover or setup sandblaster to bring this somewhere back to what should be prsentable. I was looking at using crused walnuts to prevent damaging the metal or using paint remover but don't want a mess to follow up . Again this does not have to be a 110% job but shure don't want a job that looked like it was done by a 1st graders. Since you fine people had me going straight on trac thoght I give a shot at his part.

 

[Reloadron]

OK, here is what I would do. Just me as I am sure others will have thoughts. Remove all of the wood from the rifle and get some paint stripper from your local home improvement store. Use the stripper in accordance with the directions as in gloves or whatever. Strip all the paint and wash all the wood off to get it as natural as possible. Let it dry a few days in a warm area. Sand to a smooth finish using medium to fine followed by 0000 steel wool.

Min-Wax makes good stains and their are others. I would use a good oil stain. Let that dry and then again with 0000 steel wool. Next I would use Birchwood Casey Tru Oil and again follow the directions and work up a nice oil finish on all the wood. Takes time and work but if done right gives a beautiful finish.

Ron

 

[WALKERs210]

Ron, guess I didn't clearly convey what I meant. The wood is in perfect condition, in fact the reason I bought it and decided to redo the AK was the woods super finish. The receiver, barrel and other areas has been painted black and in some points it has drips so think it looks like a chocolate cake icing running down. I had concerned disassembling and literally sand blasting but was concerned with damaging the metal. Other thought was to just use a higher quality paint remover and then attempt to either repaint with Dura-coat similar paint. Just looking for ideas and maybe what has worked for others

 

[Reloadron]

Man, I screwed that up thinking the wood.

If you have access to sand/bead blasting I would try it on a very small masked off section. It won't hurt the metal but I am not sure what is under the paint and what sand blasting will do to the finish.

Anyway, I would sand blast and then just refinish the entire rifle. There are some real nice finishing materials out but I have not played around with them. I would bead or sand blast then think serious about Dura Coat.

Others may have some additional thoughts.

Ron

 

[BBBBill]

Bead blast preferred, sand blast - OK. Parkerize it, then Cerracoat (1st choice), GunKote (2nd choice), or Dura Coat (3rd choice). The finish options are based on my personal experience and observations. Others may have different views.