A Simple Guide to Painting Your AR-15 - Page 2

ottomatic · 01-02-2011, 17:23

Two things I have wondered about before I start:
1. Optics... what (besides the glass, duh!) do you mask.
2. a) If you do Krylon and change your mind, how do you get it off?
b)If removing paint involves solvents, what about "plastics" such as grips?

BTW, good post. Thanks!

pleaforwar · 01-02-2011, 20:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by ottomatic

Two things I have wondered about before I start:
1. Optics... what (besides the glass, duh!) do you mask.
2. a) If you do Krylon and change your mind, how do you get it off?
b)If removing paint involves solvents, what about "plastics" such as grips?

BTW, good post. Thanks!

1) Glass was it for me. All knobs are working fine.
2&3) Never changed my mind, I have always been happy with the result. I have seen brake cleaner recommended for removal (spray on metal, spray on rag for polymer). I can't comment on this method, as I said before I have no experience with this.

Bushflyr · 01-02-2011, 21:19

My totallynotheeasywaypitaspray.

Base coat.

And some mask.

Shooting the green.

Final coat.

Peeling the stencils.

Final product.

trlcavscout · 01-03-2011, 11:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bushflyr

My totallynotheeasywaypitaspray.

Base coat.

And some mask.

Shooting the green.

Final coat.

Peeling the stencils.

Final product.

Looks good! Did you spray on a clear coat to protect it?

***faawrenchbndr*** · 01-03-2011, 12:22

Front sight is on backwards.

01-03-2011, 12:56

By mounting FS backwards, you gain another 1/2-3/4" of distance, plus, FSP doesn't care which way it's pointing.

***RMTactical*** · 01-03-2011, 13:30

Bushflyr, that is a great looking job right there.

pleaforwar · 01-03-2011, 13:46

Gents, let's keep the comments in line with the purpose of the thread please.

Thanks,
Dan

***faawrenchbndr*** · 01-03-2011, 13:47

Bushflyr,

Is that paint or DuraCoat?
Did you get the decals from Lauer?

Looks darn good,.......especially the Ace stock with the VTAC

**NeverMore1701** · 01-03-2011, 14:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bushflyr

My totallynotheeasywaypitaspray.

Base coat.

And some mask.

Shooting the green.

Final coat.

Peeling the stencils.

Final product.

Looks DAMN good, but way too much work for me!

01-03-2011, 18:12

If you krylon, you can also use a matte clearcoat to improve abrasion resistance. Do note, that even matte clearcoat takes away some of the flatness of the paint, but not to a point where it's siny.

trlcavscout · 01-04-2011, 16:32

So for you that have painted AR's with Krylon camo etc, how does it hold up to the oil. I have painted bolt guns with good success and wear after clear coating, but I never got oil on the paint. I am really considering painting my AR but dont want to if the oil is just gonna take it off.

01-04-2011, 16:34

My clearcoated krylon held up fine to oil, but still abrades away at contact areas, like grip and cheek.

Bushflyr · 01-04-2011, 18:01

It's Duracote. No clear over it. It's a user so I don't care if it gets worn.

I got the stencils from Bulldogarms.com.

Yes, I realize the front BUIS is "backwards" but it gains me some sight radius, as was pointed out. Also, the V-tac is a little odd in that the top rail stops short of the front of the tube.

No I won't be doing one like this again. It was a royal PITA, I'm STILL finding little square stencils that I missed over the past couple years. I wanted to do it just because I could. Now that I've ticked that box I'll be doing it the easy way next time.

I've done Krylon before, the one drawback I found was that it got sticky where I got CLP on it and never did resolidify. It didn't affect how it shot, but was kind of irritating.

Dirknar · 01-04-2011, 18:20

I painted a rifle once with krylon and will never do it again.. The first time any cleaning products, including CLP touched it the paint turned into a sticky stinky mess.. It was LAME>.

M1A Shooter · 01-04-2011, 20:11

ive painted my bolt gun and shotgun but its always been flat od green.

my ar will be painted as soon as i can find some decent netting. i like the net pattern.

pleaforwar · 01-04-2011, 20:56

Guess I have another reason for why I never use CLP.

lawman800 · 01-05-2011, 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by pleaforwar

I have seen brake cleaner recommended for removal (spray on metal, spray on rag for polymer). I can't comment on this method, as I said before I have no experience with this.

Brake cleaner worked too well... I used it to clean my milsurp M44 Mosin Nagant as I heard break cleaner worked well on Cosmoline.

I hung up my rifle, shot it with brake cleaner... saw a lot of brown coming off... and thought, man, that's a lot of cosmoline... then I realized it was the lacquer coming off the wood stock!

The rifle was clean though, not a trace of Cosmoline to be found anywhere in the metal afterwards... but I did have to refinish the wooden stock, which is fine. I got to fine sand it and raise some cartouches and re-stain the wood a nice medium red Cherry and Walnut which actually came out a nice rich Teak for some reason. It sure looked better than before with the stock Russian wooden finish.

humanguerrilla · 01-05-2011, 05:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirknar

I painted a rifle once with krylon and will never do it again.. The first time any cleaning products, including CLP touched it the paint turned into a sticky stinky mess.. It was LAME>.

Brownells Clear matte epoxy Acra coat over Krylon= no problem with cleaners or clp for me.

M1A Shooter · 01-05-2011, 06:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by pleaforwar

Guess I have another reason for why I never use CLP.

what do you use that doesnt affect the krylon?

**NeverMore1701** · 01-05-2011, 06:35

My guess would be Slip2000.

pleaforwar · 01-05-2011, 08:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1A Shooter

what do you use that doesnt affect the krylon?

I come from the school of "clean every few thousand rounds" rather than the school of "complete dis-assembly and clean after every time at the range". I am more prone to wipe down the BCG and bore-snake the barrel a couple times than anything more. As you can imagine the paint is far from being in danger from my cleaning approach.

Nevermore is correct, I prefer Slip or MPro7 for cleaning my rifles.

M1A Shooter · 01-05-2011, 18:45

ahh, ok. i am pretty much the same. just curious if you were using militech or something now. i do use clp but my rifle doesnt need to be dripping wet to run.

jdavionic · 01-05-2011, 19:00

Very nice thread! I've used Norrells moly resin. Nothing fancy though, just black...okay, Evil Black

On the Norrells, it's a bit more involved since I heated the parts before applying it, and then baked it on for an hour after application.

Dirknar · 01-06-2011, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by pleaforwar

I come from the school of "clean every few thousand rounds" rather than the school of "complete dis-assembly and clean after every time at the range". I am more prone to wipe down the BCG and bore-snake the barrel a couple times than anything more. As you can imagine the paint is far from being in danger from my cleaning approach.

Nevermore is correct, I prefer Slip or MPro7 for cleaning my rifles.

I agree for chrome lined AR's but for more accurate AR setups and accurate bolt action rifles, I clean every 1-200 rnds or whenever accuracy falls off..

Thanks for the tip on Epoxy clear coat in the above posts..