Refinishing a scope?

[Don Gwinn]

I have an old Weaver K1 that I'd like to use on a 700 a good friend sent me a few years ago. The Weaver came on a .22 copy of an AR-15 (a Jaeger AP74) and I knew I didn't want it on there, so I pulled it years ago. It was rusty then; it's rustier now. I'd call it light surface rust; there are large brown patches and some fuzz, but no pitting that I can find.

My question is, what's the right way to refinish this? I've used very light polish, like Mother's mag wheel polish, to try to clean the rust off. It hasn't worked. The scope body seems to be blued, so I figure if I used Naval Jelly it'll take off the bluing, too. I guess that's what you want. I've considered just putting a few coats of Krylon on it, but it seems a shame when it was nicely blued before. I have Dura-Coat for my pistol project, but I haven't used it before and I wonder what the baking would do to the scope. I need to protect the lenses from all this, and I don't want to cause a leak by heating something gas-filled too much, for example.

What do you recommend?

 

[eden892]

refinishing scope

I refinished a old scope with duracoat. I used 600 sandpaper on the tube then wiped it off with alcohol. I cut some round foam rubber to protect the lens and put a nylon cord on the adjustments and screwed on the caps to hang it with.I did this about a year ago and it has held up good. I did not sand blast or bake it and was careful not to use any chemicals that would eat the seals after it dried to the touch I hung it in the hot Georgia sun for the day and it seemed to cure well.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Thanks, that helps! I'm tempted to say the old girl should be blued again, but I imagine that's going to entail a lot more than I want to do.

 

[Don Gwinn]

I read that Dura-Coat doesn't "have" to be baked, but theoretically, would I damage seals if I baked a scope at 150 degrees? I'm guessing yes.

 

[fixyurgun]

Duracoat will air cure in about 3 weeks. I've done 4 or 5. So far no problems. Jim

 

[gb6491]

You might want to try removing the rust with some 0000 grade steel wool (bronze/copper/brass wool or a soft brass/bronze brush would be good as well). Then touch it up (per the directions) with some cold blue. I'm partial to Brownells Oxpho Blue. If that doesn't work out you can still do the Dura Coat.
Regards,
Greg

 

[Don Gwinn]

Well, I already stripped it with Naval Jelly and scrubbed it down with a copper mesh scrub, along with the slide from my P220. Now we'll see if I can apply the DuraCoat correctly.

I did end up disassembling the scope, which made life easier. I just have to be very careful of the lenses.