refinishing sks beginner questions

[JBrady555]

Hello all I have a sks in a cheap ati stock that I bought a while back. It's beginning to see slot of surface rust on the front sight, barrel, and trigger guard. Since its a cheap gun already out of its original stock I was thinking of trying to refinish it myself along with putting it in one of those choate svd knock off stocks.

I wanted to try to use "Lauer DuraCoat Aerosol Firearm Finish".http://www.midwayusa.com/product/1841368409/lauer-duracoat-aerosol-firearm-finish

Anyone try this stuff? Would you recommend it for a novice? Can it withstand the temps that a barrel can reach? Thanks in advance for any info you may have for a first time gun refinisher.

 

[N.Schafer]

I apply duracoat and gunkote professionally. I don't use the aerosol cans but the product should be the same. It is a decent finish and will withstand the barrel heat.

It can be applied in a few different ways. The easiest is to just clean, degrease, and spray. It will adhere ok and give better protection than spray paint.

Or you can rough up the surface with sand paper a little and then spray.

The professional way is to fully disassemble, degrease, sand blast, parkerize, and then spray.

If you already have rust, you need to remove it first or you will just trap it.

 

[rcmodel]

All that & more.

You have to STOP the rust before you can paint over it.

Or, you could just stop the rust with 0000 (Super-Fine) steel wool and oil.

And then wipe it down when you shoot or handle it with a rig-rag.

http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleani...ag-universal-grease-applicator-prod31843.aspx

I gay-Ron-Tee-Ya it won't rust again.

And then again, it could be the corrosive ammo you are shooting in it causing the rust if you aren't cleaning it properly after shooting it.

rc

 

[JBrady555]

All that & more.

You have to STOP the rust before you can paint over it.

Or, you could just stop the rust with 0000 (Super-Fine) steel wool and oil.



rc

This was pretty much my plan. Take it down to bare metal where there is rust. Then aerosol duracoat.

 

[Kp321]

I also Duracoat professionally. The prep work is very important if you want a good, long lasting finish. The first thing is to get rid of the rust as already mentioned. I do a fine grit blast to remove the rust and give the metal a profile for the paint to adhere to. Another very important step,,maybe the most important, is to thoroughly degrease. This can be a chore on an SKS. I spray with brake cleaner then wipe down with lacquer thinner followed by one more wipe down with Duracoat Tru Strip. This is the product recommended by Lauer so I use it. It is not cheap so I use it sparingly. All of this degreasing is done while wearing clean latex gloves. The gloves serve two important functions, protect your skin from the strong solvents and keep oily fingerprints off the clean metal. Wear latex gloves while painting too, Duracoat is very tenacious when you get it on your hands. Practically has to wear off.
If you have an air source, it is cheaper to pick up a $10.00 air brush at Harbor Freight and buy 4 ounces of the straight paint instead of the aerosol product. You will get a much smoother job and have enough paint to do two or three more jobs. The left over paint has a long shelf life if tightly capped. The hardener is good for two years if kept refrigerated.

 

[JBrady555]

Thanks for all the info guys

 

[tnxdshooter]

Best way I've found is to have it aluminum oxide blasted, parkerized, then kg moly, duracoated, Teflon coated, or cerakoted.