Painting lower and uppers?

zr600

New member
Should I paint my lower and upper receivers stripped or assembled? I'm just starting your first at build have all the parts for my lower the part for the upper are in the mail. Should have them Monday.
 
When I sent mine off for Cerakote, I completely stripped it. Seems like most guys that Krylon them, just tape off critical areas and spray fully assembled.
 
It doesn't either way. If you paint each part before assembly, keep the paint out of the receiver threads, where the barrel fits and the magwell.

I painted all of my rifles after assembly with spray paint. It's not as durable as Duracoat or Alumacoat, but it's easier to strip if I change my mind and easy to touch up

ThreeWolves_zps775e77b7.jpg
 
If the gun is going to be nothing but a safe queen, then painting it might be OK. However, I've found that paint on guns usually winds up looking much like this if the weapon receives a lot of handling. Paint is paint, pure and simple. It wears. It chips. It scratches very easily. And it doesn't touch up very well.

Some of the newer "coatings" like Duracoat, etc. are better. But when you get right down to it, they are nothing more than high tech, epoxy based paint jobs. Another thing is they don't hold up well to cleaning solvents, and stain very easily. I have a friend who had a "sniper rifle" Duracoated. When he got the gun he was very happy with it. From the box it looked fantastic. They really did a nice job. But after just a few trips to the range, along with a few cleaning jobs, the gun quickly started to look like crap. The barrel solvents played he!! with the finish near the muzzle and the breech. The finish on the bolt handle was starting to disappear as well. In short, none of these paint coatings will hold up as good as bluing, be it matte or gloss. Or the black oxide coatings that the Aluminum AR's get treated with.

 
At the very least I would remove the safety/fire control group unless you don't mind leaving the small portion of the lower underneath the selector unpainted.
 
Originally Posted By: NightvisionaryAt the very least I would remove the safety/fire control group unless you don't mind leaving the small portion of the lower underneath the selector unpainted.

You could spray it, move the selector switch, then spray it again. But it isn't going to matter because it will all look like crap in short order.
 
We disassemble anything we receive, lightly sandblast, soak in Acetone for about 15 minutes, then bake at 300* for 20 minutes to draw out any oil, grease, etc. then blast and soak again if necessary.

Otherwise we then paint with Duracoat and air dry for a day before reassembling. If it's a rush job, we'll bake the Duracoat for an hour at 250* to expedite the curing.

These are times and temps that work for us. Your mileage may vary.

But it is important to strip the parts first. You can use foam ear plugs cut into smaller pieces to insert into the pin holes, etc...
 
If you are just going to rattle can them, assemble everything and spray away. Yes spray paint wears off but you can redo it whenever you like. And yes billt work guns tend to look like that as most are lazy enough not to care about resorting and stripping to keep it looking good. All but one of my rifles are painted and yes they have wear marks but it doesn't bother me, to each their own. Some just don't want black or shiny bluing/stainless/brushed stainless whatever.
 
Originally Posted By: jordan0317 And yes billt work guns tend to look like that as most are lazy enough not to care about resorting and stripping to keep it looking good.

Then what's the point of painting them in the first place?
 
Originally Posted By: billtIf the gun is going to be nothing but a safe queen, then painting it might be OK. However, I've found that paint on guns usually winds up looking much like this if the weapon receives a lot of handling. Paint is paint, pure and simple. It wears. It chips. It scratches very easily. And it doesn't touch up very well.

Some of the newer "coatings" like Duracoat, etc. are better. But when you get right down to it, they are nothing more than high tech, epoxy based paint jobs. Another thing is they don't hold up well to cleaning solvents, and stain very easily. I have a friend who had a "sniper rifle" Duracoated. When he got the gun he was very happy with it. From the box it looked fantastic. They really did a nice job. But after just a few trips to the range, along with a few cleaning jobs, the gun quickly started to look like crap. The barrel solvents played he!! with the finish near the muzzle and the breech. The finish on the bolt handle was starting to disappear as well. In short, none of these paint coatings will hold up as good as bluing, be it matte or gloss. Or the black oxide coatings that the Aluminum AR's get treated with.



Agree. If you are sure you will keep the rifle forever and don't mind it looking like a 3rd grade art project over time, paint it. If you care about the value of the gun and there is a chance to either upgrade or outright sell some time in the future don't do it. I would never buy a painted gun or major assemblies from them unless the seller stripped the paint off. Watch the items that are sold on this site in the classifieds section to see it in action.
 
Last edited:
Because after deployment during training they don't get touched up and get ran hard and paint jobs don't matter, before deploying they get resprayed and off to the races again. And even that jacked up paint job is better than having a big [beeep] black 2x4 that stands out like crazy and makes a very good aiming point for an enemy to hold on....
 
Back
Top