How do I refinish a duracoated rifle?

[Guest Keinengel]

Hello all. I am about to trad for an AR15 that has been finished in a camo pattern. I would prefer a solid color so I would like to refinish it. I'm unsure of the brand or type of finish on it. I would assume the finish on it would need to be removed before it can be refinished. How exactly would I go about handling this without breaking the wallet?

[runco]

I have a duracoated a few items. To do it on the cheap, like I did the first time, first, you will need to disassemble and sand blast the parts that has the current coating. Sandblasting media will run $25-$50, use ebay for the best price for aluminum oxide. You will need a sand blast gun, harbor freight has the cheap hand held ones that looks like a paint gun, cost $25. Use a bucket or large card board box to catch your spent media, you can reuse and reuse. Then you will need to buy the duracoart, probably close to $20, maybe less, then finally you will need a airbrush gun. I bought my from Amazon, $9. I had a air compressor, but if you do not have one, they do have cheap ones at Walmart. You just need around 30psi and I think around 3.5 cfms. I do not recommend using the oven that you use for cooking food, if you have an extra $10 lying around, buy a toaster over from the local thrift store. To finish, follow the instructions on the duracoat process, clean, clean, clean, the parts, wear gloves, and then paint. Allow to air dry, and then bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Then you are done. I estimate it will cost you: $80-$100 w/o buying a air compressor, assuming you have none of the sandblasting items and toaster oven, but your 2nd duracoat jot, it will only cost you the cost of the duracoat, $19. For me it was a wonderful experience. I have a post from earlier in the year on my first experience, it was a hoot.

[alwaysonjohn]

unfortunately you have to sandblast the duracoat off. which also means you need to completely disassemble the gun. If you don't know what you are doing you can sandblast part of your gun off so i recommend you take it to a gunsmith or refinisher/cerakoter etc.

Some people will tell you that you can use paint stripper. While that may work for one coat of duracoat, multiple layers (which is what camo is) are pretty much immune so bathing it in paint stripper won't work. You will have to sandblast what's there off and you might as well pay one person to do both. GunRunner did my last "fix it" job, where some shop in West Memphis AR that I wont name (let's just say he used to be a sponsor) painted my gun like it was a nintendo wii and he put so many layers it wouldn't assemble (not to mention he forgot to take the firing pin out so he painted it in place). GunRunner not only fixed the dang thing, but he gave it the freaking best paint job ever. I went ahead and replaced a few parts rather than trying to fix them such as the firing pin which had to be hammered out.

he fixed and recerakoted the top handgun in sniper gray (which has a black/blueish look to it). The handles are VZ grips in gray/black. When you look at it, just remember I couldn't assemble this handgun because of how many layers of duracoat someone else put on it (It was almost bound for the trashcan!)! I think that was the first time you saw this grown man cry. I always recommend you go with cerakote, and black is the most popular choice for black evil rifles. Colors will be the same price so why not build one in black/fde? Everything is up to you but try to make it look a little classy!
[img]http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii600/alwaysonjohn/332993_10151087756351460_209178519_o.jpg[/img] Edited November 21, 2012 by alwaysonjohn