WASR upgrade

[Guest Loki]

Here is my WASR when I got it:

Ugly, unfinished wood, bad finish.

Broke her down, refinished the furniture and finish, and polished the bolt carrier.

Did it in "Russian Red", using the stain formula on AR15

Those pics were taken at dusk, makes the color darker than it is. These pics show the actual color it turned out:

[TripleDigitRide]

That looks great. Very nice job.

[Guest bkelm18]

That is some excellent looking furniture.

[R1100R]

Very nice. Can you post the formula for the stain.

[Guest Loki]

Sand the wood

2 coats of Minwax "Red Mahogany 225", wiping off excess between coats

Then a bath overnight in Rit Dye "Scarlett 5".

Let dry for 24 hours then 3 coats of Deft simi-gloss spray-on wood finish

For the Rit Dye bath I got two bottles of the liquid Rit and one of those plastic tubs the give you at the hospital. Put in the wood, weighted it down and poured in the dye, added water till it was covering the wood, then let is soak over night.

Whole thing cost about 15 bucks

There's a more complicated formula involving leather dye, iodine and Rit, but this worked pretty well.

Edited June 29, 2008 by Loki
added

[Guest Verbal Kint]

Awesome... turned out really nice. Good job.

Nice front license plate also.

[Guest c_o_jones]

Very nice. 100% better.

[Guest Loki]

Thanks all. I was going for a match of the bayonet's handle, damn near nailed it. The bayonet is just slightly darker, but it's very close.

Anybody want to do this to their AK and have any questions, PM me. I'll give some advice. But it's surprisingly easy. This is the first time I've ever broke a gun down that far, and the first time I've done any kind of wood finishing.

Only problem was I tried to put the top hand guard back in the wrong direction, and snapped it in half. Superglued it back for now. I kept the left-over Dye bath and materials and ordered a replacement from Classic Arms. Upper AND lower original WASR furniture for 9.95!

[Guest slothful1]

Nice looking gun. By the way, does recognizing the Mandalorian emblem on your license plate make me a colossal nerd?

[Guest Loki]

Nice looking gun. By the way, does recognizing the Mandalorian emblem on your license plate make me a colossal nerd?

No more than having a tattoo of it on my left arm makes me one!

[Guest mikedwood]

It looks like you have turned that silk purse into a silk purse. Looks great.

Mine still looks like a sows ear but I like it a lot.

I really like the AK platform.