Refinishing M16 reciever

*** Originally posted by polski ben ***


Hi guys, my marushin m655 reciever is quite worn with scratches and so forth and i fancy making it look like new again.

Can anyone recommend a good paint to use to refinish it? i dont mind if it is the original colour or black.

oh and im in the UK so i can't get hold of those bake on gun finishes that you guys in the US can.

*** Originally posted by mark ***


Hi Polski Ben,

The best way that i know to refinish the zinc receivers is to either polish them (for "blued finish" pistols) by sanding them with progressively finer grades of sand paper then bluing them or "glass beading" them with a low pressure blaster (for a matte military finish) and using either "super blue" or aluminum black on them. Paint is really my last choice as it rarely adheres correctly and usually comes off with alot of handling..If you do choose to paint it try to "media blast" it with either glass beads or sand as either will roughen the surface enough to give the paint something to stick to. If you blue them before you paint, the finish might last longer too....

The bake on gun finishes often have too high of tempatures for most zinc alloys and might cause the receiver to warp and cause assembly problems later.

*** Originally posted by polski ben ***


any one know what marushin use for the original finish?

*** Originally posted by madmike ***


Hello!

Do you want to paint the whole gun or just paint the scratches. If you just want to paint the scratches, I recommend Revell Email Color No. SM 302. It can be bought in 14 ml cans at almost every hobby store. I used this to cover scratches on my Marushin XM 177 E2. It worked out well because it is almost the same colour of black. But that method is just good if you have minor scratches. It is not the right thing to paint the whole gun, I guess, although the color is also available in spray cans.

Greetings from Germany,

MadMike.

*** Originally posted by mark ***


Marushin did at one time, include a can of paint in their modelgun kits as they didn't paint the upper/lower receivers,barrel, front sight housing etc. from the factory. Unfortunately, the paint is no longer available from Marushin and is probably hard to find. I have no idea what the mix # for the paint is but, i would go with MadMikes suggested Revell color SM 302 as that sounds great! Especially if you intend to refinish the entire gun. Either that or go with a dark grey color like Colt uses.

*** Originally posted by polski ben ***


well, i stripped the reciever down to bear metal and tried blueing. With absolutley no result whatsoever. The only part that blues is the barrel stub, which must be made from a differnt metal than the rest of the reciever.

*** Originally posted by mark ***


Ok, if the bluing didn't work try Birchwood Casey's "Aluminum Black" Bluing usually fails due to either skin oils, remaining silicone oils or incompatible metals. The aluminum black will blacken the metal really well.

*** Originally posted by polski ben ***


i've had a bit of success. I left the lower reciever in the bluing solution overnight and its turned a really nice dark grey black colour.
The problem is it is rusted in places and has dots of bare metal, presuambly where some oils still remained.

Can anyone give me any pointers or tips on bluing zinc as it looks like it could work really well.

*** Originally posted by needmoremgs ***


You need a bake on gun finnish, spray paint will well.. make you cry in about 2 days.

Not sure what you have in the UK but teflon based finnishes are the best. Also duracoat works as well but i've no experience with it.