DuraCoat Painting Made Easy
By Ian Kenney
DuraCoat is a two-part chemical coating designed specifically for painting firearms and accessories for a durable lasting finish. DuraCoat has become immensely popular with firearms enthusiasts due to the wide variety of colors and ease of application. The fact of the matter is that there is an infinite amount of colors available since DuraCoat colors can be mixed to create a truly custom finish. The other thing that I like about DuraCoat is that it is an air cure paint that can be handled and used relatively soon after application. Now I’ve seen quite a few individuals imply that you have to leave DuraCoat alone for three weeks or more before you can use whatever it is that you’ve painted. However, even though the directions that come with each bottle of paint say that DuraCoat takes three to six weeks to cure, it also says that the painted item can be reassembled and used as normal after just 24 hours. After 24 hours the finish is resistant to most normal cleaning solvents and gains its final hardness against stronger, more aggressive solvents after the three week curing time. I’ve used other paints, like Aluma-Hyde II, that required days or even weeks before the firearm or accessory could even be used. It’s for these reasons that I’ve turned to DuraCoat for most of my firearms finishes within the last couple of years. In this article I’m going to show you how I refinished a complete rifle using DuraCoat paints and other simple tools available at most hardware stores anywhere.
Preparation
As with any refinishing project doing the proper prep work is the difference between a job well done and something you’ll be embarrassed to take outside. For me, the first step in starting a refinishing project is to gather all of the necessary tools to do the job. For this project I used the following materials and tools to finish the job:
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DuraCoat Tactical Flat Dark Earth and OD Green Paint
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DuraCoat Reducer
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Measuring Spoons
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Two Preval Sprayer Units
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Nitrile Gloves
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Thick Rubber Gloves
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Face Mask
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Goggles
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Masking Tape
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Ear Plug
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Blow Dryer
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Paint Stripper
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Cleaner/Degreaser
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Steel Wool
Once I’d gathered all of the tools I’d need and set up a work area in my basement I started getting the stock ready for some paint. As a general rule, I make sure the surfaces that I want to paint are clean and free of grease or other solvents and tape off anything that I don’t want paint to get onto. For the stock this meant taping off the bedding in the action and trigger guard areas so the paint wouldn't have a chance to cause any tolerance issues.
In the picture above you can see the masking tape covering the action area and recoil pad to keep paint from getting on those surfaces.
After the prep work on the stock was completed I started working on the metal parts that I wanted to paint. Prior to this though, I’d sent the barreled action and bottom metal to Harold Fredd in Wisconsin for bead blasting so the paint would have a better surface to adhere to. Bead blasting isn’t completely necessary for DuraCoat but it is recommended. If you don’t have access or time to a bead blaster the metal surfaces can be roughed up with a scotch bright pad. I used this method to prepare my AR-15 upper and lower receivers and the finish has held on very well.The barrel was sealed off use a foam earplug in the muzzle to protect the crown and a little bit of play dough to seal off the chamber and breach face.
Blue play dough pushed down to cover the breach face and an earplug to prevent paint from getting in the muzzle.
I decided to completely disassemble the bolt for painting by removing the bolt shroud and cocking piece from the firing pin assembly. While this isn’t really necessary I wanted to do it to give it a more finished look by making sure all the pieces got painted inside and out. Even though there are tools for disassembling a Remington 700 firing pin assembly I used a more field expedient method, it wasn’t perfect but it worked. Once it was all disassembled I taped over the bolt face and the back of the lugs to prevent any headspace issues. After those things were taped off all that was left was to degrease the metal parts with acetone and hang them up for painting.
With just about any refinishing job the prep work is the most tedious and time consuming aspect of the project but when done right the end result will be well worth it.
Getting Ready To Paint
I wanted to take a couple of minutes and explain exactly what I used for this project to apply the DuraCoat to the stock and barreled action. Almost every time I see or hear people talk about DuraCoat they also usually say that you have to have a HVLP sprayer or an airbrush to apply it yourself. Now certainly using a HVLP sprayer or an airbrush would’ve been preferable if I had a compressor or felt like getting the airbrush kit from Lauer Custom Weaponry or Harbor Freight. However, since I was only doing one rifle in two colors I decided to use Preval sprayers as an alternative method of application that was cheaper and just as effective at applying the DuraCoat. Lauer Custom Weaponry sells Preval sprayers in addition to the airbrush kits and they can be found in the paint section of many hardware stores. The thing that I like the most about the Preval sprayer for jobs like this is that it is incredibly simple, consisting of a 9 oz jar for holding the paint and a screw on power/sprayer unit. To use it all you do is pour the amount of paint, or other liquid, you want into the jar, screw the power unit on, and start spraying like you would with any aerosol spray paint. Another cool thing is that the jars can be cleaned out and replacement power units purchased for future projects. On average the complete Preval sprayer unit costs about $6 and replacement power units cost about $3 from most hardware stores.
The Stock
My McMillan A5 was the first thing to get painted since it was the only thing getting repainted in OD Green. The instructions that came with the paint were pretty straightforward, mix one teaspoon of hardener for every four tablespoons of paint. I underestimated the amount of paint that I needed and used four tablespoons of paint when in reality I needed about double that amount. Once I had the proper ratios of paint and hardener in the jar, I screwed the sprayer unit to the jar and gave it a little shake to mix everything together. At this point, applying the DuraCoat was as easy as using Krylon and the method of application is the same as outlined in my previous article on applying a camouflage pattern. I held the sprayer about 6”-8” from the stock and used deliberate, even bursts of paint while going up and down the stock. The first pass was really to just apply a light dusting all over the stock, after which I hit it with the blow dryer to evaporate (flash off) the surface solvents in the paint.
Buttstock portion of the stock after receiving a couple of initial passes from the sprayer. You can see that the OD hasn't completely covered the orginial tan color of the stock.
It’s important to use nice even passes, going up and down or side to side, to prevent the paint from running or otherwise not doing what you want it to do. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a nice ugly run in an otherwise great paint job.
With each new coat I applied, I used the blow dryer to flash
off the paint and let it sit for a couple minutes before moving on to the next one. After I’d gotten a few coats on the stock and I was satisfied that I’d covered up everything I’d wanted covered, I let it sit for an hour and brought it back upstairs because that part of the project was finished.
Barreled Action
The next group of parts to get coated was the barreled action, bottom metal, and AICS magazines, which were all getting done in Tactical Flat Dark Earth. Since there were more parts to coat it took a little more planning in regards to what order things were going to get painted and where I was going to hang them. The most important thing to get coated was the barreled action itself, mainly the flutes ib the barrel, followed by the bolt, bottom metal, and lastly the magazines. After I had everything hanging up so that it was relatively easy to get to I mixed the paint up the exact same way I’d done the OD Green earlier. Only this time I added about two teaspoons of DuraCoat Reducer to the mix to help the paint go on more evenly to the barreled action and other small parts like the bolt shroud and cocking piece. I used the same kind of smooth, even passes that I had with the stock followed by the blow dryer to get the paint to flash off before I moved on to the next coat. One word of advice though, when painting a fluted barrel it really helps to have a bright light that you shine down in the flutes to make sure you get everything. The next most frustrating thing is to get all the way finished and think you did a great job and see “glitter” showing through the paint near the top of a flute.
I like to take my time when painting and make sure that I give everything a nice even coat, hitting the parts with a Surefire light and making sure I didn’t miss a spot. Some parts got three of four coats before I was satisfied and let them sit so that they could dry and eventually cure.
The Finished Product
One reason that I like DuraCoat so much is that a project like this can be done down in the basement or out in the garage over the weekend and be ready to shoot by Sunday afternoon. Figure get everything prepped Friday evening, paint Saturday morning, reassemble everything the next morning, and shoot Sunday afternoon if it’s nice enough. I waited the prescribed 24 hours before reassembling the rifle and I have to say that I couldn't be happier with the results. The finish looks great and it appears that I didn't miss any spots, which is what I was the most afraid of since I'd used up most of the paint. The total cost of this project for me was $125, which covered the bead blasting, paint, sprayers, gloves, and other materials needed to get the job done, not too bad for a weekend project.
Here is the before picture showing the tan and black color scheme.
Here is the rifle after the stock texturing job and new color scheme.
