[Benaiah]

I recently finished painting my gun. I used a high quality spray paint, but after reading stuff here i found out that wasnt a good idea. To make the paint job i did now last as long as possible, what would you recommend as high quality, extremely durable, matte finish coat, and where could i find it? Price isnt too much of a factor, im willing to invest in the protection of my gun.

[ger]

First of all: Welcome to the Forums! Glad you found us & hope you enjoy your time here w/ us.

On topic: Krylon makes a matte clear coat... likely available anywhere Krylon is sold. I buy all my Krylon at Wal-Mart. Post pics of the finished product!

[-SMITTY-]

Either a couple coats of Krylons clear coat, or another brand of acryllic clear coat will do the job. Spray painting is just fine if done right: clean, sanded surface, good paint for plastics and metal, and topped with a couple clear coats and it will last just fine.

[Benaiah]

ger, on 31 August 2010 - 01:53 PM, said:

First of all: Welcome to the Forums! Glad you found us & hope you enjoy your time here w/ us.

On topic: Krylon makes a matte clear coat... likely available anywhere Krylon is sold. I buy all my Krylon at Wal-Mart. Post pics of the finished product!

Thanks! im so glad theres a solid community to talk with people as excited about paintball as i am.

I bought a used gun and whoever had it last did not take care of it. They painted theirs...badly. So i stripped it, sanded it, primed it, then used painters tape to make the shapes, and put the paint on in layers. It turned out pretty sweet. Ill look around for that Krylon stuff. I definitely want some type of abrasion-resistant coating for it. I dont want to have to worry about my gun in game.

Thanks! ill post pictures when im done!

[ger]

I used all Krylon paint (except for one color in Rustoleum) for my A-5: LINK.

I did not use a clear coat for it & it has held up very well w/ month after month of playing. Recently I painted my automag just a solid color & added the clearcoat but it has not held up very well - I think the difference is I didn't use a primer. Even w/ all the wear-n-tear on my A-5 the proper surface prep & priming has allowed it to maintain it's paintjob much better than my mag... which is getting redone this week likely.

[Benaiah]

I used "Stops Rust" the guy at home depot said it was better than Rustoleum. Its already scratched in a couple places, but that may be because it was not dry all the way. I can feel a slight edge at the color transition, so i want to make sure that wont be a chipping point. Also, so i know for next time, how long did you wait between coats? the can i used said either between dry to touch and within 15 min, or after 48 hours. I didnt want it to take a week, so i did it within 15 min. Would that have an effect?

[ger]

For each color I seem to recall doing it in that 15-20 minute window... when changing to a different color I waited 'til the next day. I had a few raised edges between colors too but it wasn't bad. You could get really high grit sandpaper like 1200 (automotive stores would have it, I think most of the home improvement stores only have up to 600) & very lightly sand to knock it down just a bit. I did it w/ some 600 I had on hand & it worked fine for the most part. While I am very much a perfectionist I didn't need it to be completely perfect, I like it a bit "war-torn" instead of looking like a show piece, so messing it up a bit w/ the sandpaper technique didn't bother me... you may feel differently about doing that to yours. To each his own.

[Benaiah]

I did all the colors in the same day. Oh well. Its only my first gun, and it wont be my last. Experience starts somewhere.

[Benaiah]

I decided not to use the overcoat, because if it wears off earlier then i have an excuse to do it again with duracoat or something else and make it look better. For now i guess it turned out alright.



You can see the paint cans i used in the background, as well as the painters tape i used to cut out the shapes.

[ger]

Well done for your first attempt! That looks great. Good choice not doing the grip frame, mine is almost completely worn off from the constant contact w/ my hand.

Colors, patterns, etc don't matter that much... as long as it isn't all black anymore. The most important thing though is that you are happy w/ it. Again, well done.

[Benaiah]

Thanks! Yea I figured that would happen to the grip and the bolt anyway. If they're seeing me from that, I'm in over my head and I'm done for already.

[Dark Shadow Hunter]

One trick I learned with spray paint is to bake it in the oven at 300* to 350* for 5 minutes. It will help to make it as durable as a good powder coating. The only issue I had with baking my 98 SAW is that the wife did not like the idea of me placing the marker in the oven. If you see yourself doing more painting in the future you may want to invest into a toaster oven or pizza oven for the shop.