Painting metalwork?

[Doobin]

Ok, this is a followup to my post on synthetic finished airguns. My Webley Stingray is gonna get it! The stock is all scratched up, and the barrel has got some nasty rust on it. The rest of the action is spotless though! Oh well...

I plan to get the stock rubber overmoulded by Selective Arms at Cambridge- does anyone have any better suggestions?

As for the metal work- I've had good results painting a silencer with cellulose spray pain used for cars (not the Humbrol enamel stuff!). Does anyone have any other ideas?

Will post some pics when all is done.

[Lee S]

How about stove enamelling ?? I had quite a few car components stove enamelled and it is hard as nails. Nice satin black finish, and I believe it can be sprayed on as well as dipped, so you could get them to mask off all the bits you wanted leaving un-coated, and it is quite a thin coating. It was fairly cheap too... probably cost about 15 - 20 quid to get a gun cylinder and barrel done. HTH.

[Doobin]

Now that's an idea! Cheers Lee, any idea where to get it done? Any examples of what it looks like when done?

[Lee S]

I had all my stuff done in a small place in Buckley in N. Wales, but I would imagine that you could find something more local to yourself in your Yellow Pages under 'Stove Enamelling'. Thats all I did. Try 'Yell.com'. The nearest thing I could think of for you to compare the finish against would be a satin black scope body... the body of my Nikko Sniper looks similar to the finished components. Also have a look at any component under a new-ish car (otherwise they will be covered in cr@p and you won't be able to see).. wishbones, struts, trailing arms, etc...almost all of those are enamelled. It comes in different colours too...It looks just like paint but it is very very hard. Baked on I believe. I got a scrap bit of metal sheet done at the same time as some of my car parts and beat hell out of it with a hammer to test the durability.. bent it almost double and it was all dinted, but the finish stayed on..HTH.

[DJS]

You could try some high temperature paint from a car spares shop. It's used for painting exhausts. After spraying the parts bake them in the oven. Gives a very tough finish (I think this is the same as stove enamelling). Smoothrite paint can also be baked with similar results.
Daz