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My buddies who retrived their guns from six months in salt water can buy new 870s for what it costs to parkerize and blue them. They wonder if there's a thin paint that would do the job. If told them if there is a way to do it with paint this board would provide an answer. Thanks.

For a water fowl gun that may suffer this fate again,I would just use any old hardware store paint and keep on hunting. Why spend money on these or even replace them, go hunting!!!

If you've got an oven big enough for the barrels, Brownells GunKote, which is cured at 300 degrees for an hour.
If not, then BBQ Grill paint. Both are in spray cans and cleaning the gun before spraying is key.

Not my first choice, but you axed about paint.

Gun Kote

King,

Here is a link to a possible inexpensive solution for your buds' conundrum ...

http://www.chirienterprise.com/WhataLiner/WhataLiner.html

That's for the outside. Have them slather the uncoated cleaned up innards with Breakfree CLP & they should be back in bidness.

There are also several types of coatings that can be applied at home inexpensively using an oven to do the baking.

My beater is a Model 21 that I bought pretty cheap a few years ago and had had the triggers painted. I tried to get the gold paint off of them and never could so I just left them alone. Don't know what kind of paint they used but it sure is great. Has never worn of either. If I wanted to paint a gun flat black, I might try the paint that you can buy to paint the fire brick in the back of your fireplace to keep it uniform/all black. Now that paint is hard to get off too. It takes quite a few fires to burn it off. Good luck.

GunKote is cheap and is supposed to be effective. If your oven is not big enough to bake the barrels at 300 deg F, you can cook 'em in your BBQ by laying a steel plate over over the grill (or use the iron griddle inserts if you have them). Screw together a small jig with iron pipe to support the barrel assembly above the plate/griddle, preheat the BBQ, and go for it. If I recall corrrectly, the metal should be at 150 F or something like that before you apply the GunKote. We can get that temp around here with 30 minutes in the sun.

Another option might be to prep the bbls and etc. with fine sandpaper and then have them powder coated. I'm planning to GunKote a badly rusted saltwater 870 real soon. Had it bead blasted and blued a few years ago, and it rusted faster than it did with the original finish. You could quite literally watch the metal turn red/brown while you sat in the blind.

Duracoat doesn't require heating for curing. It comes in just about any color you could desire, and is supposed to work well. Personally, as I mentioned in another thread, I'd just pick up a can of Boesheild. It's a rust protectant that was originally developed by Boeing for aircraft parts, and I've found it to work really well. Just spray everything metal down and let it dry to a waxy coating. Cheaper than any finish and doesn't require the gun to be perfectly degreased and taken apart.

About ten years ago I was given a very externally tired 870. My winter project was painting the gun. I had used Parker Duck Boat Paint on boats and if you have used it you know how incredibly durable it is. I cleaned up all the rust which left all the metal roughed up. I stripped any remaining finish from the wood as well. I painted it with a brush using Marsh Brown as the base coat and went over the whole gun. I then used an artist brush and painted on blotches of Olive Drab. I then shadowed the Olive Drab with flat back which gave it a WWII camo look. The gun looks pretty much the same today as when I painted it, should touch up be necessary it would be simple. When I bring it in from the field on a rainy day I simply use a rag and 409 to clean it. It's not worth anything, but it's a functional fully camo'd gun. Along with being a conversation piece it is a gun I can take into the worst conditions and concentrate on the hunt without worrying about injury to a nice gun.

I used hardware store duck boat paint to spray my old Rem 1100 about 15 years ago. The paint has held up better on the gun than on the boat. Duck guns are made to withstand abuse, and the 1100 has withstood more than its share (I bought it second-hand in 1976 and have never had a problem with it).

BTW, I never worried about "the camo look," just sprayed randomly to eliminate reflections. Ducks don't give a damn what your gun looks like, as long as you don't flash it at them.

When I lived in Alaska, I painted my hunting rifle with krinkle paint. It's durable, no glare, and provides a great non slip surface even when wet.

I purchased a Philadelphia Arms 12ga that been painted black. I think eightbore suggested that it could have been done by a zealous duck hunter.

I would think that any can of Rust-oleum would work just fine.

Pete

I have a Mossberg 500 (actually, it is the even cheaper New Haven 600AT, but, you get the point) that was given to me by a convicted felon who could no longer legally own it. The stock was cracked, so I glued it with 3M 2216 structural adhesive, and painted the ugly wood with garden variety Ditzler equipment black lacquer, about 10-15 bucks a quart from automotive paint dealers back in the day. Over that went automotive "chip guard", clear spraycan stuff, a wrinkly, thick, clear goo that gives lower panels on cars some resistance to road debris. It is a stunning replica of a textured plastic stock, and looks about like it did when it went on. Also, I put sling swivels and a black nylon strap on to complete the trailer park theme. The worst part about the whole adventure was when Zanders had 28" fixed choke Mossberg barrels for $30 a pop, and I bought one and replaced the "C-lect" choke blunder tube that was on it, and inadvertantly created my go-to trap gun that won't miss clay targets. God, I shoot that piece of junk well, and God is it ugly.
Best,
Ted

If they are OK with having to re-touch the piece from time to time - BBQ Paint, or Rattle Can Krylon will work. Gun Solvents will remove these finishes quickly in my experince.

I have had great success with Alumahyde II from Brownell's, and even better success when used of a Home Parkerize Job - I got the Park kit from Shootersolutions.com It resists about any cleaning agent you would want to use on a Fire Arm, and adheres very well.

I have a Beater pump I need to refinish soon myself.

Never tried it on guns. But, I have used stove "POLISH" on free standing stoves and fireplace inserts that have been rusty and seems to do a decent job. Temps good to 1200 degrees. And,it even comes in different colors. Most fireplace shops should caary it. Again, I don't know about guns.

All of this gun painting is purely cosmetic - or should be. When hunting waterfowl, the gun should never be visible until you mount it to shoot; even a shiny chrome plated gun should be invisible to birds if you're properly blinded up. But of course, we've all seen yahoos waving their gun barrels around so that they're visible from a quarter mile off - even if the birds are as myopic as I am.

You can get 500 degree spray on engine enamel at any auto parts store. Use a rust killing solution or primer first, steel wool, degrease and spray. Its cheap durable and doesn't need baking. I use semi-gloss black.

All of this has been very helpful. Thanks. I think jack's observation has been mentioned rarely if ever here. Newbies do tend to stand out like scarecrows. You can tell when guys have been around for a while.