VHT engine paint on an AKM

[Bang]

Not sure I posted this before. If I did, sorry. I did a search and couldn't find me, if I did.

As a break from the Frein discussion, I thought I would try to contribute something more directly relating to guns.

The subject of the make-over is a WASR-10. A few years back I had painted my 10-63 with rattlecan truck bed paint, and it came out to my liking. Passing this on to a friend (who paints cars), he tried it on his -10, sanding the metal first, thinking he would give the paint some tooth. His rather quickly peeled quite a bit, mine not so much, but it clearly was not a great result. Mine is now bare manufacturer's (worn) bluing or blacking or whatever Eastern Bloc's secret is.

Shooting together recently, his AK was all over the target for both of us. I offered to work with it, and took it home.

The crown was eroded in spots that would influence the projectile's exit, so I re-crowned it, took it to the range and was very happy with the improvement but felt it could be a tad better.

Suspecting the scope I locked the rifle up as solidly as I could into the bench bags, let the hammer fall on an empty chamber, and saw the reticle twitch sideways to the left a tad. Several of these little shock tests established that the reticle was dancing a little bit, contributing to the size of the group. The scope will be replaced. Crown job tested with iron sights resulted in good enough for government work.

I then spent two nights and a day carefully removing the truck bed paint and other preparatory activities and painted the rifle with VHT (Very High Temperature) engine paint. I tried this paint because it is heat-cured and figured it should be more resistant to deterioration. It requires 200 degrees in an oven for an hour. The rifle fits diagonally in our oven, and my wife is an angel when it comes to things like this.

The paint job came out very well. The can is labeled satin black but the cap on the can suggested a more flat finish. As it came out, the satin is a bit glossier than the satin I had in mind and thus was a little disappointed. Its owner, however, is very happy with it, which makes me happy.

Running the safety (which I notched to act as a catch on an open bolt handle)up and down on the truck bed paint instantly cut through to bare metal. I ran it up and down several times on the cured engine paint and it is apparent this engine paint is tougher.

Odd thing about cure time. The paint has to air-cure overnight, then it gets heat-cured. On the can it said 200 degrees for one hour, yet on VHT's website it says 20 minutes. I opted for the longer time. BTW, this VHT must be heat cured. That's the part that intrigued me. So does some of the actual gun paints.

[MT1]

Do you have photos? Would love to see the final product.

[Bang]

Have no photos, sorry. I can add, this paint is easy to apply. Two thinner coats rather than a thick one is always suggested and is true. Got lucky, no runs, and no dry fuzzy spots. Not bragging on myself, I'm saying the paint job really looks nice.