I had my Mini-14 parkerized 26 years ago and when I got it back the action was very stiff. One of the guys at the gun club told me that it's stiff from the parkerizing. He used to be an armorer in the military and he said that I have to hand cycle it and shoot it to smooth out the rough surfaces imparted by the parkerizing. I did that, lubricated the action and it smoothed out.
I later used MG Coat which is a parkerizing touch up paint. This is similar to the gun coatings which contain Teflon in parkerizing color.
Another thing you may want to do is to coat the gas piston with anti seize lubricant to keep it from sticking. I learned that the hard way when I found my gas piston stuck to the operating rod and I had a hard time to loosen it. The anti seize lubricant prevented this from recurring.
I later used MG Coat which is a parkerizing touch up paint. This is similar to the gun coatings which contain Teflon in parkerizing color.
Another thing you may want to do is to coat the gas piston with anti seize lubricant to keep it from sticking. I learned that the hard way when I found my gas piston stuck to the operating rod and I had a hard time to loosen it. The anti seize lubricant prevented this from recurring.
