[USSF06]

I finally had a chance to visit home and pick up my old firearms I had when I was a kid.

One of the rifles has some rust on the outside of its barrel. The major spot was only about an inch in length. I used some steel wool and removed most of it, but now I am left with a horrific scar on the barrel.

I researched how to remove rust and reblue firearms, but I don't have the tools to do it like they show.

What are my options? The rust appears to be gone. Can I paint over it with something like Duracoat (the entire barrel)? Will re-bluing turn the silverish areas where the rust was black again and match to the rest of the barrel?

I don't want to invest money towards a gunsmith to fix it. I'd rather fix it myself.

*I know there is a separate forum for this question, and mods feel free to move it if you want, but there are more people who participate in this forum and more opinions I trust here.

 

[whofarted]

I can tell you from first hand knowledge that consumer cold blue products suck. I got a wild hair up my butt and tried to reblue my grampas hacked up shotgun... Lets just say its wears alotta bbq paint on it nowadays.<--not sumtin i suggest either.

Ive also used the blueing product on mags ive altered. Those came out better but still looked more like a weird patina.

Morale of the story... know what youre getting into before you get in over your head like I did.


PS... you said mods:lol:

 

[hottarod]

I got that paste Birchwood Casey stuff to do small touch ups. It works on some blued finishes and not on others or it may be the type of metal involved. I use q-tips and it requires multiple applications. I re-did my entire old Arisaka 7.7 with it. It came out ok for an old WW2 relic.

 

[grumpy_old_man]

Hi USSF06;

Sorry to read about the rust issues. Whofarted is 100% correct, the cold blue products you find in the stores suck big time. I keep one of the cold blue markers here, but its just to touch up small scratches - and even that doesn't "stick".

Some have reported success with oxpho blue over at Brownells, but I have no first hand experience with the stuff. Am tempted to try it rather than going the full hot acid bath blue route, probably will order up a bottle next time I put together a Brownells order for acraglass (one of my minis needs a bedding job).

If you go with bluing, be careful. The chemicals used are massively toxic so be hyper careful!

Good luck,
Grumpy

 

[old grump]

Only way is to get your applicator and try it. If the result is not to your liking you either live with it or do like I did with my old Win 94 32 spcl. Bite the bullet, take it to your gunsmith for a complete re-bluing. I have a couple of revolvers I touched up and they look good but like the man said it depends on what was on there before and what kind of steel you have under it.

 

[DDDWho]

I've cold blued guns in the past. It never matches the original. A complete cold blue job involves some work and metal prep that I've never been able to accomplish correctly. If you want to be proud of as perfect a gun as possible have it professionally glass bead blasted and re blued. I did exactly that with the old Remington 514 I've owned for over 60 years. After a light sanding and refinishing of the stock its my prettiest gun. It holds a lot of memories for me. To my mind the $100 cost of the re blue job was worth it.

 

[wxl]

I had an old gun that had a lot of rust on it and I tried the cold blue stuff. The first time it didn't work well at all. I tried it again and this time I buffed it really well with Scotchbrite, then clean it with rubbing alcohol. After applying the cold blue I buffed it gently again to smooth the surface. I repeated it 5 times until I got the finish at least half way decent. I then put about 3 coats of Nufinish car wax on it to protect the finish. It didn't come out perfect, but it's decent. The key is use alcohol to get all the oil off.

 

[USSF06]

What about painting the barrel? Could that be a solution to cover up the scars? Or would I have to reblue it first?

I've never painted a barrel before, but it seems like a good black tone could hide the damage.

 

[hottarod]

No blue needed to put down Duracoat. You might look up some youtube videos on people doing Duracoat projects. Key as has been said is clean, white metal and no oils or contaminants. If the parts will fit, low temp bake them for an hour or so in the oven. That is kind of hard to do with a barrel perhaps. You could run a flame over it at least.

You need an air brush for Duracoat I believe.

Or this;

 

[KingANuthin]

Absolutely you can duracoat it. I've used Bronells Aluma Hyde on a stock but it can be used on complete firearms. Stron stuff.

ALUMA-HYDE® II | Brownells

Just make sure you completely neutralize the rust first. I think Bronells has something for that too.

I got an Ithica model 37 I might paint. It's got a lot of spots from the last owner, but I think it would look sharp with a barrel cut and some tactical paint.

 

[pdog]

I bought a totally rusted Ruger Mark 2 22 pistol recently. I have used Brownells Alumi-Hyde on 3 other rifles with great success. I bought the Brownells Duracoat and tried it after totally buffing off all of the rust and apparently I did not have the outside totally degreased as it chipped off in several places. I went back to my flat black Alumi-Hyde and it turned out great. Go with it!

 

[Wil]

Living here off the Gulf Coast will get you rust eventually no matter how hard you fight it.

For small spots I have always degreased it with alcohol and just used a "Sharpie Permanent Marker". It covers small spots perfectly and much better than cold blue pens. Comes in all colors but depending on the exact blue finish either a black or blue on works easy.

Wil

 

[Old Navy]

Check out the "Blue Wonder" gun blue site. Sounds like a simple one step process.