Spacehog 2,218 Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 First of all, I am new to the forum, and I want to thank everyone for the wealth of experience and knowledge that is available here. I have successfully restored two Saigas a 7.62 and S12 in the last couple of months and have been bitten by the bug hard. I have searched for options on customizing or refinishing plastic and haven't found much outside of Duracoat or GK. Although both are fine options, I wanted to move away from the plastic look. I came up with this process to give a strongly textured look on the standard polymer AK stock. The process begins with cleaning all the parts with Dawn dishwashing detergent in hot water and a toothbrush. Afterwards, I soak them in a 1% citric acid based plastics washing solution.(The same stuff used on automotive bumpers and fascia before painting. Fortunately plastic and metal pretreatment happens to be what I do for a living, so I had it lying around). After thoroughly drying and taping up the magazine catch areas I started to paint. I used Krylon Fusion as the base coat. This stuff actually fuses to the top layer of plastic. I spray two coats about 15 min apart. When the second coat is still slightly tacky, I spray on Rustoleum Multicolored textured. I spray 3 -4 very thin coats holding the nozzle approximately 18 inched away from the work piece. I wait about 10 minutes between coats. Using this method, you can build the texture to the desired thickness. The coating is extremely hard and has held up well to handling and shooting. It tolerates oils well, although I would imagine hard core solvents would likely soften and /or remove the coating. Finishing with Duracoat or Brownells matte clear should help. Currently I am doing some testing with different topcoats, oils, and solvents to determine what will give the best results. I have even used this on the rubber rail pads of my S12 with no delamination. Hopefully this may help someone out there seeking to give a different look to the polymer furniture on their Saigas. Thanks again for all the terrific posts. Keep em coming. Woody 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TIMTIMTIM 57 Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Awesome! I have been doing a ton of reading on paint and what not. Istill have no clue what route i want to go. I was considering alumahyde II but, i still have yet to have found solid list of directions. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Spacehog 2,218 Posted January 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 I am in the same boat in regards to the receiver and barrel. I am going to carry them to a customer of mine that parkerizes for the military. He'll bead blast them and put about 1400mg/sqft of manganese phosphate on them. I am just not sure whether I want to just oil over the park finish or topcoat with Duracoat. I kinda like the look of Parked and oiled over the top-coated paint option. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RED333 1,025 Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Thanks Sapcehog, nice tip!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DrThunder88 912 Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 Looks very good! Well done. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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