I would like to paint my bolt a flat black. It is currently an anodized grey.
I'm a noob at this and was wondering what the right procedure is. Do I need to strip it down, if so, how?
Will a flat black spray paint work? Any primer needed?
Thanks in advance for any and all input!
How strong of a finish do you want?
Or rather how much are you willing to pay?
Bang for your buck this is a great paint.
ALUMA-HYDE® II | Brownells
VERY durable stuff. Fairly easy to apply, no primer needed for either plain unfinished metal (including stainless steel) or anodizing, but there are a few things I have to warn you about -
It is pretty thick stuff, so it will clog spray nozzles easily. A clogged nozzle will spit out clumps of paint and could easily ruin your project. Two solutions - 1)
buy replacement nozzles 2) keep a small bowl of solvent handy (I use denatured alcohol) and just run the nozzle
through it a few time to clear any built up paint.
The air cure time is about 1 week. You can cut that down dramatically by baking it at low temp for a few hours.
This finish was designed for firearms, and specifically formulated to withstand cleaning solvents used on firearms. Is it ding or chip proof?
No, nothing is. But it is strong enough to wear I encourage you to make 100percent sure that this is something you want to do because when properly applied it is VERY difficult to remove.
If you want something even stronger, you can look at cerakote, but they do not come in spray can form, so unless you are already set up to spray it is not a viable option. But there are a lot of places that professionally spray cerakote and could do it for you, but it probably wont be cheap.
If it is more for laughs and you want something durable but isnt going to be crazy to remove (and even cheaper) then check out duplicolor500. It is a ceramic based paint used for engine parts and is commonly sold in most automotive stores. No primer needed here either. Ive sprayed it on bare steel, blued steel, ano, etc etc. No difference.
The key to making this one durable (much more than your garden variety Krylon or whatever) is after you are finished applying the paint is to bake it at approx 350 degrees F for at least a couple hours.
This paint has something of a texture to it no matter how you spray it, if you do not want the texture all you need to do is after you have baked it (and waited for it to cool down) take a paper towel that is ever so slightly damp with solvent and LIGHTLY wipe down your painted surfaces until they look smooth and uniform. If done correctly this will not compromise the paint. This paint CAN be removed with solvents, and again is fairly durable but not as much as alumahyde or cerakote.
KG Gunkote is another product that comes in flat black in spray can form. It has a very good rep in the firearms community, but I have no personal experience with it
Prep is the key to painting ANYTHING.
Jules has a good basic outline of prep that I would follow
