Well, I got a smoking deal on a Dewalt refurbished 1.8 HP compressor, and thought why not get some duracoat to redo an older M1A scout with a black fiberglass stock. I did a little research online and came up with a small spray booth made out of 3/4" PVC and a 9-12' disposable .25mil dropcloth. I put a 1x2' 1mil plexiglas window on the top because the dropcloth wasn't transparent. I zip tied it to the pvc after drilling 4 holes in the corners. Then I masking taped the whole thing, and cut 3 slits in the front to put the airbrush through and to work through. It all worked great, and I ended up doing the badger rings for the scope as well. I did one coat today and it looks pretty good, I hope it will look even better after 2 more coats.
I bought the "easy duracoat" kit that came with a cheap harbor freight airbrush that seems to do a decent job (obviously not professional grade and if I do alot of airbrushing I will definitely upgrade this airbrush, but for a starter it definitely let me get familiar with airbrushing)
I know this isn't the artistry that several others have shown on here with amazing duracoat jobs, but as it was my first time ever using an airbrush I was pretty happy.
I used duracoat because I don't have an oven, and there is NO WAY that the wife to be will EVER let me bake anything toxic in the kitchen oven
Here are a few pictures. This is just a thread to let others thinking about duracoating something that it can be done by someone with no experience and absolutely no artistic talent.
The compressor that started the project. I had pumped up all the tires in the neighborhood, dusted the entire garage floor with the blower, and tightened everything that wasn;t nailed down with the impact ratchet, so needed something else to do with it.
Next is the spray booth from PVC...ok, ok, I SAID I'm not a professional...
Here it is from the front with the slits cut...You can see the middle primary one definitely widened with use, but the overspray was headed in the other direction, so I didn't get any blow back through the opening.
Here is a shot through the plexi, the flash really messed up the view, it is really quite clear, for the time being. I wiped it off after finishing up with a little laquer thinner to get the overspray off, and it seems to be holding up well.
Next are a few shots of the pieces I sprayed, I can hang the stock from the pvc, but it put it at a really bad angle. I think for the next few coats, I will redo the hanging wires, and maybe make a small pvc frame inside to hang it while spraying. I couldn't figure out how to hang the ring ppieces, so I just sprayed them in place, and after they flashed off i turned them to get all sides. Sorry I did not get a shot of the stock before the first coat. It was black. nuff said.
Well, I will put up some shots of the finished project in a few days after I get the other coats on. Also anyone thinking of refinishing an M1A stock, the TruStrip or whatever that comes in the kit to degrease the parts to be painted will EAT the coating off the stock...ask me how I know... I had to sand it lightly after "degreasing" it. I guess I shoulda known anything called "trustrip" might eat the finish, though I suppose the little pieces of texturized finish I sanded off were degreased
Thanks for any comments,
madd0c
I bought the "easy duracoat" kit that came with a cheap harbor freight airbrush that seems to do a decent job (obviously not professional grade and if I do alot of airbrushing I will definitely upgrade this airbrush, but for a starter it definitely let me get familiar with airbrushing)
I know this isn't the artistry that several others have shown on here with amazing duracoat jobs, but as it was my first time ever using an airbrush I was pretty happy.
I used duracoat because I don't have an oven, and there is NO WAY that the wife to be will EVER let me bake anything toxic in the kitchen oven
Here are a few pictures. This is just a thread to let others thinking about duracoating something that it can be done by someone with no experience and absolutely no artistic talent.
The compressor that started the project. I had pumped up all the tires in the neighborhood, dusted the entire garage floor with the blower, and tightened everything that wasn;t nailed down with the impact ratchet, so needed something else to do with it.
Next is the spray booth from PVC...ok, ok, I SAID I'm not a professional...
Here it is from the front with the slits cut...You can see the middle primary one definitely widened with use, but the overspray was headed in the other direction, so I didn't get any blow back through the opening.
Here is a shot through the plexi, the flash really messed up the view, it is really quite clear, for the time being. I wiped it off after finishing up with a little laquer thinner to get the overspray off, and it seems to be holding up well.
Next are a few shots of the pieces I sprayed, I can hang the stock from the pvc, but it put it at a really bad angle. I think for the next few coats, I will redo the hanging wires, and maybe make a small pvc frame inside to hang it while spraying. I couldn't figure out how to hang the ring ppieces, so I just sprayed them in place, and after they flashed off i turned them to get all sides. Sorry I did not get a shot of the stock before the first coat. It was black. nuff said.
Well, I will put up some shots of the finished project in a few days after I get the other coats on. Also anyone thinking of refinishing an M1A stock, the TruStrip or whatever that comes in the kit to degrease the parts to be painted will EAT the coating off the stock...ask me how I know... I had to sand it lightly after "degreasing" it. I guess I shoulda known anything called "trustrip" might eat the finish, though I suppose the little pieces of texturized finish I sanded off were degreased
Thanks for any comments,
madd0c
