Painting a black plastic stock?

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I recently inherited a Mini-14 Ranch rifle where the metal parts are flat black and the stock is black plastic. 
 

The metal doesn’t bother me but I’d like to make the stock a desert tan or something.  
 

Reflex tells me can use a quality spray paint, but does anyone have a different experience?

 

Any thoughts and insight from the Saloon is much appreciated.

[Rip Snorter]

Check Brownells Tech line.

[DeaconKC]

Okay, first rough up the stock with some very find sandpaper. Then wipe down with brake cleaner. At that point any plastic compatible spray paint will work, the Krylon and Rustoleum plastic stuff work well on synthetic stocks.

[J.D. Daily]

The problem with standard paints is they will wear off quickly in the area where the trigger hand grasps and forearm grip where the weak hand grips.  You be better off with paint that is for firearms, Duracoat.

[Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494]

  Brownell's and most surplus stores sell flat-finish camo paint.  I do in my store.  Color name is Desert Sand or Marsh Grass.  Also used to camo duck boats.

[Alpo]

43 minutes ago, DeaconKC said:

Then wipe down with brake cleaner.

It has been my experience that brake cleaner will melt plastic. Plastic parts, plastic pistol grips. I don't know what it would do to a plastic rifle stock but based on experience with other plastics I wouldn't want to try.

 

Electrical contact cleaner. It cost more, but it won't hurt plastic of any sort.

[DeaconKC]

^ Good point @Alpo, I've never had a problem [yet] but that's good advice.

[Pat Riot]

15 hours ago, Alpo said:

It has been my experience that brake cleaner will melt plastic. Plastic parts, plastic pistol grips. I don't know what it would do to a plastic rifle stock but based on experience with other plastics I wouldn't want to try.

 

Electrical contact cleaner. It cost more, but it won't hurt plastic of any sort.

 

14 hours ago, DeaconKC said:

^ Good point @Alpo, I've never had a problem [yet] but that's good advice.

Brak-Kleen aerosol brake cleaner won’t harm certain polymers, like Glock frames, especially if you buy the Green can.

 

It’s best to test it first. I spray some on a cotton swab then touch the polymer in an area out of sight. Then spin the Q-tip a revolution or 2 then look at the tip. If it’s the same color as the polymer, as in the cleaner eats polymers then I try acetone. If the same thing happens I switch to alcohol as a cleaner. 91% alcohol is found at all drug stores. 
 

Paints - Krylon makes paints in Camo colors for use on plastics. Try Home Depot, Lowe’s or Ace.  Even if it wears, leave it for character or just respray. If you get tired of it Acetone will remove it (provided the acetone didn’t eat the plastic in your initial testing)

 

Side Note: Don’t use Krylon on Parkerizing. When / If you remove it with acetone the Parkerizing will have a slight hue of what ever color you rattle canned it with. 
Guess how I know…I have a black Mossberg 500 that has the cutest green hue to it when the light hits it just right. 

[Chili Ron]

How about dawn platinum and reeel hot water?

Works on baked brake dust.

Best

CR

Wht now????

 

[KingSnake]

It’s not the brake cleaner itself that harms plastics, it’s the CHLORINATED brake cleaner. Apparently chlorine eats plastic. 
I have used Cerakote on plastics. Just have to bake at 150 degrees instead of 300 degrees. 

[John Kloehr]

3 hours ago, Chili Ron said:

Wht now????

You pressed the right gray button (I pressed the left one):

 

[Pat Riot]

2 hours ago, KingSnake said:

It’s not the brake cleaner itself that harms plastics, it’s the CHLORINATED brake cleaner. Apparently chlorine eats plastic. 
I have used Cerakote on plastics. Just have to bake at 150 degrees instead of 300 degrees. 

I have found that Glock frames aren’t affected by Brak-Kleen red (chlorinated) but Choat polymer stocks do not do well with it unless removed quickly. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

I just looked it up, you can Ceracoat it.  Or, from what I read about it, automobile spray paint holds up well.

[DeaconKC]

The key thing is before painting with anything, make sure it is spotless of dust or oils of any kind.

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Hydrodip

[Pat Riot]

23 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I just looked it up, you can Ceracoat it.  Or, from what I read about it, automobile spray paint holds up well.

Yes, you can. Polymer that has been Cerakoted looks great and is pretty darn tough. 
 

Here’s the temp guide for H Series Cerakote. 
https://www.cerakote.com/resources/knowledge-base/111/properly-curing-cerakote-elite-series-and-h-series

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

I did one with cheap Krylon or  Rustoleum spray enamel satin finish I thinks

You don’t need to do anything fancy or buy anything special.

After this, I personally see no benefit in the added time or cost of space aged wizardry and chemicals on a stock worth $50-$100.

Savage 110 260 Remington 

 

We did redneck digital camo.

 

I lightly rubbed it with a scotch brite pad ( light enough not to look like sand paper was drug across). Cleaned it with plain rubbing alcohol. You don’t need special cleaners. Primed it with gray.

I also bought black, green, brown and tan paint, then with paper plates used as a palettes, sponge painted it with a kitchen sponge starting with tan and working through the darker shades to finally black. You can do the reverse or just random through colors, but if you wish for it to be uniform do one color at a time.

If you mess up or don’t like it, just go back over it again. It’s a cheap stock of irrelevant value. This process results in several layers, and has held up well.

Satin clear coat it, if you like, for an added layer of wear-through protection.

But if you just want solid colors, I’d just prime it and put on 2-3 good coats and maybe a clear coat and call it a day.

The only purpose this serves is to defeat the monotony of a plain black stock.