restoring old mag's?

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davekell
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restoring old mag's?

Post by davekell » Wed Jun 17, 2015 4:28 pm

I picked up 2 15 round 30 carbine mags at the gun show, YES, I went.
They are a bit of a mess and would like to restore them before I used them. I was thinking a fine grit sand paper then a paint job. The insides are fairly clean and the follower spring and nice.
That seem an ok plan?
Thanks,
DK

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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by bladebum » Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:26 pm

Seems like paint might just turn into a gummy mess and make it difficult to insert the mag. You might try gun oil and #0000 steel wool first and see how they look after that.... Either way, before & after pics would be nice. :)
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by bladebum » Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:38 pm

Well.... Maybe... Here's a video that a guy cleaned some AK mags with Coke and then sanded & painted them. Never tried it myself. :?
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by Stiff » Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:46 pm

How severe is the corrosion if I may ask? I assume they are in their original "blued" finish? If just ugly surface rust I usually use bronze wool and CLP (slowly) to clean. If the rust is thicker, a pre 80's penny (due to higher copper content) and CLP to scrape away the unwanted corrosion.
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by davekell » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:03 pm

they are not too bad over all, I just hate rust.
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by Stiff » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:23 pm

Understood, I despise corrosion as well :D

Those appear to be good candidates for a cleanup. I would give the rusty spots a soak with CLP for a few days, then slowly work at it with Bronze wool and periodically flushing with CLP as rust is removed ( loose oxidation is abrasive on it's own, so you want to remove it from the scene as soon as you can). From what I see appears to mostly be surface rust, and the mags should become nice shooter mags after cleaning!
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by Blacklion66 » Wed Jun 24, 2015 7:55 am

A old trick for stopping / removing corrosion, coat object with olive oil for several hours (days) then dry and buff with a old cotton t-shirt.
the object will not look like new, but will have it's own dark patina that is not objectionable to look at

This also works on brass and copper

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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by ron » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:29 am

Rust Never Sleeps. don't bother soaking them in anything. Just use differing grades of emory cloth followed by coarse steel wool. Paint will actually hold up better than you think and can be retouched. I've used Bondo brand Primer with good results and Rustoleum works too.

You might want to contact Firearm Finishing inc. 1615 E Holyoke Ave, Spokane, WA 99217 (509) 487-4145 and also PM member Mauser54 and see what they'd charge for duracoat and tell themn you'll do the majority of the prep work and they might even give you some tips in that regard. Duracoat is better than paint but not as good as Cerakote. I have a 1911 that was duracoated year5s ago and it's held up fairly well but h=is worn through on all the edges. but with your mags, when the duracoat starts to show some wear you could touch it up with spray paint.

A good quality spray paint will not get "gummy" or be dissolved by any gun cleaning solvents or lubes. The only thing that happens with repeated application of solvents and lubes is that "Flat Black" eventually absorbs some of the oils and becomes semi-gloss. This surprised me the first time I ever used spray paint on a gun, that it worked as well as it did and that =cleaning solvents didn't hurt it like you'd think that it would.

But like we used to say back in the 60's, "Better Living Through Chemistry"! ;)
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by Blacklion66 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:33 pm

[quote="ron"]Rust Never Sleeps. don't bother soaking them in anything. Just use differing grades of emory cloth followed by coarse steel wool. Paint will actually hold up better than you think and can be retouched. I've used Bondo brand Primer with good results and Rustoleum works too.

Most of the time I'm pretty agreeable, I did learn many years ago if you haven't tried it "don't knock it"
Walk into any museum and look at anything old made of metal. It would be a very poor musuem that attacked rust the way you describe.
Olive oil is what is used, have a old brass/copper coin that is a 100 years old that has turned green? you can not not restore but soaking it in olive oil for perhaps 2-3 weeks will stop the corrosion and instead of green you will have a very dark copper/brass coin again.
Last edited by Blacklion66 on Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by mauser54 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:02 pm

If you had access to bead blasting, that would take all the rust off and any old finish still on them. Having them bead blasted would also prepare them to accept just about any finish you want to put on them a lot better and look brandnew again. I do bead blasting and if you wanted them done, i'm sure we could work something out.
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by RLHas » Wed Jul 15, 2015 6:16 am

We could parkerize these for about 20.00
Wolff gun springs has replacement springs and "wah lah" new mags!
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by ron » Wed Jul 15, 2015 10:38 pm

Blacklion66 wrote:
ron wrote:Rust Never Sleeps. don't bother soaking them in anything. Just use differing grades of emory cloth followed by coarse steel wool. Paint will actually hold up better than you think and can be retouched. I've used Bondo brand Primer with good results and Rustoleum works too.

Most of the time I'm pretty agreeable, I did learn many years ago if you haven't tried it "don't knock it"
Walk into any museum and look at anything old made of metal. It would be a very poor musuem that attacked rust the way you describe.
Olive oil is what is used, have a old brass/copper coin that is a 100 years old that has turned green? you can not not restore but soaking it in olive oil for perhaps 2-3 weeks will stop the corrosion and instead of green you will have a very dark copper/brass coin again.
I haven't tried it your way so I'm not knocking it. But you haven't tried it my way either. what Mauser54 suggests with bead blasting doesn't involve soaking at all. But it removes the rust and that's what sandpaper and steel wool will also do but Bead-blast does it faster and better.

As far as a coating or finish, Firearms finishing does the best Parkerizing I've ever seen and I worked at Hughes Aircraft in the late 60's right out of high school on the assembly line manufacturing ammo links for 20mm chain guns and the Parkerizing they did was pretty good. The links were not only taken down to the bare metal but they were soaked in a hot bath of Trichlorethelene before Parkerizing. That was my job. Taking them off the line, and dunking them in the tank and then sending them down the line to be parkerized. I also worked in packaging for a while and got to see the finished products. Those fumes were nasty and probably had a lot to do with why I am the way I am today. But my theory is that stuff like that only destroys the WEAK brain cells, and you're left with only the strong ones. :? 8-)
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Re: restoring old mag's?

Post by davekell » Sun Jul 19, 2015 3:36 pm

I sprayed them down let them sit then used course and fine steel wool, seemed to work pretty well. I will probably take them in to rick and scott at FF to be refinished.
Thanks for the advice guys.
Dave

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