I have a question about an area I have zero experience with; refinishing surplus steel magazines.

I bought a C308 7.62 rifle from a member here and they take a 20 round CETME steel magazine or aluminum G3 magazines. I’ve been buying more of them and the majority are in great shape, most likely never even used and coated in cosmoline. A few are just oily with a slight bit of surface rust/crud on them.

I plan to disassemble them and clean thoroughly with brake cleaner but I’m not sure what to do with them as far as refinishing?

A number of them have bright wear spots on the bluing/coating. They are built like tanks, almost Soviet in construction.

Can I paint them? I’m not looking to spend a ton of money doing fancy coatings, they are 5 dollars each!

De grease them and use a q tip with some cold blue to hit the shiny parts....

Me I'd degrease them and rattle can them. Can't see any downside for these. Brake clean would not be my best choice to degrease.

Same issues they had refinishing M-1 Garand gas cylinders. They used a treatment that required heat and dipping. Difficult for a small run.

Restoration experts use a spray on finish .

ALUMA-HYDE
https://www.brownells.com/guns...yde-ii-prod1117.aspx

Duracoat may be a good alternative.

I bought a boatload of the “poor” condition close out CETME mags, can’t remember where but they were like $2 each.



Dunked them in a gallon of rust remover (had it on hand, or I would have just used vinegar)

The rust was all surface, once it was off, I had reasonably clean steel and I just hit them with rustoleum black.

Bill R

SF Member CoyoteKiller can moly coat them.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
Me I'd degrease them and rattle can them. Can't see any downside for these. Brake clean would not be my best choice to degrease.

Why not brake cleaner? What would you recommend?

Remember I’m new in this area.

Cosmoline? Boiling water. Melts off, drys quick, no fumes, etc. I’d probably hold with pliers and pour it over until I could get it clean enough to disassemble, then pour through inside.

Rustoleum flat black. I think I durocoated a couple of CETME mags, but that was more for the “hey, how does this work” experience.

So what should I be degreasing these with before painting?

Boiling water + soap?

Brake cleaner?

Gun Scrubber?

Help a noob out here!

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
So what should I be degreasing these with before painting?

Boiling water + soap?

Brake cleaner?

Gun Scrubber?

Help a noob out here!

Greasy milsurp things, I pour boiling water on. Hold with some channellocks or maybe a coat hanger. That’s the general clean.

For final clean before paint for the G3 mags I was fooling around with, I used acetone. Mostly because, I had some. Just a rag wiping down the outside.

Rust issues (like G3 mag base plates), Evaporust which has been recommended on this forum many times.

Non chlorinated brake cleaner would work, but it usually costs much more, and is kinda nasty stuff. Great when I’m working on brakes. Overkill here.

I do dig that CETME. It’s like a second weapon in Galaga. One projectile straight, another to the right at 30 degrees.

You have to get any preservative off. And the metal clean. What to use really depends on what you are battling. I personally do a two step. First with mineral spirits as its very cheap. The second with an actual product intended to prep metal for paint. I use Dupont Prepsol but any of the similar type products intended for automotive paint prep will be quite good and for me modest in cost. If those are hard to get or expensive then you can use gun coating prep products like TruStrip. If I really don't care too much about the results I use acetone as I have it in bulk, but its not the best of the options.

Instead of trying to paint them, can I just clean off all the gunk/dirt/cosmoline and just wipe them down well with CLP?

sure, be fine mostly preventative on new rust if you keep up the program. But once you have cleaned them why not just rattle can them for looks.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Instead of trying to paint them, can I just clean off all the gunk/dirt/cosmoline and just wipe them down well with CLP?

That’s what I did with most of the g3 mags. I painted a couple just for practice.

the boiling water thing works fine,
lite the grill, big pot of water, and toss them in,


they will dry quickly when you pull them out, be sure to stack them so they drain (may be best to take apart)

another way is to soak in Kero or Deisel for a few days and then scrub

alumahyde, rustoleum, cold blue, all are decent options depending on how good you want them to look

I got some PAP85 magazine that were covered in cosomline and I used mineral spirit to clean them right up. Then use any kind of paint prep then rattle can em.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
So what should I be degreasing these with before painting?

Boiling water + soap?

Brake cleaner?

Gun Scrubber?

Help a noob out here!

Gasoline for cosmoline, it dissolves it.
Just do it outside.

quote:

Originally posted by stylophiles:
I bought a boatload of the “poor” condition close out CETME mags, can’t remember where but they were like $2 each.



Dunked them in a gallon of rust remover (had it on hand, or I would have just used vinegar)

The rust was all surface, once it was off, I had reasonably clean steel and I just hit them with rustoleum black.

Bill R

If I had those I’d media blast them & spray a ceramic coating on them.
Or find someone close who cad do it for you.

I’ve sandblasted mags with rust issues and painted them with rustoleum high heat black spray paint.