Painting alternative

[Cemetery-man]

I need to coat my old M1A scout hand guard to match a stock I am installing. All I need to repaint is the slotted hand guard and I hate to spend the $40 for Duracoat spray and have all that wasted excess for such a small project if something else will work reasonably well. Is there an paint alternative I can easily find available that will do the job and hold up to regular use and the heat of the barrel? I have heard others mention just to use Krylon and that it holds up really good in such areas.

 

[Vamptepes]

Ive used spray paint but it was on a muzzleloader It holds up fine. Other things i just blued. But i guess there is always cerakoat. Or maybe gunkote. What color are your trying to achieve? That will limit what you can use. Also material wise depends on what you will be able to use also.
Paint Finishes | Metal Prep & Coloring at Brownells

 

[Cemetery-man]

What color are your trying to achieve? That will limit what you can use. Also material wise depends on what you will be able to use also.

Color is black. I believe the hand guard material is plastic/fiberglass

 

[snorko]

Grill paint works well, is heat resistant and looks parkerized. Don't know how it would do on plastic though.

 

[caulfieldian]

The nice thing about spray paint is it's cheap and you can spray over any scuffs. Krylon camouflage is what I use on my guns.

If you're willing to wait a bit, get some alumahyde II from brownell's. It takes about 10-14 days to set up at room temp, only a few hours if you bake it. It's a bit more resilient than regular spraypaint but is about 16 bucks a can.

 

[engineerpower]

I've had good results with engine enamel. As always, prep is key, and the devil's in the details...

 

[Cemetery-man]

Maybe my best bet is to just get the Duracoat. I managed to find several of the old-style vented hanguards for my M1A so I will have more to paint after all plus I will be matching the hand guards to a black Vltor stock and I noticed they actually have a color called "Vltor black". Since the can says it will cover 1-2 complete rifles I guess I will still have quite a bit to throw away but at $35 it is still cheaper than sending them out to be done.

 

[Squirt239]

I'd recommend Cerakote. And if you are not in a hurry, I could run it through with some other stuff I have coming down the pipe. I wouldn't charge you but $10 a part.

 

[Cemetery-man]

Thanks for the offer Squirt239. I've be wanting to try the Duracoat "can-in-a-can" aerosol and figured this was the perfect opportunity so I just went ahead and ordered the kit to try. The fact that they actually had Vltor black was the deciding factor.