Paint ate my barrel

[athomas]

I had a barrel tucked away in a gun case with my retro mag. It hadn't been out since last fall and I didn't realize there was a bit of paintball paint soaked into the foam. It ate through the annodize and into the aluminum, which is now pitted. Check out the pic.

http://automag.thomasweb.ca/barrel.jpg

[TheAngryDrunkenRussian]

was that from a chemical reaction between the paint and the foam?

[Chaos_Theory!]

Odds are it was just a reaction from the paint and foam which messed up the barrel. Paint itself doesnt do that to anodizing.

[magman007]

it wasnt by any chance severe torque was it? torque i believe has been known to mess up anno, and after a long exposure like that, could possibly have done that. I know it messed up my sfl e-mag a bit back in the day.

[athomas]

I'm not sure what paint it was, but I think it may have been Zap Tork. It doesn't look like it reacted with the case foam.

I've seen paintball paint eat through automobile paint before, if left uncleaned for a long time.

[TheGrindPunk]

It is definitely caused by the foam. My friend found out about that with his sig 229. He left it in a case for a couple months, and the last time we went to the range..... there was a good build up of rust on the slide. Don't store any firearms, paintball markers, or airsoft guns in foam cases..... keep them in a safe or some other safe place where there is open air to keep moisture off of them. Moisture and case foam are bad for metals, and then add the fact that paint will stay moist in that environment for a long time (not to account for any other chemical reactions between paint ingredients and foam), bad things happen. You should be able to buff that off with a dremel and be fine until you get it re-annoed.
:cheers:

[Hexis]

Moisture and case foam are bad for metals, and then add the fact that paint will stay moist in that environment for a long time

Just toss in a few desicant packs, problem solved.