Painting a Minimag

[Seancallahan]

i was wondering if it is posible to paint the grey mag bodies if so is would if look right to sand it down prime and spray paint it or would it hold up or should i just get it powder coated and also who does good cheep powder coating

[Mav D MagMan]

I'd suggest having another party polish the body, then have another person do the p/c... Spray paint just won't cut it...

Redrider (search for it on the forum) does some excellent work!

Mav

[Fluffy_the_Conqueror]

how much do you think powder coating would cost?

[Greg98]

i just got my minimag powdercoated a nice glossy black (matches my DYE aluminum :) ) and it only cost me 10 bucks canadian. the place i had it done was a local shop, so i'd suggest you look up a few places in the yellow pages, and go down to the places and ask what they can do. if you want a common color like black, you can get your body done quick as they can just chuck it in with another batch of black stuff. however, if you want a different color (the shop i went to only had shades of black <glossy, matte, or dusty> and white) you'll probably have to shop around. hope i helped

[angelKiller16]

wow that's cheap! I was thinking about black or chrome, would I need it powder coated to be chrome or just get pollished? ( I know dumb question but i don't know) Oh,.. yeah my friend tried to spray paint his TL+ and it lasted less then 2 weeks, the paint just chipped right off and it caused huge problems cause he's dumb and didn't take the valve out so the paint chips around it scratched it.

[Greg98]

if you want it black, then powdercoating is the way to go. if you want it chrome, then my understanding is you simply strip off the grey finish and polish the rest. there are instructions floating around on how to do this, or there are people around AO that can do it for you. hope i helped, good luck!

[angelKiller16]

yah that helped alot but i may take a different route. My friends dad does autobody detailing. And also does goalies hockey helmets and lots of other things. I just got the idea to maybe ask him to paint my gun and have details done on it, like black body, red flmes from the vents in the front and have the flames outlined in chrome. I hope he'll be able to do it

[FrAuStY]

You can paint it if you do it right! No, spray paint at walmart will not cut it. You need to use automotive grade acrylic or polyurethane paint. First what you do is get some 150 and 250 grit sandpaper. Take the 150 and sand the entire body to remove the beadblasted "Grey" finish. Then sand with the 250 to soften up the sanding scratches. (Thoroughly wash and dry the body between sanding stages.) Once done..use an auto grade primer and put 2-3 thin coats of primer until the body looks uniform..with no run marks. (Thats why I said light coats) Let that cure for about 24 hours. Once completely dry..then paint it with the autograde acrylic or polyuethane paint. Applys 3-4 thin coats until body is completely covered. Let that cure for 24 hours. Once done... you can wetsand it with like 3000 grit or just clear coat it with 2-3 coats of clear. Let it cure for another 24 hours and then you're ready to go. Thats how I did mine..and I've played about 12 times withit.. got hit twice on the gun and none if it's coming off. The thing is..you need to give the paint layers (primer/base/clear) plenty of time to cure. You don't want the drying chemical from the primer trying to get through the base coat to dry. Thats what weakens the paint job. Check my site for pics of the paintjob I did about 2 months ago...it's gonn get stripped in about a month for a new one :)

[angelKiller16]

thats pretty cool, now does the pain have ruts underneath from the sandin or is it completeley smooth? and can i do this w/o sanding

[Greg98]

i'm not sure i completely understand the question, but before you paint *anything* (at least in automotive painting terms) you HAVE to scuff it up. the reasom being that when you scuff it up, if gives the paint something to "latch" onto. if you didn't sand/scuff the body, the paint wouldn't hold and it would probably run.

ps-i know this because i work in the detail bay of an autobody shop, and have often had to scuff entire hoods of cars before

[Rambozo]

What color are you talking about doing? If its Black, OD Green, or Earth Brown, you should concider a bake finish. I used Brownells Gun Kote on mine it it looks slick. Just beadblast the body preheat it in the oven till its about 200 degrees. Then rip it out and spray on the coat. Its wise to preheat the part so the finish imediately starts to dry upon application. This way its harder to get runs. Then after it sits for about 15 minutes just pop it back in the oven for about an hour at 320 degrees. there are all kinds of different bake coats and epoxy finishes to choose from. But I only seen them available in flat earthy colors.

And it should hold up much better than any paint.

[Rambozo]

As far as a chromelike finish. You can simply sand it down. It takes some time workin to finer grit paper. And wet sanding it. But after you get it nice and smooth with sand paper you can hand polish it with polishing compound. I use mothers for polishing stuff up it works well. Polishing it will be a lil bit of a chore but you can get it nice and shiny.

All AGD does to give it that grey finish is bead blast it. So there is no coating or anything on the metal.

[ETR28]

Frausty - Is the process you described how you painted your minimag? I was looking into airbrushing my mag as well and it looks like it worked great.

[drx975]

A friends dad of mine did an airbrush job really nicely and then clearcoated it, but wherever paint got on my gun, there were little gray spots. It began to wear off soon also. As for chrome, take a look at my sig I chromed out my gun myself and thats pretty much what it looks like. If you want to know how I did it, email me at dr975@yahoo.com.