Painting a Minimag body??

[wjr]

I'm trying to find a good way to make my gray minimag body black. Powder coating is the best way I know, but I'm too cheap to pay $15 for it and to impatient to wait a week for it to come back. So, what are my other options? Do people use just normal paint on stainless steel?

Any input would be appreciated.

[FARMER00]

i have a grey autobody primer and it looks like a powercoat when it is used, im sure that if u used a different autobody primer it would turn out the same way but not black

my next suggestion is my favourite. i dont know if the states have them but u can oftan buy spray on truck bed liners at hardware or automotive stores in the size of spray paint cans. they will give you a rough dust looking finish and will probably never scratch off, ive used it on ATV racks, truck beds, boats and lots of stuff, its good if you want somthing that wont ever scratch off, but you may need a primer coat if you are using a polished or brushed body

[Jaan]

Even if you find a factory black teflon MiniMag body, I doubt you could get it for less than $15 and in less than a week's time.

$15 and a week is reasonable for powdercoating.

There are chemicals that can turn stainless steel black, but again, it will cost you more than $15, and you have to get them mail order usually from Brownell's.

Painting stainless never comes out as well as powdercoating.

[Pneumagger]

send the body to gruntbull so he can black oxide coat it.

[wjr]

Thanks for the input guys, but I was mainly looking for something I could do myself. $15 for a powder coat is a fine price, but I want to explore my other options first.

my next suggestion is my favourite. i dont know if the states have them but u can oftan buy spray on truck bed liners at hardware or automotive stores in the size of spray paint cans. they will give you a rough dust looking finish and will probably never scratch off, ive used it on ATV racks, truck beds, boats and lots of stuff, its good if you want somthing that wont ever scratch off, but you may need a primer coat if you are using a polished or brushed body

Sounds neat... I'll have to look into that.

And I've got a junk mag body, so I can practice on that first.

[FARMER00]

Thanks for the input guys, but I was mainly looking for something I could do myself. $15 for a powder coat is a fine price, but I want to explore my other options first.



Sounds neat... I'll have to look into that.

And I've got a junk mag body, so I can practice on that first.

yeah its thick so you will want to mask the part that goes onto the rail

[don miguel]

I'm trying to find a good way to make my gray minimag body black. Powder coating is the best way I know, but I'm too cheap to pay $15 for it and to impatient to wait a week for it to come back. So, what are my other options? Do people use just normal paint on stainless steel?

Any input would be appreciated.

whatever you do, don't use spraypaint. I used gold spraypaint on mine, and it looked good for a day, then the paint chipped badly. Just powdercoat it. It's the best thing to do.

[Lenny]

Is it sand blasted? If so, there is a spray paint that'll hold REALLY well. I just can't remember the name of it (Rustoleum?)

Any way, I used that on an old 'mag of mine and it turned out great. Used it for a year and a half and no chipping what so ever. Didn't even prime it.

[wjr]

I've decided not to powder coat/paint it after all. I've decided to go the "fingerprint nightmare" route, and polish it as well as the frame.

I bought some polish at home depot for "hard metals" and started at it. I'm not really sure if I'm doing it right though. It's starting to look more "polished", but it's more of a shinier grey, not a polished stainless steel look. So, do I need to strip off the powder coat somehow, or just keep at it?

[luke]

The factory grey is not powder coating..

[wjr]

Yeah, I just found that out. Turns out I'll have to use a wire brush first.

[Ninjeff]

do me a favor and keep posting as you go along. I logged in to ask this very same question, but you beat me to it. :)

[wjr]

Alright, today I took a wire brush to it. I got all of the factory grey off of it. It's still not very shiny though. I sanded it as well using some coarse paper, and that made it a bit better. I just need to get some finer paper and keep working it I guess, until it gets to a point where I can polish it.

Here's what I'm shooting for BTW

http://www.docsmachine.com/silver.jpg

Just with a polished b2k pneuframe.