Painting my SIR

[xhale]

I have an ICS SIR for my M4 and I don't really like the paint job or finish. Seems like of like a really gray black and it doesn't match the metal body at all.

I know most of you use Krylon but the chalky finish of the matte stuff bothers me. Plus the intricacy rail would make it difficult (for me) to paint. I was thinking of taking the rails off and getting them professionally painted. What kind of shop would you guys take it to? I remember I got my mountain bike done once and it came out super nice and was a good price but I don't know how thick they paint it on and I wonder if that would effect the performance.

Say I did try and paint it myself, any tips to get a Krylon paint job to come out nice? How do you guys get the paint to go on even and not have it run? I have the Super matte camo Krylon, should I switch to one of there normal matte blacks?

Thanks in advance guys.

[jaa]

I know this isn't helping, but I also have a question about painting. For the summer, I painted my shotty a green/ brown mix. For the coming cold weather I'll be painting it white. My question is, is all these layers of paint going to inhibit the gun's function in any way?

Btw, I'm using a good brush set and Tamiya's paints.

[guiltyspark]

the flat black krylon should do the trick. You want to sand the surface a bit so you get a better contact, then start priming the gun, after that, you should use the black. You can seal it with turtle wax if you like for added protection, but then it will be shinier. There is no real way that the paint would affect your gun unless it got into the internals. If your not good with painting evenly then start on a test surface. My method is to do short sprays while moving your hand back and forth, DONT keep your hand still at any point unless its a touch up, but be aware that if you get too much paint on you will get running. My method has a higher chance of being uneven but it works perfectly for me, Others tend to just hold the can down and then do constant strokes.

[Mr. G36!]

Originally Posted by jaa

My question is, is all these layers of paint going to inhibit the gun's function in any way?

You'll build up the thickness of the gun and eventually, you might not be able to work any kind of moving levers that slide across it (Selector switch on an M16 for instance). Also, a fresh layer of paint may not stick as well to a previous layer as it would if you were to sand that previous layer off. It'll also prevent the first thing that I mentioned from happening.

You should always sand anything down before you repaint it.