[duckie]

I have an old riffle to restore and someone has painted the barrel with what looks like model car paint. can anyone tell me what i can use to remove it without messing up the barrel.

 

[bige91603]

The easiest way would be to sand or media blast it.

 

[winds-of-change]

Duckie, I corrected some spelling in the title of your thread. I changed "pain" to "paint".

 

[hiwall]

Lacquer thinner might remove it. Next try paint remover(if your looking to chemically remove it). Else see bige91603's post

 

[nukinfuts29]

I have an old riffle to restore and someone has painted the barrel with what looks like model car paint. can anyone tell me what i can use to remove it without messing up the barrel.

If you have a compressor and sandblaster, use glass bead. If not take Acetone and wipe it down. Then take 800 grit sandpaper and lightly sand the barrel going one direction in an even fashion. If you are super patient and want it done really right, only go one direction not back and forth.

When you start to get the color change wipe it down with Acetone again. Now start wet sanding it with 1000 grit until you get it where you want.

 

[St8LineGunsmith]

brake fluid
remove the furniture and any rubber parts then soak the parts you want to remove the paint from for a couple of hours the paint will wipe right off this will not damage any parkerizing or bluing under the paint.
if you plan on parkerizing then bead blasting the old finish will work if you are going to reblue then you dont want to bead blast you will be better off removing the old finish with scotch brite and fine wet sanding paper.

 

[nukinfuts29]

FWIW I fix barrels every week that have been pitted or otherwise damaged from brake fluid, vinegar, and other chemicals for doing exactly that. Some were soak 2 days, some 20 minutes.

So YMMV but no way I'm ever telling someone to do that.

 

[St8LineGunsmith]

if you repaired pitted barrels it was not because of brake fluid. the metal was already pitted from rust/oxidation and the brake fluid just disolved the rust that caused the pitting to begin with.

bead blasting would have produced the same results with a piece of metal that has rust dammage. when you spot weld a pitted barrel you have to remove the rust anyway so brake fluid is a good solvent for removing imbedded rust .

think about this, before they started using plastic containers for master cylander resivours automotive manufacturers used cast Iron and steel resivours for years before they replaced them with plastic resivorus they did not replace metal resivours because brake fluid damaged the metal parts they were replaced because plastic is cheaper and plastic will break down in time when metal will not
go out to any junk yard and find an old car that still has brake fluid in the resivour it will be in tact and rust free Guaranteed
dont matter about ymmv facts is facts if you prefer not to use it that is fine but shouldnt say thast it will pit metal when it will not.

As I had mentioned that brake fluid will damage rubber and wood finishes and should be stripped from the receiver and barrel before cleaning.

 

[nukinfuts29]

in the case of brake fluid perhaps you would be right. I can think of only two that were done in brake fluid. Vinegar however is an extremely popular method thrown out all over the internet and there is no question that causes the pitting.

 

[St8LineGunsmith]

I know I am right
Vinegar OTOH can activate oxidation and speed up the process and is caustic to metal. I would never recomend using vinegar to soak parts for long periods of time however if you have a pitted barrel or receiver that is badly rusted vinegar would be good to use for scrubbing out the pitted areas with a wire brush before spot welding because it is a good natural degreaser. if you have grease or oil in an area you are going to tig mig or stick weld and oxy acetylene brazing can and will cause porosity as will rust and other types of corrosion. It is important to have the metal clean as possible before doing any kind of welding or brazing as you may already know.

 

[4tsmith]

Brake cleaner is probably the best suggestion because it works by breaking the surface tension of the paint in the short term without actually dissolving it.
When the paint starts to relax and wrinkle you can remove it with 0000 steel wool soaked in common paint thinner. The steel wool if used gently will lower the risk of sanding flat/bare spots in the underlying finish if any exists.
If that fails you might want consider a ketone based cleaner like GOOF OFF or you ladies finger nail polish remover.(they are absent many of the hot-toxics contained in lacquer thinner) If you do work small areas and wipe the areas clean with common paint thinner or mineral spirits and finally oil or transmission fluid.(of course wear rubber gloves and eye protection)