Producing a “Faux-Parkerized” Finish with Dura Coat

The elderly gentleman walked in as straight as the barreled action he pulled from a gun sock and placed on the counter.

One glance at the stampings on the 20-inch barrel, flecked end-to-end with tiny rust spots and almost devoid of its original blue finish, told me the gun was a Mossberg Model B. (In case you’re not familiar with it, the Model Bis a boltaction single-shot .22 that didn’t cock on closing and went out of production in 1932.) Some quick mental arithmetic told me the gun was as old or older than my customer.

The customer told me his father had given him the rifle in 1931 and now he wanted to pass it along to his preteen grandson. I could only guess how many tin cans, bottles, and towndump rats had fallen before the old Mossberg, but its bore was still bright and sharp, its muzzle had no nicks or dents, its sights were undamaged, and the trigger was still crisp. Obviously, the old Model Bhad received decent care over the years.

This put it in the category of the first rifle that never dies or fades away, but just keeps movin’ down through the generations. As we talked over the options forgiving the rifle a face lift, Grandpa decided against rebluing. He wanted more durability, and more resistance to rust and the bumps the rifle was sure to receive in younger hands. He thought he wanted it Parkerized instead, in a matte gray like the military rifles and pistols of World War II.

This presented a problem for me, since I wasn’t set up for Parkerizing. For that matter, I’m no longer set up for bluing. Draconian local ordnances covering the use of bluing salt solutions plus the cost of disposing of those solutions had forced me to outsource all my bluing work for the last several years. Equipping myself to do a Parkerizing job’t he only such request I’ve gotten in the last 10 years’ didn’t make economic sense. And, no, a touch-up bluing job wouldn’t suffice for this rifle.

I mentioned all this to my customer and told him I’d scout around for a reasonable alternative to Parkerizing, but I warned him we might have to ship the rifle to the one outfit I know of that still does Parkerizing. If it becomes necessary to thin down the mixture for spraying, be sure to use only the specially formulated reducer (center). After the customer left, I opened the Brownells catalog.

A few pages after the bluing materials, I spotted the "Lauer Custom Weaponry Dura- Coat Painting System." Then I remembered that in our February 06 issue, I’d done apiece on using Steve Lauer’s products to do in-house custom camo work. I called Steve and outlined my problem. He advised that one of his coatings (#100-001-003AA) known as "Dura Cote Parker" was a good substitute for Parkerizing and could produce the durable finish we needed.

Steve advised me against using anything to thin the Dura Coat except its specially formulated reducer (#100-000-996AA) and asked me what kind of spray equipment I had. I told him I had a Paasche airbrush and a small oil-less compressor, which he said would be fine. Over the years, I’ve gotten plenty of practice with my Paasche touching up scratches and applying fresh polyurethane to old stocks. All I was facing here was a barreled action with the bolt out. Since the

Any oil-less compressor or "canned" propellant can be used as an air source. Model Bpreceded the use of plastic gun parts by nearly 100 years, I could safely use anything for degreasing, even carburetor cleaner. I chose to use denatured alcohol, accompanied by a pad of fine synthetic steel wool. Surface prep for Dura Coat doesn’t demand sanding or aluminum-oxide blasting.

Having worked previously with the product, I knew the synthetic wool would be abrasive enough to prepare the metal and improve the adhesion of the coating. After masking off the breech and plugging the muzzle with cleaning patches (no, I didn’t forget to remove them later), I mixed up the Dura Coat Parker according to the supplied instructions. Well, not exactly. The instructions call for one part hardener to 12 parts Dura Coat to produce the optimum mixture.

Adding more hardener makes for a glossier end result, and less makes a flatter finish. In this case, I decided that flatter would be better. So instead of using a full teahalf a teaspoon. After mixing the coating and hardener together, you have roughly six to eight hours to complete the job. This is more than enough time. However, if you use an air brush as I did, you may have to thin the mixture a bit to a sprayable consistency. In doing so, use only the Dura Coat reducer.

Anything else could compromise the durability of the coating. The Dura Coat/hardener mixture can be thinned with reducer up to 20 percent by volume. To test the flow of the mixture through the air brush, I made a couple of passes on a degreased scrap of steel flat bar. Twenty minutes later’t he dry-to-the-touch stage for Dura Coat’ it was time to tackle the Mossberg. I put on a respirator, and holding the airbrush nozzle about 2 inches off the barrel, laid down an even pass of the coating from end to end.

After waiting about five minutes for the surface solvents to flash off, I made another pass, and then another. spoon of hardener to four tablespoons of Dura- Coat, I only used In retrospect, I probably should have "hung" the barrel so I could have worked my way around it. Not having thought that far ahead, instead I waited the 20 minutes before turning the barrel to its uncoated side. I didn’t have to worry about parts holding close tolerances here, which would require a thinner coating.

So I kept on making close passes until I was sure the workpiece had been thoroughly and evenly covered for maximum impact protection. (Wear isn’t a concern with Dura Coat; the cured finish is so hard it doesn’t wear.) For the last couple of passes with the airbrush, I backed off to about 18 inches. What this does is deposit tiny "balls" of the coating, which, when dry, produces a textured surface that looks a lot more like a Parkerized finish.

Steve Lauer told me that when this textured coating is given a onceover with an application of gun oil, the oil soaks in and the result looks even more like Parkerizing. And he was right. Regarding the durability of the finish, you might well wonder what (continued on page 17)

would happen if the kid drops his newly transformed Model Bon a granite boulder. How about touch-up? Solving that particular problem isn’t as serious or as difficult as it might seem’and is certainly easier to solve than with a blued gun.

To make a repair, you simply mix up another batch, degrease the damaged area with alcohol, lightly sand it with 1200-grit paper, blow off the dust, and respray the wounded area. (The shelf life of Dura Coat is 18 months and 6 months for the hardener.) When Grandpa came in to pick up his grandson’s newly refinished barrel, I placed it on the counter next to a military M1911-A1. He liked how close I’d come to duplicating the finish of the old war horse.

And while it wasn’t actually Parkerized, it will sure look and wear like it is. I