Cleaning the black paint off an Ishapore 2A

[bearhunter]

I'm really on two different thoughts on that black paint.

1- It was a cheap and easy fix for ho hum finishes put on for resale purposes when the rifles were surplussed. I have a NoI MkIII from 30 years ago and couple of martinis from the same period, picked up at Lever Arms, that were blued, not painted. It seems to be a recent thing.

2- It is a legitimate substitute standard finish and shouldn't be touched, or left on if the rifle isn't going to be shot, but collected, to enhance value further down the road.

There is little if any information anywhere.

The same thing can be said for the POF No4 Mk 2 rifles that have recently become available. Of the several I've viewed, they are all covered in a matte brown finish. I mean covered completely, other than the bore and chamber.
They all have numbers painted on the fore or buttstock, underneath this coating. I really wonder if this is an anti glare finish or a preservative that has hardened to a laquer type finish and is meant to be removed.

Not trying to hijack your thread, and I apologise if you feel I have. I will delete it if you feel trespassed upon.

I feel that your question pertains to the information we both require and would really appreciate more feedback to both of our questions. As of now I haven't seen any real evidence but a lot of conjecture from some very knowledgeable people.

bearhunter

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Amatikulu]

I have several rifles from the Indian sub-continent and looking at the examples, I only have the oil based paint on the 2A and 2A1's. No 1 Mk 3's and an early 2A rifles have a suncorite finish.

While this is far from proper research, I'm thinking that the oil based paint was applied in the 60's onwards on the 2A series of rifles and refurbishments done in India. I haven't seen any other finish except on Pakistan produced rifles.

I believe the phosphate and oil based black paint were the original finish on post 60's Indian rifles.

As an aside, Brownells sells alumahyde matt black and it closely approximates a suncorite finish.

[kscchtrainer]

The same thing can be said for the POF No4 Mk 2 rifles that have recently become available. Of the several I've viewed, they are all covered in a matte brown finish. I mean covered completely, other than the bore and chamber.
They all have numbers painted on the fore or buttstock, underneath this coating. I really wonder if this is an anti glare finish or a preservative that has hardened to a laquer type finish and is meant to be removed.

Not trying to hijack your thread, and I apologise if you feel I have. I will delete it if you feel trespassed upon.

I feel that your question pertains to the information we both require and would really appreciate more feedback to both of our questions. As of now I haven't seen any real evidence but a lot of conjecture from some very knowledgeable people.

bearhunter

Hey bearhunter, you aren't hijacking the thread. It's a legitimate question and I've gotten a lot of good information from quite a few people both here on this board and on the Surplusrifleforum.com board. Lots of good people there too. A guy that goes by the nickname of Candyman over there gives lots of good instruction with pictures on cleaning, fixing and refinishing stocks.

I've found several strippers that will remove that paint without harming the metal after my initial questions on the subject.

Two that I've used are: Motsenbockers "Lift Off" #4 Graffitti remover in the spray bottle and Kleen Strip brand "Strip-X" which is a gel. I used the gel type on the large areas and either sprayed the Lift Off #4 or poured a bit (it's a liquid) in a pan to soak the smaller parts in. Then use a very stiff bristled fiber or brass brush to brush away the flakes of paint loosened by the stripper. Oil the surfaces well with a good gun oil after stripping.

Mine had originally been parkerized and appeared to have been painted and very sloppily, I might add, when put into storage. The rear sight was totally covered and unusable until I soaked it in stripper and flushed it with Kroil (the best penetrating oil there is IMHO).

Kroil and a brush also helps get rid of the cosmolene residue left in the bore as well. I've found that Kroil has a real following of those using it as a bore cleaner too. I've tried it and it really gets the powder, lead and copper fouling out of a bore. Run a Kroil saturated patch through the bore, let it sit a couple of hours and then several dry patches - When the dry patch comes out with nothing on it, you're done.

Kroil has a neat smell too, almost smells like the commercial floor cleaner "Pine Sol".
If you can't find Kroil at a local hardware store do a search engine lookup on "Kroil" and you'll find lots of places you can mail order the stuff.