Correct finish for enamel painted FALs?

[1886nut]

What did they do with the trigger and receiver fulcrum pins on FALs like the Argentine and Imbel guns that were parkerized and then black painted? Did they blue the pins, or give them the same treatment? I would have thought painting them was impractical.

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.

[Peter Laidler]

I don't know about the FN FAL's but our British L1A1rifle axis pins were left phosphated

[m4carbine]

In South American FAL's they were Parkerized with Zinc phosphate then assembled then painted.

I have examined over 60 Argy's kits and owen 3 Imbel rifles they all had this finish configuration.

I have seen pivot pins that have been only painted as they sat in the receiver
and other that had been pained out of the gun, but the "Pin" section was still parked.

[1886nut]

I found a Springfield Armory SAR 48 thats for sale locally, basically a military FAL made in Brazil, semi auto only. It looks like the upper and lower receiver were phosphated and then the externals painted after they were completed as subassemblies, including the pins. Thanks, now I can redo the lower receiver on my Argentinian based Franken-FAL, which is basically the same gun as the Brazillian but with the later Belgian hooded rear sight. A couple pictures of Royal Marines in N. Ireland during the bad times show several L1A1s that look phosphated only to me....the later FALs imported from Belgium to the US look to completely parked as well, no paint at all. My FN 49 rifle is parked and painted like many of the FALs too. I think they called this "stoving" in the US.