Posted: Feb 19th 2010, 01:09 AM
I've decided to change out my 20' rifle to a more 'Battle Style' carbine. For what ever that means. Anyway, the process will include disassembly, paint and parts changing.
Here is what we are starting with:
The biggest swap that I am going to make would be changing out the 20 inch barrel for a 16 inch M4 profile barrel. I am keeping the VTAC Modular Handguard so the gas block will be underneath it. I took a standard front sight and cut off the front sight post, bayonet lug, and swivel to make it fit without having to buy a special gas block.
Usually, to apply DuraCoat, you need to do some basic disassembly and degrease the parts you want to spray. A lot of people use brake cleaner from the auto parts store because it gets rid of the grease, dries quickly and leaves little or no residue. Just trying to keep things the same I use DuraStrip because it does the same thing but my customers like to see that I'm not using automotive degreasers on their fancy guns. However, on this trip I decided that a complete color change meant getting rid of the old finish. I didn't want to build up too much coating because sometimes that can make 'fit and finish' a little difficult when putting the rifle back together. So, I pulled out the sand blaster!
You can see the old front sight that has been modified for this application in the right picture to the far right. You can also see the replacement barrel as well as the freshly cleaned (sand blasted) parts. The other thing to notice in this set of pictures is that the lower and upper were completely disassembled. These parts are ready for paint. Which I have done but you won't get an updated picture until I can get them out in the sun tomorrow.
The new barrel: Bushmaster 16' M4 Profile with 1/7' Twist.
I will be using the following colors in this build:
Tactical Coyote Brown
Combat Black
Furious Mike
Unless you look it up, the Furious Mike will be a surprise. I'll be adding post to this topic each day of this project. Today was prep: disassembly and sand blasting. After sand blasting I didn't handle any of the parts with my bare hands, I use gloves for everything. Like I said, I did paint all of the parts today but I will include a more detailed review of the painting process tomorrow.
