Anyone paint their Mossberg 500?

[bevans]

I have a 20" 8 shot Mossberg 500a persuader that my wife bought me used several years back, that is my HD gun. I love the gun, but it has scuffs, scrapes, thin blueing, and starting to get some rust in areas. I would love to refinish/paint this gun, but not looking to spend a fortune. I looked into hydro dipping, but im not gonna drop $200 on a paint job for a gun that cost $350 new. Also, not looking to get too crazy on the paint job. Im thinking I want to spray the whole thing in satin black or maybe the receiver and mag tube in OD green and everything else satin black.

I know the receiver is aluminum. Has anyone painted their shotgun with success? If so, what paint and method did you use? How has the paint held up, especiially where the forend slides along the mag tube?

I've heard to use Aluma hyde... but have heard people just spraying the whole thing with BBQ paint or Krylon.

Thanks and post pics of your projects if you have them.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

I haven't painted a Mossberg but I have painted an old 50s vintage Stevens pump and a Springfield single barrel. Then I got ambitious and sprayed a mismatched numbers SKS that I cut down to paratrooper length. They all came out pretty good but the SKS was the most complicated. I used either VHT or Duplicolor engine and brake caliper paints. About $10.00 a can but worth it. It cures pretty hard as long as you do it right.
All Mossberg receivers are aluminum and for that reason I believe they are anodized and not blued. I don't think they can be blued or reblued. So painting or other types of sprayed coatings are your not options. A while back there was a Mossberg for sale that has been sprayed in FDE that looked good. But I'm partial to FDE so I have a slanted opinion. Anyway if you strip it down then get it clean of oila d fingerprints beforehand you will get good results from engine, caliper or even grill paint if you just want it black.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

Thanks for the quick reply... Yea, I dig the FDE too, thought about either black and FDE or Black and OD, thought the darker OD might hide imperfectons better.

So, would you just degrease all the metal, and lightly sand the receiver and barrel with like a 400 grit paper and then spray the whole thing? Also, the stock and forend are synthetic, IF spraying the whole gun black would you disassemble to paint? or just stuff a paper towel in the ejection and loading port and spray it while assembled?

Don't recall ever sanding a receiver. But I'm NOT a qualified expert by any means. I have also never Bubba'd any firearm worth more than about $200.00. All that being said I have had good luck with varying grades of steel wool as long as you don't mind a few slivers in the fingers. If you have access to a blasting cabinet you would probably get a nice clean uniform finish by bead blasting the parts. I used 90% rubbing alcohol to clean mine before painting. But I'm certain there are better prep chemicals out there.
As for FDE check the Academy Sports exclusive Savage 320 in FDE with ghost ring sights. I couldn't find an image to put here, I like the color contrast even though I'm just mehh on the actual gun. I think there are better quality cheap Chinese pump guns.

 

[Radar363]

The late Pat Rogers did a really nice how-to on Lightfighter.net.
He used Aervoe brand paint in the spray cans and kept it really simple.
Not sure if you can view it if you're not a registered member.

This is also decent http://www.optactical.com/weaponpainting.html

I assume these techniques work on shotguns as well as on rifles.

 

[RamRoddoc]

Remove all rust-use a rust remover or sand to bare metal (I'd use a rough but not too rough grit 220/320).

Degrease the metal parts and lightly scuff the surface (220 or 320 grit).

As mentioned above a high temp engine paint or just old Krylon or Rustoleum will do.

Our snipers would change the Krylon paint jobs of their rifle to suit the environment, green-brown foliage, snow etc.


Interesting things can be done with net mesh and sponges.

The finish is not real durable but you can always redo it. Just avoid the internals and go thin on the rails to insure function is good to go.

Post some pics up.

Here some examples of rattle can paint jobs: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/410257_AR-15-rattle-can-paint-job-pics.html

Refinishing porn, last page #65 https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/199533_Refinishing-Forum-Picture-Thread.html&page=65

Sponge work: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/321800_Sponge-Camo-Tutorial.html

Pine straw: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/214547_Pinestraw-strikes-again---now-with-brief-TUTORIAL-.html

Looks pretty good to me!

 

[BLIP]

There is an alternate to steel wool. Scotch-Brite makes a variety of pads in a variety of textures that have always done wonders for me

 

[Fatal_Bert]

I could give you a damn good deal on cerakoting that thing if you want it OD green. I bought a quart of OD almost a year ago thinking it would be a popular color and it's probably still 3/4 full. It needs to get used up before this fall. PM me if you're interested. You can see my work here
https://www.facebook.com/HilandArms/

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

Remove all rust-use a rust remover or sand to bare metal (I'd use a rough but not too rough grit 220/320).

Degrease the metal parts and lightly scuff the surface (220 or 320 grit).

As mentioned above a high temp engine paint or just old Krylon or Rustoleum will do.

Our snipers would change the Krylon paint jobs of their rifle to suit the environment, green-brown foliage, snow etc.


Interesting things can be done with net mesh and sponges.

The finish is not real durable but you can always redo it. Just avoid the internals and go thin on the rails to insure function is good to go.

Post some pics up.

Here some examples of rattle can paint jobs: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/410257_AR-15-rattle-can-paint-job-pics.html

Refinishing porn, last page #65 https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/199533_Refinishing-Forum-Picture-Thread.html&page=65

Sponge work: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/321800_Sponge-Camo-Tutorial.html

Pine straw: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_19/214547_Pinestraw-strikes-again---now-with-brief-TUTORIAL-.html

Looks pretty good to me!

View attachment 1212987

That looks damn good. And I know it was tedious and time consuming. I painted mismatched numbers SKS a while back in a very similar color with VHT engine paint. It was very time consuming to get the sights and small parts, chamber, inside the receiver area masked off. I think I will stick to painting shotguns and leave semi auto actions to the pros.
Speaking of shotguns I just got this old JC Higgens Model 20 home from Perry late last night. Of course I cut the 28" tube down to 19". Why 19"? Well my Mossberg is 20" and my Smith pump is 18" so I went with something different. I briefly thought about stripping and painting this one but then regained my sanity. This gun is ALL steel with scratches and character marks all over it. It would be a shame to cover up all that experience.. So I'm gonna get on eBay and find me a nice dark leather vintage style sling to go on it and call it done.

 

[JDS556762]

I always use that "camouflage" ultra flat stuff from rustoleum. It hangs onto aluminum fine. Shows wear but is easy to change/remove/touch up and is ultra functional. Some people like the look, some don't, some change their minds when they go to actually paint it. It works great and I have done it for years. I use an avocado net you get when you buy a bag of em, and grab some leaves and sticks and scatter it all over the weapon and hit it with light coats until I reach desired out come. Less is more, break hard edges.

 

[letusbuyyourcar]

View attachment 1229382 I always use that "camouflage" ultra flat stuff from rustoleum. It hangs onto aluminum fine. Shows wear but is easy to change/remove/touch up and is ultra functional. Some people like the look, some don't, some change their minds when they go to actually paint it. It works great and I have done it for years. I use an avocado net you get when you buy a bag of em, and grab some leaves and sticks and scatter it all over the weapon and hit it with light coats until I reach desired out come. Less is more, break hard edges.

I used that same stuff in OD green to paint my Mosin stock last year. I like the flat finish of it but it scratched very easily. Although I now believe that was due to the wood. It seems to be very soft and dings much easier than I remember from other Mosins.