SKS "bbq" paint removal

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rosco peeco

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Hello guys and gals. I've got a refurbed SKS rifle that has that black "bbq" paint on it. How can I remove that finish? If the blueing is not too bad underneath, then I will leave it as is for that "old used" look. Or maybe I'll re-blue it? Thanks in advance and good shooting, Toni.
 
I haven't done an sks but paint stripper should work. I haven't tested it on blueing though.
A lot of the sks that are painted look to have been bead blasted, so likely no finish under the paint
 
Leave it as is they painted it to cover rust, like stated before it's probably bead blasted. Your just going to spend a pile of money or end up like the guy who redid his stock and it showed all the imperfections and repairs he ended up giving it away for free. Just go buy a nice one and shoot the barrel off the one you have. Or sell it and buy a Un refurbished, unissued sks. They can be had from 220-300. Why waste the time or money unless it was some rare bird. Just my opinion it's your time effort and money. There is thousands of nice ones already out there
 
On another site, a fellow used "Chemtool (liquid not Spray)" to remove the BBQ paint from his 1952 Tula SKS which had a sand blasted look "Possibly just a phosphate or phosphoric " underneath. It look pretty cool without the BBQ and with the bare gray finish. I accidentally removed some BBQ paint from my Izhevsk SKS with 99% rubbing alcohol. I was surprised the alcohol did this since Varsol has no effect on the paint. I was cleaning a mosin bayonet with varsol and the black paint came off. Perhaps different factories used different types of paint during the refurb process.
 
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Mineral spirits worked great on mine. Soaked overnight and it just rubbed of with a cloth. I used cold blue to touch up the couple of rough spots, polished with '00' steel wool, even on the welded 'Frankin Pin' on the bottom of the magazine. Made a huge difference! Rifle looks way better now! Wish I had taken before pictures.......
 
BBQ paint comes off pretty easily. I didn't think mineral spirits would remove it but acetone or lacquer thinner certainly will.

Use these solvents with nitrile gloves to protect your skin and internal organs from the solvent. The fumes are also harsh and highly flammable so do the work outdoors so the fumes can't become too concentrated.

If it turns out that the metal underneath is badly pitted and a total mess you can always re-do the bondo work on the pitting and then paint it over again. It's not hard to find better paint than the dull black VHT BBQ stuff either.
 
Thank you all for the info. I should clarify. I bought this rifle from a major sporting goods store. It is not really bbq paint. It is some hard black "paint" that the arsenal applied when they did the refurb. I soaked the parts in acetone when I got it to clean off the cosmo. This did not harm the black finish in anyway! I already have an other sks that is blued and in great shape all around. Just thought that this one might look cool with a more "worn" look to it. If it doesn't have any blue underneath, then I should just leave it as this finish is quite hard and durable. Anything I put back on later (paint wise) won't be as tough. I can re-blue though, but prefer not to. So my dilemma, remove the finish to find it sand blasted, or a nice old worn blueing, or just leave as is? Going to have to sleep on that one for a night or two. Should I try to remove just a small portion of the finish in a spot that is unseen normally and see whats under there? If so, using what method? Thanks for all the replies, Toni.
 
I think I'd leave it if it's resisting acetone. It's clearly a good quality coating.

There's the real possibility that there's NO old bluing or any other finish under it. So if you do put in a lot of work to strip it down you may find that you're left with a gun "in the white".
 
Sounds like the finish on my one sks, very tough even satin black coating. Very much different than some of the obvious spray painted versions I've seen on store racks. Nothing seems to take it off and I decided to keep it as is, I have a real nice blued laminate stocked version as well.
 
Thanks for all the info guys. I think I'm just going to leave it as is. I really don't want to take the chance that there is no blueing left under this coating. And, as mentioned, this is a very durable coating. The stock however HAS to be re finished! Who ever did the refurb on it even sanded the wood against the grain! Thanks again, and good shooting, Toni.
 
Who ever did the refurb on it even sanded the wood against the grain!
Click to expand...

Standard Russian factory practice. It was likely that way from new. I don't think I've seen a war time Mosin or any SKS that did not have cross grain sanding marks of some sort.

They likely left them that way to enhance the grip.... :d
 
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