Stripping krylon paint off an Ar-15

Laquer thinner works pretty good for removing Krylon.

Tremclad, on the other hand, is the devil.

My wife had wanted her AR painted white. Years later we both discovered how bad an idea a white gun is. I tried every solvent I could readily buy and between that and industrial grade scotch brite pads....I got most of it off.......but I literally scrubbed the anodizing off in some spots.
 
Travis Bickle said:
You do a lot of "front line deployments" with your restricted AR? lol
Camo'ing up your rifle is as ### in the armed forces as it is in civilian life. Like someone already said in this thread alone, "if they're close enough to see your paint job, you missed"
I'm trying real hard to think of any sort of situation where mission critical was failed due to "enemy-spotting-rifle-without-####ty-paint-job".

If you like a BBQ paint finish on your $2K personal rifle by all means spray away Sir, I think it's idiotic personally but that's just me. You may also one day think so if you ever decide to try and sell it and get your money back.

Anyways! OP let us know how it turns out. You're facing an uphill battle Sir.
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Um ya! Military uses camo for a reason. In short it protects personnel and equipment from observation by a enemy force. Works for civilians to when out hunting ( unfortunately not with a AR)

But to each their own, I wouldn't tell anyone it's "###" like you did. Everyone has their own tastes, your gun your choice. " if they're close enough to see your paint job, you missed" Wow! Sounds like a legit Operator to me, LOL
 
crashcollins said:
Um ya! Military uses camo for a reason. In short it protects personnel and equipment from observation by a enemy force. Works for civilians to when out hunting ( unfortunately not with a AR)

But to each their own, I wouldn't tell anyone it's "###" like you did. Everyone has their own tastes, your gun your choice. " if they're close enough to see your paint job, you missed" Wow! Sounds like a legit Operator to me, LOL
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Some people cry over the things they cannot afford, I'd love to see his reaction to a spray bombed KAC rifle. "Unholster your keyboards gents".
I just started reading "the reaper" and he openly admits he was obsessive with the spray bomb paint job on his KAC M110 and I'm pretty sure that guys gotten more confirmed kills in theatre than everyone in this thread combined. My suggestion is to shut the #### up and move on.

To the OP: acetone will work wonders, although the tight areas can be a ##### to get at. My solution: just re paint it all black (if that's your color) and watch Travis Bickle sh!t his pants. ;)
 
Brake fluid. Very gentle at removing paint, but it works. I bought a couple of used promags for my SKS that were painted. You can't even tell now.
 
I'd presume he's referring to brake cleaner, brake fluid would likely do some harsh damage to anything underneath the krylon. The guy who I bought my bike off of spilled brake fluid on the anodized reservoir caps and its peeled and bubbled off like nothing.
 
Travis Bickle said:
You do a lot of "front line deployments" with your restricted AR? lol
Camo'ing up your rifle is as ### in the armed forces as it is in civilian life. Like someone already said in this thread alone, "if they're close enough to see your paint job, you missed"
I'm trying real hard to think of any sort of situation where mission critical was failed due to "enemy-spotting-rifle-without-####ty-paint-job".

If you like a BBQ paint finish on your $2K personal rifle by all means spray away Sir, I think it's idiotic personally but that's just me. You may also one day think so if you ever decide to try and sell it and get your money back.

Anyways! OP let us know how it turns out. You're facing an uphill battle Sir.
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I googled pics of csor and jtf2 and they all seem to have spray painted their rifles..... Someone should probably tell them how ### they are.
 
Nope, regular dot 3 fluid. I honestly haven't tried it on an anodized surface before, so I would do a test piece first. Like I said, I used it to clean up painted plastic mags and have also used it to take paint off of brass and steel with relatively good results. It is a slow process, but in my experience if it takes the paint off faster, it is likely to be harsher and do damage in the process. Again, test piece first no matter what you use to take the paint off.
 
John Deer said:
are we talking dot 3? Will it leave the factory finish intact on the ar?
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Maybe if you leave it on for a day or more. Otherwise no. I have used acetone and dot 3 brake fluid. The brake fluid works better, is cheaper and safer for the user. Plus it gets stuff off that the acetone was useless against. Do 30-60 minute applications. When done wash it off with water, dry and oil.
 
Like other mention, Acetone or paint removal or OFF grease remover will work but it's messy, My suggestion is to repaint them with Cerakote by professional, you will have a better finished. The last option would repainted them with black Krylon.

I must be damn, I pained my DD Mk18 as well.
 
a lot of paint strippers use chemicals that react badly/violently with aluminium... READ the label first or stick with acetone as mentioned... my 2 cents

hopefully you got a good deal because of the paint.. use the saving for a cerakote in a nice colour maybe?
 
John Deer said:
I just bought a Daniel Defense MK18.
Only downside is that the previous owner has painted it camo with Krylon spray paint.
How do I get it back to factory finish? Will acetone work?
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I hope the guy gave you a huge discount on account of being a facking moron for painting it.
 
mikethebike said:
I hope the guy gave you a huge discount on account of being a facking moron for painting it.
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I've been looking for one for a while. It was a decent deal but I gambled a bit on potentially being able to get the paint off. It will arrive this week at some point so I will post pictures and let you guys know how it worked.

at this point I'm thinking my best option is to start with acetone
if that doesn't work go to brake fluid.

i will put a bit of each on the factory finish first as a test

if it doesn't work i will have to look into cerakote
 
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Depending on how OCD you are about the cleanliness of your rails, you may need toothpicks to get into the corners of the slots. Oh and make sure to get the 100% acetone. There are some nail polish removers that are only like 40% or something.
 
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