Refinish a parkerized side by side shotgun?

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Sh40674

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Hello all! I've done restores on stocks and light blue jobs, but I picked up an American arms side by side 10 gauge. Not a high dollar gun but all the steel is parkerized, and starting to get worn. I'd like to refinish/recoat the barrel and receiver. What are my options?

I've watched some videos on parkerizing at home, seems easy enough. Blast it and parkerize it. But what about the inside of the barrel? Do I plug it during the process? What about the receiver side of the barrel that mates to the receiver and the latch (or whatever it's called) that connects to the receiver where it breaks open? Do I blast that? Leave it alone? Protect it?

What are other options such as duracoat? I don't have am oven available as I prefer to stay married lol.. I seen duracoat makes an aerosol.. is that ok stuff? 

Like I said it's an inexpensive shotgun, don't care if it's gray or black, just want a uniform finish. The gun will be shot, just a range gun to shoot sometimes nothing special.

What route should I go? Other recommendations? Don't want it to be a hard chore, just something simple I can do, I'm not a pro by any means. Thanks guys!
 
I should add a couple pics.. the parkerizing on this is very smooth, not rough
 

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My guess is that shotgun was rust blued, not parkerized. That's they way they finished SXS shotguns before WW2. The barrels are most likely soft soldered together, so no caustic bluing for most old doubles. Cheaper doubles looked more matte that glossy because they finished them as fast as possible.

I don't think you will be able to find anyone to refinish that gun. If you can it will be expensive. Taking apart old doubles, while not impossible, is not easy. The gun would have to be completely disassembled to parkerize it.
 
If I were going to tackle this at home, I would probably refinish it by belgian bluing.

Polish the metal to 320 grit (or blast if you want a matte finish)
Degrease the metal
Heat the metal somewhat (typically given around 150 degrees F)
Apply Mark Lee Express Blue solution, streaking in long passes
Wait 5-25 minutes
Boil parts in distilled water
Card off loose oxide with degreased steel wool or a steel carding brush
Repeat the process until the desired depth is achieved
Neutralize and finish with oil

It requires only the same boiling water tank as parkerizing but to me is a nicer finish and is probably more period correct. It also won't damage any soft solder like caustic bluing will, but I honestly don't know if parkerizing will cause damage if there are solder joints.
 
I think the gun is a relatively modern Spanish double.
If so, the receiver would be color case hardened, and the barrels rust blued.
That looks more like flat black spray paint to me.
 
Blue Book says they were parkerized. Spanish, mid 80's to 2000 or so.
If it were mine I would cerakote it, but re-parkerizing it or trying your hand at
rust bluing are certainly options. Have not been impressed by durakote.
 
It is most definitely parkerized.

So what are my options as far as removing the old? Sand blast? What about where the barrel meets the receiver? Son I blast that or leave it alone? If I do parkerizing again, doni have to plug the barrels? All this is new to me
 
Just looked into rust bluing.. seems about the same amount if work.. how can I get the parkerizing off without taking too much metal off if I don't blast it?
 
So looking more into the Belgian bluing and rust blue... send like it's pretty simple. So here is my question:

Undoubtedly the best way to remove parkerized finish from this is blasting... so with the rougher surface of blasting, would I have any I'll effects using those bluing methods besides the matte finish? Have any of you blasted before bluing?
 
Blasting, while fast and time-efficient, will not yield the surface finish you want for rust bluing. Polishing by hand to get the finish you would probably like for rust bluing will take time. Since it is already parkerized, find someone who does parkerizing, or since you seen willing to take on this project yourself you can buy parkerizing solutions from Brownells.
 
Yea I started thinking that over once I seen the work involved polishing by hand haha. Now where the barrel meets the receiver, obviously you want a smooth surface as it's a tight tolerance where it locks up.. I'm assuming blast everything and do that part by hand? Or just leave that part as is and blast everything and drop it in the park? I can't imagine it would hurt anything parkerizing over that section, which is already parked. Might not have a nice uniform color but I won't see that anyways... am I right in that aspect?
 
The photos look like the finish Brownell's manganese Parkerizing solution produces. I've done a number of Garands with it. Not original, like zinc Parkerizing, but it looks better to my eye and seems to be more durable.

Iosso makes a Parkerizing and bluing remover called Quickstrip that I've tried and that works, though I don't recall it being all that quick with Parkerizing, it did take it off. It's at the bottom of this page.

Once you have the old finish off, you will need to blend the surface at the worn spots. This is done fastest by bead blasting the whole thing. Abrasive blast for a thicker and more matte finish.

You do want to plug the chamber, assembly pin holes, or anything else you don't want a dimensional change to. I've forgotten how thick the finish can get, but half a thousandth comes to mind.

The air expanding in the bore can pop a plug, so you want stoppers with holes for tubing, and then to run the tubing out above the solution. You can kill two birds with one stone by using the extension tubes for your hangers. They just have to be in there well.

Rust bluing produces a satin finish and not a high gloss one like hot bluing. This is because the rusting roughens the surface. So once the Parkerizing is off, you could uniform the surface with different grades of wet/dry and steel wool. Just remember that steel wool is oiled to prevent rust, so you have to degrease carefully after using it and before applying any kind of replacement finish.
 
"...parkerizing off without taking too much metal off..." You won't take any metal off unless you grind. Parkerizing is a coating not a surface colouring like bluing. Needs blasting to get off. However, on a low end shotgun, I'd use cold bluing to cover the wear and not spend a pile of money on any other finish.
"...Garands with it. Not original..." It is actually. Original M1's currently in assorted museums like the Springfield Armory(not Inc.) have manganese.
IOSSO Products' link to Quickstrip is dead. Click on the picture 'Quickview' for a product blurb. Needs a dip tank too.
 
Thanks guys some great info! I know this isn't a high dollar shotgun, kinda more something obwamt to learn to do as well.

So in the critical areas, like where the barrel contacts the receiver, should I blast that, or just do that part by hand? Or does it even matter? I'm figuring if I use a real delicate blast media I can still obtain a fairly smooth finish in the end result. I haven't ruled out other coatings like duracoat or cerakote yet... just trying to get all the info down so I know what I'd be getting into first
 
Yes, plug the barrels. At Lassen College, we got a "green" finish from a hot tank of water with GI grease floating on the top. After the rinse, we immersed and pulled them out of the GI grease water and that imparted the green color.
 
some parkerizing finishes are gray While others are black. What is the difference in the two?
Click to expand...
The three common colors of phosphate finishes are green, grey, and black. They are the colors of the phosphate salts of zinc, iron, and manganese ferrous phosphate. Different contaminants can give a greenish, greyish, or reddish hue to the finish. The most common contaminant is copper, which gives a greenish hue to the phoshated surfaces.
 
SH40674,,i have one of those guns,,,i got it new in or around the late 80's early 90's ,,,i mostly use it for turkeys,,,lol,,,it is a death hammer,,,mine has 26" barrels with choke tubes,,,that finish is parked but it is very smooth,,,not the normal feel of parkerizing

did you try just oiling it down to see if the light spots would darken up??

i would just use it like it is...lol

i got to say that every time i use mine it still amazes me how far it will kill,,,when i got it i patterned it at 60 yards,,,30" circle,,,with federal copper plated buffered #6 it will put 90% in the circle,,,the thing is amazing

i killed a coyote one day while turkey hunting,,,slipped out the 6's and slid in a pair of 2's,,,i stepped it off,,75 paces,,,my buddy standing next to me told me he never thought it would kill the yote that far,,,,knocked him off his feet,,,DRT,,,he never got up

my .02

ocharry
 
You don't have to plug the bores if parkerizing.
The Kel-Tec KSG Bullpup shotgun has the barrel parkerized inside and out.
You just don't want the bead blast spray to go inside and roughen the steel.

In order to plug the bores you'd need chemical proof rubber plugs, long sections of threaded rod and nuts.

Or you could just parkerize everything then polish the chambers and bores with 0000 steel wool wrapped around a dowel rod and chucked in a drill.
You definitely would want to polish out at least the chambers to insure easy extraction.

You very definitely need to plug rifle and pistol bores to keep the parkerizing chemical out.
 
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