Project: Painting Rifle Magazine - VZ 2008/VZ 58

What originally was supposed to be a quick project turned aggravating. It was actually made me so angry that I figure a write up may be the only redeeming thing to come from it.  Explaining my experience should clear up questions on this process making it easy to do for anyone. If you are not interested in the trials and tribulations of stripping and repainting magazines, then you should just skip to the end and see the pics.

Why paint magazines?

Believe it or not there are some people that it makes sense to do this. Tons of people who use the AR platform agree/disagree with this practice for different reasons. Some genuinely like to make the war torn magazines that have seen much use in the field look like new. Others argue that prices for these AR parts are so cheap, why bother. In the world of customizing weaponry, it isn't just to make it your own unique little snowflake. There are practical reasons to do so. If you are using a rifle to go hunting, then camouflage would only make sense. To blend into your surroundings and gain the upper hand. Same would go for preppers.

 

"Very Operator. Such tactical. "

As gun owners, most decide what is going to be the "designated purpose" or job of that firearm long before purchasing it. I stated before some would ask "why bother painting magazines when they are cheap now?" Well its is partially true. At least for AR platform lovers. Enjoy the endless amounts of mags under $15! The rest of the ruffians that like the AK platform are S.O.L. when it comes to some of the variants. The magazines are harder to find and depending on which one you own, can be much more expensive to supply in this area. Not all AK's are the same. Neither are their magazines.

When I bought a VZ 2008, a beloved Czechoslovakian AK inspired variant, I knew that this was a problem. To the educated, it looks like an AK47 and a WWII era STG 44 made a baby that fires 7.62x39. And to most people who are either mall ninjas or fans of the Call of Duty series, it is an AK47 to them. Which it is not. In any way. Because it is not an AK. And it doesn't use the standard AK magazine.

However, this isn't about the gun though. (That write up is later) This is about the magazines. These are more difficult to find and much more expensive. The reason is because each magazine has a button that is attached to the follower that keeps the bolt open upon firing the last round in the magazine. When I got my rifle one of the magazines were dented bad enough for me to go, "That is going to be a nice paper weight/training mag I guess."

When I inspected it the wall was dented. I had noticed these magazines were considerably lighter than my AK mags in any respect. Later I found out why. Because they are made with aluminum, not steel. This is what it looked like.

I admit it, I am a tinkerer. When it comes to things I prefer to take them apart and learn how they work and function. I knew after inspecting this magazine there was a chance that it may not work at all. And the best case scenario for it would be that if I could fix it, it may actually still be functional enough to play with at the range. In the end I would at least end up with a cool looking demonstration magazine to use and I could learn about painting and fixing it as well.

The follower was definitely getting stuck in the area of the dent. I loaded a couple rounds in it and figured it may be fixable. I took two large flat head screwdrivers and used one to push the follower down past the dent and used the second one to pop and push the dent out. Be careful doing this, because I did manage to accidentally shoot the flat head pushing the follower down like a rocket when I took my hand off of it. Even after these attempts it was clear that this mag was unsuitable to be used in any serious "loadout" of any sort.

"The possibility of a magazine malfunction during firefight?"

Now I realized I could have just painted over the original coating the Army used on it, but was led to believe that it would be a fairly simple process to strip it and just repaint it.

The supplies I had on hand were the following:

• Toothbrush
• Rags
• Steel Wool
• Brass Brush
• Citristrip
• Mineral Spirits (environmentally friendly)
• Aircraft Stripper
• Alcohol 

I cleaned the magazine with alcohol to start. The paint was already starting to wear off. I assumed that it would come off quick with some help. I tried the Citristrip first.

The forums I checked praised this stuff for how well it works on projects. I was really skeptical though since it said it was safe for indoor use. But since the temps were well into the single digits recently, I had to do this inside and needed something that didn't create nasty fumes. Instructions said to put it on thick, and be patient.

I gooped it on with a toothbrush and started to gently scrub. Nothing was happening. So I decided to wait. Roughly 12 hours later I came back. I was hoping that some bubbling and chemical changes would have taken place surely by then.

Nope. It didn't even dry up. It stayed gelled on the magazine just like It looked when I first put it on. I used the brush on it a bit more to agitate the paint. Nothing. It was literally unchanged. Citristrip did not work one bit. I thought maybe I didn't leave it on long enough possibly. But most of the results people were talking about were well within this time frame. The temperature wouldn't be the problem, since it was done indoors. This stuff may have worked well on wood projects or other types of coatings, it did not work one bit for the military grade coating on the VZ magazines.

Next I tried the Mineral Spirits. I wiped all of the goopy Citristrip off and started to soak the magazine in the environmentally safe Mineral Spirits. With this I knew after a couple hours of soaking and checking that it should do what it needed to. When I came back to check on it, the magazines finished was relatively unchanged. With the exception of some minor color change on the bare aluminum it literally did nothing more.

The color change could have been from the Citristrip or the Spirits, but It didn't do anything to the coating. It was clear at this point that the coating was either powder coating or some sort of enamel. Nothing broke through it to get under the finish to pull it up and away from the aluminum.

As a last ditch effort I went apocalyptic. I have a friend that is in aviation that recommended Aircraft Stripper/Remover. This stuff is serious business. It makes paint bubble off of 50 year old car hoods, and can do serious damage to skin, lungs and eyes. Take extreme caution when using and only use this stuff outside.

I put a thick layer on it and waited. Said you could start to see results in minutes. The temperature was very low, so I put it on quickly and brought the magazine inside in a bag. Waited about 30 minutes and nothing. It looked like it was bubbling a little bit but it was just the stripper, not the paint. Micro bubbles were coming up. And the bag I put it in was having pretty serious reactions to the stripper, so I knew it was definitely working on that front.

"Strippers that actually work."

After one later I put one more layer of it on, same process. Bagged and brought inside. The temperature was low enough to work against me, but I brought it inside and it was obvious it really wasn't working like it should.

I was pissed off to say the least. The paint was not even remotely peeling away from the magazine. I got all of the stripper off of it and started to scrub hard with my steel wool. The stripper may have made the coating a bit easier to come off but it did not work the way it should have. The paint should have bubbled up and been scraped off. Nothing of the sort happened. I scrubbed nearly all of the coating off by hand using elbow grease. Which it should be noted, I could have skipped the aforementioned steps and just scrubbed it hard with steel wool to begin with to get it bare.

By hand I managed to remove most of the finish. To get to this point it was already about 3 days worth of work and waiting. Hopefully it will turn out good to justify the effort, money and energy.

For paint I chose to use two colors and try a method I have never done before. Might as well experiment a bit and try something new. The paint I chose was Rustoleum branded and it works great on all the projects I have done with it. Over long term Rusto seems to last with heavy use.

I chose a base color of Lobster Red, which is burned orange color. And a Satin Cabernet color which was like a red wine. The idea was to make a cross of two colors with the use of a stencil to create a sort of AK74 vibe. I wanted an almost gaudy demo magazine color intentionally, but wanted it to still look the role of awesome.

Two layers as the base of the Lobster Red semi gloss. Waited one day in between coats and then waited an extra day for it to set. I cut a laundry bag to use as a stencil for the last coat. Hit the mag with the Satin Cabernet and let dry for 2 days. It creates a pretty cool pattern to break the shape of the magazine up a little bit. This same technique is used with woodland colors to help blend and confuse the eye from a distance.

Here is the results.

I realized the picture was pretty bright and was using warm lighting so the photo came out more orange that it actually is. Its darker red moreso than "hunter orange".

The pattern was very cool when I actually had it finished and dried. The painting was really a make or break for this. I was pleased with the final result to say the least.

In closing, I learned a lot from this experience. It took much longer and much more resources than I liked. After everything it was more than $35 for all the supplies on hand and took days to do. I could have easily just primed and painted over everything and cut the stripping out, and I realized that. But I was trying to learn the whole process and prefer doing it all by hand. Yes, I could have bead/sand blasted it, but why? I don't have the equipment on hand to do it first of all, and secondly I wouldn't pay to do it. It just isn't worth the hassle unless you have the stuff to do it. 

None of the strippers performed like they were supposed to. The coating on these VZ magazines are so tough. They know what they are doing in that department it seems. Here is the kicker. I took the magazine and loaded it and it took it to the range. It functioned 100%. However, this mag is still a demo mag to me and will never be used in my loadout. 

Want to paint your magazines? Do it. Take one that is a throw away and try this method. Take my advice, do not waste the time doing what I did. Prime it, paint it, and rock it. It will be ready for years of abuse.

I will be doing my full write up of the VZ 2008/VZ 58. It was hard not writing more about the rifle itself, but its deserving of an entry all its own. Bookmark the blog, and read the past entries in the meantime.

-TSB