Op Fg - Finished! (Finally)

[AR177 588]

Hello all

 

I have been meaning to do this for a while now and I have finally gotten around to it...

 

As many of you know my original air rifle is a Daystate Air Ranger in 177

 

It is a brilliant gun and I love to shoot - with some degree of success

 

It really is a beautiful rifle and I still think the Air Ranger/Wolf stocks are the best looking factory ones you can get (you can have your own opinions that one is mine)

 

so what did i do to this beautiful rifle? .....

 

... covered it in camo dip

 

which i was happy with for a while.... until the novelty wore off and the realization of what a terrible crime I had commited

 

I now plan to right those wrongs!

 

Im going to remove all the camo from the stock, bottle and shroud

Re-blue / spray the shroud

Re-blue / spray the bottle back to black

Re-finish the stock back to its original beauty

 

 

 

so here is the monster

 

I started by fully stripping down the gun, barrel band off, shroud off, stock off of the action, butt pad off, sling and swivel studs out

 

I then proceeded to release the air from the bottle - now you can do this two ways

 

1. keep firing off the action until all the air runs out ( from a 200bar charge thats about 160ish shots)

 

2. release the pressure through the guage

 

Using a 22mm spanner simply unscrew the gauge until you can hear the air release

 

** DO NOT FULLY UNSCREW THE GAUGE WHILE THERE IS STILL PRESSURE INSIDE THE BOTTLE **

 

as it will shoot off like a bullet liable to damage something if you do that

 

once the hissing air has stopped its safe to fully unscrew the gauge and then it is possible to undo the air bottle

 

 

out came the trust Nito-mors which is brilliant stuff I suggest (as does the bottle) its use outdoors unless you like the smell of chemicals and feeling light headed

 

 

And it soon might light work of that awful mess i had put onto the stock !

 

I also used some 0000 wire wool just to help with lifting the camo

 

The stock has come up really well so far, im probably going to have to give a second coat of nitro just to clean up the last little bits, ill also be using an old toothbrush (failing that the wifes') to get into the grips and Daystate decals to remove the final bits of coating

 

This is nothing against the guys that dipped the rifle as they did a superb job

 

All camo removed, stock looking decent and left drying ready to stain and oil.....

 

came to stain the stock and got out my trusty Birchwood-Casey stock finishing set with the walnut stain... and the stain was empty .. looks like I had finished it off when i did the s10 stock ..

 

but.. adding a bit of water into the bottle managed to get me just enough diluted stain to give a very light stain, which overall was the exact amount I needed

 

I emphasized the grip checkering with black pen which i think gives it a really classy look .. i also filled in the daystate decals and sanded off the excess to highlight them

 

Have a butchers yourselves

 

 

 

After letting everything dry the stock was ready for tru oil

 

I havent got crazy with the oil I like the matte look so 5 coats later and for me, the stock is finished

 

 

So 1 part down now onto the shroud and bottle ....

 

I started with the shroud, removing the two small retaining grub screw and taping up the threads as I didnt want to damage them or get them full of crap

 

 

 

Out came the nitro-mors and the 0000 wire wool and as I didnt know how this was going to react I was a little nervous as I set about it

 

 

And to both my amazement and delight........

 

Nitro didnt affect the shroud anodizing!

 

 

 

So all that was required was to touch up the knurled end that the wire wool had shined up slightly, i used hammeright black spray paint, satin finish (only one I could find that wasnt gloss in the local DIY shop)

 

It matches the shroud colour and shine perfectly

 

 

Dog came out to watch too.. so no pressure

 

So the shroud is done and looks like it came straight from the factory .. now onto the bottle...

 

Same approach as i was under the impression they were coated the same...

 

WRONG!

 

The bottle seems to have been sprayed so the Nitro began to strip off the black coating..

 

I managed to get the camo off without too much damage to the bottle and quickly washed off the excess to prevent any further damage.

 

I made sure I kept the bottle opening down to limit any water ingress into the bottle as any water or dampness in there will effect the working of the rifle

 

So after drying, i sanded down the bottle to remove any flakes of paint, de-greased the bottle and secured the bottle ready for a spray

the finish is alot smoother than it looks there

 

Finally an end to this epic saga... you know how it goes you think you have all the right tools and you start a job... a few days and several trips to DIY shops later... the job that was supposed to take 2 days ended up as a week!

 

Anyway...

 

my first attempts to spray the bottle were a failure to say the least...

 

I tried spraying, I tried spraying over primer, I tried spraying over primer and bakes in the oven inbetween ............ all attemps failed .. good job I had a large bottle of nitro-mors

 

I had concluded that the spray I bought wasn't up to the job

 

So after a suggestion from Darryl i went out and got myself some plastikote spray ... now thats the dogs danglies!

 

So .. back to square one.. Nitro - Sandpaper- Elbow grease

Next the metal primer...

 

I then baked it in the oven for 30mins and left to cool to speed up the process (had to make up for lost time)

 

 

I repeated this process until I had a nice even coat of metal primer

 

I then sprayed several layers of plastikote and baked each of those too

 

 

 

VICTORY!

 

The plastikote is far superior for this purpose compared to the hammerite spray

 

so .. the only thing left to do is build her back up...

 

Here she is

 

 

it was all worth it in the end

 

 

 

......now what am i going to do for a project ?....

 

Thanks for reading

 

ATB

 

Adam

Edited June 22, 2013 by AR177

[Wildling 520]

You should of left the bottle pink.........

 

Seriously looking good though mate, don't ever camouflage a rifle that looks that sexy ever again !!!

[AR177 588]

You should of left the bottle pink.........

 

Seriously looking good though mate, don't ever camouflage a rifle that looks that sexy ever again !!!

 

would be alright if the rabbits were colour blind ...

Edited June 21, 2013 by AR177

[Wildling 520]

Now sell it and get a proper rifle like a BSA Super-10.

[Buster321c 1,010]

Looks Mint Adam , love it mate

[Buster321c 1,010]

Now sell it and get a proper rifle like a BSA Super-10.

 

 

Are you on crack ?

[Wildling 520]

 

Now sell it and get a proper rifle like a BSA Super-10.

 

 

Are you on crack ?

 

 

Smack !

[AR177 588]

Looks Mint Adam , love it mate

 

cheers buster im very happy with how it has turned out

[AR177 588]

Now sell it and get a proper rifle like a BSA Super-10.

 

 

Now sell it and get a proper rifle like a BSA Super-10.

 

 

Are you on crack ?

 

 

Or.... I could just keep both

 

 

Edited June 21, 2013 by AR177

[wedge2409 98]

Job well done Adam,lovely looking piece of walnut.ATB..Ste

[villaman 9,983]

Looks a lot better mate better than the camo job

[AR177 588]

Job well done Adam,lovely looking piece of walnut.ATB..Ste

 

cheers ste mate I do agree it looks much better

[zini 1,939]

Looks awesome Adam.

 

A great job you have done.

[AR177 588]

Looks awesome Adam.

 

A great job you have done.

 

Cheers Si

[thursodog 353]

What a brilliant job mate, that looks stunning, thought i was looking at a new gun.

 

Atb

 

Chris.