Where to send AK to get metal refinished after a fire/rust?

[brian0128]

I have an AK that was damaged in a fire years ago. After the fire, it was oiled and put in a waterproof bag but forgotten about until recently. The finish has lots of rust on it but the internals and barrel look ok. It's a Poly Tech AK-47 Legend with a folding stock. It was purchased in 1988 before the ban by my father and I would like to get it fixed but I don't know of a good place to send it.

[SteyrAUG]

I have an AK that was damaged in a fire years ago. After the fire, it was oiled and put in a waterproof bag but forgotten about until recently. The finish has lots of rust on it but the internals and barrel look ok. It's a Poly Tech AK-47 Legend with a folding stock. It was purchased in 1988 before the ban by my father and I would like to get it fixed but I don't know of a good place to send it.


That's gonna be a difficult blue for some people to duplicate. Just remember you don't need a builder when the recommendations start coming in. Just about anyone could clean it up and hit it with black duracoat if that's acceptable to you. Probably a better finish than the original Chinese finish and the collectors value is pretty much hosed already so it may not make sense to try and restore it to "as close to original as possible."

This is of course compounded by the fact that it was your fathers rifle and may have significant sentimental value and you wish to attempt to return it to the rifle you remember.

Basically you need to decide if you want it to be a collector (which will have lost much of it's value even if properly refinished close to the original) or a shooter. If it's gonna be a shooter any duracoat or parkcoat will work just fine.

Finally...why oh why did it have to be a Legend...

[brian0128]

I don't need original quality but I want to get as much of it as possible cleaned up. I was thinking a pro would use a media blaster to clean up the metal first to get the hard to reach spots.

[zack991]

I would advise going with a Cerakote finish, which is one of the toughest finishes on the market. http://www.cerakoteguncoatings.com/finishes/

[SteyrAUG]

I don't need original quality but I want to get as much of it as possible cleaned up. I was thinking a pro would use a media blaster to clean up the metal first to get the hard to reach spots.


Definitely want a pro, just stating you need somebody who is an expert with finishes and not builds. A lot of people tend to recommend guys who are talented as builds by default when it comes to AKs.

Might want to check with the AK Forums to see who is the best around for this sort of thing.