Spray painting an AR

[3p031]

Hey guys I have a badly used M4 it was spray painted camo and has long since started to wear off my question would be what can I do to get it back to black? I dont want to bead blast or anything like that I just want something I can do myself to get it back to black. Is it safe to just spray paint it black again or a dark earth if I had to? Any tips or tricks I should do? My girl friend said to use nail polish remover or paint thinner and a rag is that safe(paint thinner that is)? Also if I had to go the way of just painting it flat dark earth or something how well would it hold up? should I clear coat it? Im off this weekend and was looking for something to do in the back yard since the womans haveing friends over.

[Kilo 1-1]

Even if you were to repaint it, you need to remove the original paint.
I would use 100% acetone. Polymer parts for ARs these days should be able to take the abuse of acetone. Paint thinner may melt polymer parts, so be careful.
Take as much as you can off. You can supplement this with non-chlorinated brake cleaner and a brush, but use acetone first. After you remove the paint (it will take a while, depending how the paint was well applied), wipe down the surface with CLP to buff it down and get rid of the residues.

Or you could just leave the old paint on and leave as is. It could have some character to it. :p

[bkb0000]

i agree that there's nothing wrong with a beat-to-shit-looking AR. the one serious-usable AR i'm down to right now looks like it got tossed into a giant blender with a bucket full of sand and a couple cans of spray paint.

you can get the paint off. i've been painting and stripping ARs for a little while, using brake cleaner and lacquer thinner. i haven't found an AR plastic that cant handle lacquer thinner, but it does etch it a little. just oiling and wiping off immediately fixes it, but if you're concerned about it- use lacquer thinner on the metal parts, scrubbing with a bronze-bristle brush and wiping clean with a rag soaked in thinner, and then hose the plastic down with non-chlorinated break cleaner and scrub with a nylon/plastic bristle brush- dont use plasticky brushes with the lacquer thinner, it will dissolve it.

the aluminum anodize will be hard to get all the way back to a clean black.. once paint cures on hard anodize, the finish retains a very faint grayish hue no matter how hard you scrub.

good luck.