Painting a paintball gun?

Question

What kind of paint would I need? And how much will it cost?

Answer 1

The body of the MR1 is anodized, not painted.

You could paint it. Automotive paint is a good way to go. See your local auto supply for spray touch-up paints. They will have the surface prep materials, primer, and instructions you need to paint it.

However.... Painting has some serious drawbacks. It is not nearly as durable as anodizing. Under the abuse a paintgun goes through, it will eventually chip and wear. The other problem is that paint is thick, relative to the tolerances of paintguns. If you paint the body of the marker, and the grip frame, the grip frame will now be further from the body by the distance of two thicknesses of your paint job. Sometimes that doesn't matter, but often it is problematic, because it moves the sear (the part that locks the bammer back against the spring) further away from the hammer - sometimes far enough that it won't work anymore.  You can get around this by masking the bottom of the receiver and top of the grip frame, but that causes more problems, because it creates an edge to the paint job, where moisture from the air, and oils from the paintgun can get under the paint, causing the paint to chip and peel sooner. The thickness of paint on the MR1's tactical rails can also prevent sights and tactical lights from fitting, and if they do fit, they are likely to quickly scrape off the paint.

Anodizing creates a finish that is harder than the original aluminum - but it can only be done to machined aluminum (not to plastic and not to steel or cast aluminum.) While it is possible to do your own anodizing, it is not an easy process, and doing it well requires a lot of expense in chemicals and equipment (including polishers acid proof tanks and fume hoods) and lots of practice/experience.

Answer 2

Well high grade automotive paint would work

Heres the steps

        

       >>Before you start remove all the annodizing/paint<<

1) paint on two coats of self etching primer

2) Spray around 4-5 thin even layers of your base coat

3) Sand with 600 grip sand paper lightly (very very lightly! it allows the clearcoat to stick better)

4) Spray on 2-3 even, thin coats of clear coat, let dry for 2-3 days

Note: all coats should be dry before adding another, and make sure you take everything off the gun, and all the internals out, and tape out the inside of the gun and any parts you dont want painted.

I suggest you dont paint you gun, it will wear and scratch easily and will end up looking crappy, if you really dont like the color send it to a professional to get annodized.