Undercoating or Bedliner on handguards

[Scott S]

Went to the autoparts store to buy some truck bedliner to coat my steel handguards. On a whim, I purchased a $4.99 spray can of 3M rubberized undercoating instead of the bedliner.

I applied several layers of this 3M stuff to my prepped handguards. Sprinkled a little sand (from the kid's sandbox) between coats; this gave 3M stuff a little additional texture. The finished product is somewhat soft to the touch and matte in appearance; it's about 1/16th of an inch thick.

My only concern is how well this stuff will hold up to heat. I'll test it this weekend at a shoot, but I'm curious whether I should be prepared to deal with runny 3M stuff.

TIA,
Scott

[ September 09, 2001: Message edited by: gary.jeter ]

[Dan at VOW]

Get ready for the runny stuff, wait until you go to clean the rifle and get some solvent on your hands. You will leave fingerprints or have patches of it coming loose. The bed lining material in either standard or rubber coating is much more duarable. Sorry for the bad news. Dan.

[Scott S]

Thanks for the reply. Didn't think about the issue with cleaning solvents--oops. At least it was only a $5 experiment.

I will take the handguards off before cleaning until I have the spare time to strip and recoat them.

[S.Kargoh]

I did mine like that....

Never set right, and easily scratches/peels off.

I stripped it with lacquer thinner, and sanded, 50,80,120,220,320,400,600 grit.

Found that 600 was too smooth and slick, so roughed it up with 320 again. It looks and feels great!!!

[AR-45ACP]

yep not a good idea undercoating never gets hard,you could try stonegaurd though (stuff they use on the lower 1/4 of many trucks/SUVs)stuff gets hard has a texture to it but you must paint over it for color -Jay

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The first ones expensive,but after that,they're all free.

[Farmer from Hell]

Somebody here went to HD and got some Al. flashing in a role and cut some pieces that would fit inside the HG's and I think that is what I will do when I get around to building my STG.

FfH

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What part of Shall not be Infringed dont you understand pinhead?

[ironman0311]

Use Brownell's Spray Grit.

Works GREAT!

Feels like Skateboard Tape but less sharp and "sandpapery".

$8 a can from Brownell's.

Use for cheap (stippling) on handguns as well!

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ironman0311 - Ohio

[FermentingSabot]

Pretty well covered already, but yeah, stay away from the undercoating.

I tried the undercoating to spray my homemade pistol rack inside my gun cabinet. Placed the pistols in after letting the stuff dry for 2 days. Next day i took one pistol out, and the crap was stuck to the pistol, and i mean all over.

Went to the store, bought some bedliner, pulled out the pistol rack, then applied 3+ coats over the undercoating. Turned out okay, but probably would have worked better with bedliner the first time around. Had to clean all the pistols as well...more quality time with the little gems http://www.fnfal.com/forums/wink.gif

[Scott S]

Thanks for all the replies. I stripped the undercoating with mineral spirits and a nylon toothbrush; it came off easily. I'm glad that lesson was relatively painless.

Back to the auto parts store for bedliner. I'll coat the guards tonight and give her a whirl on Sunday. If the bedliner doesn't keep my mitts cool enough I'll also give the aluminum flashing inserts a try.

What a great resource this board is. I appreciate the input from you all.

[W.E.G.]

moved to FAQ