Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing White line spacer coverup?

I have a couple of Super Grade mod. 70 stocks that I plan to refinish with oil type finishes. They have white line spacers that I would like to get rid of. New Pachmayr pads will take care of that one, but will leave the forend tip and grip cap. Has anyone tried painting over these and ended up with good results? Any suggestions will be most appreciated.

I've simply removed them, 'course that really ain't that simple.

Thought about that, but it didn't look simple and I am a simple soul. I really don't want to tear them up, nice wood and I have owned them for 30+ years.

i'll bite. WW how did you do it in short?

woofer

This is just a guess but several light coats of an automotive spray lacquer might do it, rubbing each one down between coats.

An intense aniline dye brushed onto the white spacer might pre-darken it enough that few spray coats would be needed. I had a similar problem with a re-stocked 6.5x54 M-S carbine that some presumably very recoil-sensitive previous owner had put a fairly thick white-line recoil pad on, having first cut the stock down to preserve the length of pull, of course, so replacing it with a thin pad wasn't an option. I removed the pad and soaked it in some black RIT fabric dye. It didn't turn the spacer totally black, but it is now far less obvious.

Stuart

I hesitate to post this, because it is quite a redneck (yes, we have them here in Sweden) fix... but here goes!

A friend used a black magic marker (it said "pigment type, Xylene free" on it) to hide the white spacers on a 1960's Sako that had the now out of fashion "Weatherby look".

It actually worked very well!

It does rub off very slowly with use (months!), but takes only a minute to renew.

John

Swedish Renecks???!! Oof Dah!

VERY careful use of a saw, drill, dowel pins and epoxy on the forend tip.

A fit up and install of a checkered metal grip cap to replace the elcheapo plastic one that was also very carefully sawn off...

IIRC, I used a brand new dovetail saw.

Then a very simple finish strip and re-oil as well as install a non white line Pachmayr Competitor,on my first attempt at it a few moons ago..........

"Before" photo...


"After"...the white lines disappeared and the metal turned Plumb Brown...


"Latest Version" newly oiled, newly barreled/chambered and Fit-4-Dutied.......