Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Cerakote advice needed

I have an almost 2 year-old Remington 700 project I am trying to complete and need some advice. I am considering having the metal cerakoted in graphite black (GAP camo stock) but have a question about the bolt. The bolt is currently jeweled and I�m not sure if I should have just the ends or all of it coated. If I have the bolt coated how bad/quickly will the cerakote wear on it? Would there be an advantage to fluting the bolt and coating only the flutes? Since I have never had anything cerakoted I would appreciate any advice/guidance/pictures that may help.

I'm thinking of trying a polished bolt body with coated flutes. Should be no wear on it.

I've only had bolt knob coated sofar ,I'll be watching to see what the gang has to say.

Cerakote on the bolt will last a long time if done right. That said, nothing wrong with leaving it jeweled and just coating the ends like you said. Then you'll never have to worry about wear.

You could also flute it and then coat the whole thing with graphite black cerakote. I like that look.

Done correctly, any of the ways you mentioned will work well and look great. I've done them all and can't say I have a favorite.

Match your bolt to the rest of your rifle. Kinda of like a woman with ear rings....

I prefer the coated flute look, gives a nice contrast and one does not have to worry about the flutes developing rust if the bolt body is CM.



In wet conditions I wipe the bolt body down with Corrosion X every few days and never an issue with rust.

MtnHtr

If you've had sleeves added onto the bolt,don't coat them it will make the bolt very hard to slide in and out.

Not to hijack, but.....do the back of the bolt lugs get Cerakoted too?--or are they masked off and left bare?

I was thinking about headspace issues.....


Casey

Thanks for all the responses - keep them coming.

Dan - I also like the look of completely coated with flutes

Eddie - Sounds like you are more in the "coat the whole bolt" camp

MtnHtr - I like the coated flutes, is the cerakote hard to sand off? Does the polished area of the bolt show wear?

Skeeter - Thanks for the reminder. It's a 6 BR but no sleeves.

Casey - Everyone I have talked with has stated they mask the lug faces to avoid headspace changes.

I've had several done and so far anyway always had just the flutes coated, but if I did it again I would go with everything coated to take away a little bling factor. In fact one of these is headed of to Eddie next week for a full coat in graphite black. So far on both of these I have not notices any issues with wear or anything.

Hell,do like I did on my 7-8 that Kampfeld Custom did for me,2 different colors of cerakote.We did the action,bolt,all of the bottom metal and barrel in titanium cerakote.Then he coated the back of the firing pin,side button bolt release,recoil lug,flutes of the bolt and barrel,high lighted the caliber,neck and his company name in a 50-50 mixture of matte and graphite black.It turned out GREAT.Skeeter
PS,let me rephrase that,that's what my wife wanted,it's her rifle.

Casey, some folks tape off the wear surface of each lug but I just keep the blast gun pointed at 90 deg so the wear surfaces don't get blasted. Same with the air brush though some coating gets on them, the first few times I cycle the bolt it wears off and does not affect headspace at all.

MtnHtr

I always mask off rear of lugs and bolt face so headspace isn't affected. Better to be safe than sorry IMO.

I'll mask off the boltface too as the tape will stay put but one knows what happens when a small sliver of tape gets loose in the blast tank - it can plug up the media tube quick. It can be real bitch trying to find a small loose piece of tape in my tank.

Its really not an issue for me to keep the media from blasting the wear surfaces of the lugs, same goes for the crown. I plug with the bore with a wooden dowel and keep the blast gun at a safe angle. The media never touches the crown, an SS barrel:



I don't coat for anyone but myself and a few close friends.

MtnHtr

Thanks MtnHtr! That's what I was wondering.

While you guys are here....

I want to produce a satin finish (or close to it) prior to Cerakoting. Can that be done with using a fine enough media? If so, what grit and type of media are you guys using?

I have a couple of the gravel blasted "matte" Remingtons I'm working on, and would like to make the surface a tad smoother prior to Cerakoting. I don't want shiney, but am not a big fan of the flat "tactical" finish either.......


Casey

I use 110 or 120grit brown alum oxide - virgin. It does smooth the factory Remington finish down a bit, this was a former SPS CM action, the rings were coated as well:


Might be a bit flat for your tastes...........

Always use virgin media and dedicate your blast media/tank to degreased rifle parts only. You don not want contamination (oils) in your media.

MtnHtr

MtnHtr,

What do you think the effect would be if using 110 grit alum oxide first, then 300+ grit glass beads?



Casey

For adhesion? Not good. Glass beads are rounded while alum oxide granules are sharper and leave small microscopic tooth like jagged edges, thats why its used for sandpaper and other roles where adhesion is needed.

I'm always amazed the amount of alum oxide that washes off with acetone from freshly blasted gun metal (thats been followed up with compressed air). This tells me the stuff does some serious etching.

Did you build any jigs to hold your small parts yet? (for applying the coating)

MtnHtr