Painted my Vangard stock

[efw]

I traded into a Vangard chambered to 257 Roy recently. I mounted a Bushnell 3200 10x 40mm w/ mil dots & turrets in Talley LWs on it. I'm likely going to get a new scope for it at some point, but the 10x seems to be shooting fine and I'm broke so no hurry.

The thing shoots like a house afire, but I couldn't stand the factory tupperware. I'm going to put a new stock on it at some point, but to make it more bearable I painted it.

My "system" is to rub the stock down w/ acetone before scrubbing it w/ 100 grit sandpaper, then hitting it w/ a light coat of primer. I like textured stocks, but the Stonetouch I've used in the past is in short supply around here for some reason. I found Rust-oleum's stone textured mineral brown at Home Depot, and followed the directions, spraying from far away to maximize texture. After letting it cure I hit it w/ 2 coats of matte-clear Aluma-Hyde II from Brownells which is epoxy for durability. I learned early on w/ the stonetouch that even w/ their own clearcoat it is NOT durable AT ALL, but the Brownell's product took care of that problem.

Here is how she looks now:

...and here you can see the texture of the paint, even after the overcoat:

It was a shot in the dark but I'm happy with the way she turned out. I highly recommend the textured stone products if you're looking to give your stock a unique look, but don't forget the Aluma-Hyde II if you do...

 

[DrMike]

Most fascinating and innovative. It does look good. Congratulations.

 

[SJB358]

EFW, that looks great! Man, you really dressed up that plastic stock a bunch. That looks like one excellent rifle now! Great work. Scotty

 

[BK]

I stopped today and picked up supplies to give a cast-off SPS stock the Eddie Van Halen treatment. It's probably gonna have to wait 'till next week, since tomorrow is my kid's birthday.

I got some Krylon matte clear, and I hope it holds up well enough. I don't really see this stock getting very much use, as it's a victim of a replacement McMillan.

 

[efw]

Thank you, gentlemen! A few years ago I completed my first custom barreled action and got impatient with the stock, buying a POS tupperware because it was cheapest but I HATED the look of it so I started looking around at different finishes that'd be both useful and look unique and I found stonetouch. You can see what that looked like in my first post in the quarterbore club thread.

I actually like this color quite a bit than the other. I think I'm going to get a couple of cans of it in the not-too-distant-future.

Don't you hate it when manufacturers do away with one of your favorite products??

BK- don't know how the Krylon matte will hold up, but this Aluma-Hyde II epoxy is tough as tough can be. I highly recommend it...

 

[BK]

Yeah, we'll see. As I said, I don't envision a whole lot of hard used for it. Mostly just doing it for the reaction at hunting camp.

 

[JD338]

efw,

Nicely done!
Congrats on the "New" 257 Bee. :mrgreen:

JD338

 

[velvetant]

Very nice, turned out gorgeous.

 

[jmad_81]

I have done several stocks like that. It is a great way to dress up some ugly plastic.

I never used the Aluma-Hyde though, that is a great idea! I'll have to try that on the next one I do.

Yours looks really sharp. That is a great looking rifle!

 

[wildgene]

...did the same thing w/ my .300 WSM Vanguard & noticed the "Stone" wasn't very durable. Sold it to a buddy to finance a Tikka T3 (almost a full pound lighter) who's probably going to give it to our other buddy's 14yr.old. I'll probably order some of clear mat, touch up the wear spots on the "stone", & give it a couple coats...

 

[efw]

WG- that is really cool. I love what you did w/ the stripes! How did you do that? Tape? How close did you have to hold the can to keep it all from blowing together?

One thing I did different this time was I held the can way back from the stock, which greatly increases the texturing.

My first attempt was a tupperware Rem 597 .22 for my pastor's kid and it had the same problem with my initial use; even using their own clear coat finish, it was totally not durable at all. I just treated the scrapes w/ acetone, repainted the stone touch and hit the whole thing w/ Aluma-Hyde II and it worked well, but that is what prompted the epoxy spray, and he and I've found that stuff tough as nails.

 

[FOTIS]

Sweet job!