Canadian Airgun Forum

hi all. so I got this gun for free. it,s a cheap daisy mod. 74 co2-bb rifle. I didn,t know at the time that it was so toyish. so it being free and me being not working I thought I would experiment on it . i saw a you tube video for higher power mod on it. but i didn,t go there yet. i like to leave a cheap gun out in the garage for testing my home made targets but this one is too weak even for that. click on twice for a larger pic. looks pretty good- I might try it on my daisy 953.

Hi! Very interesting work you did there, but that would be really interesting too if you told us HOW you did it, if you don't mind
The gun looks way better like that!

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hey airmec. sorry and thanks for the interest. I guess i should have explained. I scuffed it up with sandpaper. painted it white for a primer coat. sanded that a bit. and then brushed on one coat of dark cherry wood stain I had . i let it dry good for a day or so then covered that with clear coat. i didn,t think wood stain would work on plastic but it turned out pretty good. i,ve got a cheap phone so the pictures aren,t so good. it looks a lot better than these pictures. looks like real wood. my first idea was to try it out on my colt saa white bb gun grips. but i didn,t wan,t to chance ruining them. so with this gun i had nothing to lose.

this little replica derringer has -I should say had similar white ivory grips like the peacemaker bb gun. I put the stain right on them. looks good. I didn,t put a clear coat on it. I just wonder if eventually it would start cracking and peeling over time. the derringer might not because it just sits on a shelf. but the colt bb gun might because I would be using it. has any one else ever tried any thing like this. thanks.

Often those plastics will take dye. Heating them in very hot water helps.

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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson.

I concur with paddyfritz using a HOT water path and dry with a Warm setting hair dryer to maintain temperature then apply a stain.
I have found the GEL types of stain are best and applying thin coats with cheese cloth or fine brush.
Also...using a coarse steel wool instead of sand paper (which may leave deep scratched) to dull the entire surface of the plastic grips..before the washing and dipping in HOT water will render some nice results.
The finishing TOP coat could also be a satin finish instead of the gloss coat. Using acrylic base here since anything with lacquer (clear or satin) will attack the plastic. Check this out before buying a finish top coating spray can.
Just my 2 cents worth of experience with plastic models…
Hawk-i

I love out of the box thinking and general experimentation, so thanks for sharing
I would never have guessed it would turn out that way, and certainly never wooda thot of putting on white primer first. W/o pictures I would've assumed drywall with watery red mud rubbed on it, basically a disaster. I also think it's interesting how the "grain", or I should say pattern, turned out. I was curious if you applied it evenly and that's just how it turned out, or what? Do you think maybe the primer wasn't fully dry so thicker/wetter spots caused it? What are your thoughts? It kinda reminds me of a Remington Nylon 66, which appears to be two colors of plastic gently mixed to give a wood grain like appearance?
Now I'm wondering what other color primers/stain combos would do. Like I used light sage-ish green on my Chevota, which my first thought was yth do they have green, but it works well for white b/c it's not dark so bleeding thru isn't an issue, and white primer is too hard to tell if, and by how much you painted over it. Point being a green like that makes me wonder, as does the rusty red primer or even the gray. Did the clear stick to it very well? Is it safe to assume it was water based? I also wonder how it would turn out w/ oil based but no clear coat? Did it look ok b4 you cleared it?

Fyi I've painted plastic a few times in the past, and to get a better bond I used a solvent that both softened it and killed the gloss, and of course painted while it was still tacky. The paint bonded really well like that. I think I used Brake Cleaner back when it was Trich, but I'm sure there's still plastic melting options out there. Just wondering after the comments about heating it to stain it, maybe chemicals would be an option If not then IU'm sure it would be a better surface for primer.