Brownell's Aluma-Hyde II Review


The $8 appliance epoxy spray paint mentioned is available lots of hardware stores, however generally all those paints are pretty high sheen. Brownell's variety of around a dozen different flat and semi-gloss colors add a few extra dollars to the final $12.99 price tag. You can use any of the hardware store appliance spray epoxy paints to deliver the same results however colors are limited and they will be high gloss requiring a light buff with steel wool to take the gloss off after final curing
I picked up can of “Earth Brown” Aluma-Hyde for a AR15 pistol build I was working on. Initially I was skeptical about the coating, so I chose to use a $39 Blemish lower receiver along with the customized Black Rain Ordnance stripped, chopped and milled forend. I also painted my buffer tube which was a DIY pistol buffer tube which I milled off the entire buttstock rail interface. Why would I "buy" a pistol tube when I am drowning in rifle buffer tubes and its easy to just mill off the "illegal" portion when mounting to a pistol?

Like appliance epoxy spray paint, the Brownells Alma-Hyde II is not regular spray paint and if you treat it like it is, your results will suck. Epoxy spray paint was originally designed for use in marine environments however it works well on anything that needs a very tightly sealed and durable coating. You do need to assure your coated parts are pretty immaculately clean. The easiest way to achieve cleanliness of parts is to fully strip and clean parts then just soak all the parts liberally down with spray brake cleaner then rinse with clear water and air dry using a heat gun or blow dryer to speed things along.

The "real" epoxy paint requires mixing the epoxy paint with a hardener, however the spray on version relies on warm parts and a long cure time. For spray on epoxy paints, users have four basic phases - a coating/tacky phase 0-60 minutes, short-cure phase promoted by a low heat source 60 min - 24 hours, long-cure 1 day - 14 days, and finally the fully cured phase.

Once the pristinely cleaned and dried parts are ready, you should hang them on heavy wire hooks. I made my hooks from electrical wire and hung them on my 2-wheeled cart outside. Cure time will decrease if the can and parts are warm, so gently warming the parts and can on a furnace register will really help deliver a harder finish faster. At this point, applying the Brownell's Aluma-Hyde II is similar to applying spray lacquer which means lots and lots of very very light coats. If you try to rush with heavy or even medium coats you will end up with lots of runs and drips which equals a crappy looking final finish and in some cases waiting for several weeks for the finish to be hard enough to sand down and recoat. Be patient with thin coats.


Initially, I also imaged placing still wet parts into my wife’s high end Wolf oven and ending up with a mess and a very mad wife. This is also not the case either. In my opinion, the parts should not be placed in an oven to speed the final cure until a day or two after they have been sprayed. One of the parts I did put in the oven a little tacky had some finish issues. If you do choose to low temp bake your Aluma-Hyde II parts, it should be any no messier than just placing dry to touch parts on a sheet pan in the oven overnight. I did use a piece of cooking parchment paper … just in case the Aluma-Hyde II suddenly slid off the parts, which is did not.
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The Before "raw" stripped and chopped Black Rain Ordnance handguard. |
Normally, all spray epoxy paints will continue to cure for a couple weeks. Even three weeks later a nose on the part will still detect the scent of curing paint. I witnessed that although the lower receiver was fingernail hard at the 48 hour mark after the lamp cure and over cure, my thicker coated handguard has taken nearly a week to get to the same hardness point. In reality, if you don't want to cock up a perfectly good paint finish I would wait at least two weeks to assemble the painted parts. Its a great low cost DIY durable finish, I just never said it was fast. If you talk with many of the professional finishing and coating places most will end up air curing your painted parts for a week or two before shipment just to assure the final product is as durable as it can be before shipment back to you.
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The after Aluma-Hyde II coated Black Rain Ordnance handguard. |
FINAL THOUGHTS

The finish does offers some corrosion and weather resistance and if applied as directed will deliver a pretty impervious finish to the elements. What I like is that an old and beat up firearm can have new life and a new look with just $12.99 of Aluma-Hyde II and if you start combining colors for a camo look, the combinations could get really interesting.


For those will little patience, rush projects, and like to take short cuts, you will be unimpressed with the look, finish, and durability the Brownell’s Ala-Hyde delivers, however if you are willing to do the job right the results are impressive, durable, and transformational from a looks perspective for only $12.99.
SPEC
Approximately a dozen different colors
$12.99 Per can
Available in spray can or liquid for airbrush application
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1 comment:
Did you take any special precautions to preserve serial numbers and/or any other stamping or engravings?
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