Black painting my M2

[nobbylon]

I finally decided to have a go at my user M2. When I bought it, it had an ugly dent in the left rear corner which I ended up hammering out but which unfortunately left the top plate ugly as the chrome was rubbed away. After doing some homework I came up with a method to remove both chrome and nickel. Concrete cleaner( dilute hydrochloric acid) a battery charger and a piece of copper. Anyway, going slowly I managed to remove it all and repainted with a gloss car spray paint. It's not the best job but having seen a real black paint M2 and pics of them on here, it looks pretty comparible! I think it looks really nice for a day's messing and hides the ugly old chrome finish.

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

Nice handy work. The whole process sounded a bit gutsy handling the acid, the battery, and copper wire.

How's the paint holding up against use?

 

[BillBingham2]

Looks like a great DIY project, well done. Wish I had the time and skills.

B2 (;->

 

[vkomu]

is there any tutorial or something in web to do something like this? Just wonder if i get someday M2 to my hands i may repaint it too.

 

[nobbylon]

Nice handy work. The whole process sounded a bit gutsy handling the acid, the battery, and copper wire.

How's the paint holding up against use?

I only painted it yesterday so can't comment on the longevity of the finish however I used a sticker type clear primer and baked the finish paint in the oven. Seems pretty tough.
The chrome and nickel removal although time consuming was pretty straightforward. I just zapped it using the charger for intervals of 1 minute and checked the result repeating until finished.
I used a plastic container filled with the concrete cleaner and connected one dog clip to a piece of copper pipe immersed in the solution and the other dog clip connected to the part to be stripped. My first attempt ended up coating the top plate with copper!!!! so I just reversed the leads.
I was going to airbrush it originally but due time just spray canned the parts and after a couple of light coats flatted the finished top and bottom plates with 1500 paper repeating until a satisfactory finish was obtained. I then just polished the finished paint with car paint polish.
If I was to do it again I would spend a lot more time prepairing the surfaces and use my airbrush to get a nicer finish.
Total time spent was around 10 hours start to finish.

 

[payasam]

Courage, intelligence and skills well used -- and a good result. As I write this, I look longingly at my battered M2 three feet away.

 

[35mmdelux]

Concrete cleaner( dilute hydrochloric acid) a battery charger and a piece of copper. Anyway, going slowly I managed to remove it all and repainted with a gloss car spray paint. It's not the best job ...

In the wrong hands this could cause an explosion you would live to regret. worse, if there's a child around would be the height of negligence. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[colyn]

Good job..

I have a user M2 that I have been thinking about taking the parts to a local de-chroming shop for the treatment then painting it myself..

 

[nobbylon]

In the wrong hands this could cause an explosion you would live to regret. worse, if there's a child around would be the height of negligence. Glad it worked out for you.

You are obviously thinking about someone who did this in a closed room, wearing no protective gear, whilst lighting smokes and being watched by his 3 kids and schoolfriends, c'mon🙂

On a serious note, you're right. Don't use this method unless you have been gifted with common sense.

 

[next1]

I was going to ask the same question about a de-chroming instructions. I found some youtube stuff about using "easy-off" oven cleaner or even Coca-Cola... Serious, would you care in sharing your wisdom with us about your method?

 

[sahe69]

Probably a safer, though a bit more expensive method to remove the plating would be to gently sand/bead blast the top and bottom covers.

 

[nobbylon]

I was going to ask the same question about a de-chroming instructions. I found some youtube stuff about using "easy-off" oven cleaner or even Coca-Cola... Serious, would you care in sharing your wisdom with us about your method?

Yep no problem. After asking on here and searching the net I came up with the above method.
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) is available ready diluted at hardware stores as concrete cleaner.
I used a 4amp 12 volt car battery charger. Fill a PLASTIC container with the liquid. Suspend the part to be cleaned in the container, I used some brazing wire and connect to one lead of the charger, on the other side of the container I clipped a piece of copper plumbing pipe immersed in the solution and connected the other lead. Make sure the leads are out of the liquid.
Use low power if you have a variable charger and switch on. Within seconds the chrome will come off of the smaller bits you connect up. The top and bottom plates dechrome quickly also however the nickel takes longer. Don't zap for more than a minute at a time and check the piece by taking out, neutralizing in water and rubbing with a nylon abrasive dish cleaner. The aim obviuosly is to remove the coatings without pitting the metal itself. As I said earlier, I originally had it connected up wrong and ended up giving my bottom plate a coating of copper! very nice but not the aim!!!
WARNINGS!!!
USE COMMON SENSE, YOU ARE WORKING WITH ACID AND ELECTRICITY. USE SAFETY GOGGLES AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING. THIS METHOD GIVES OFF EXPLOSIVE FUMES SO DO IT OUTSIDE LIKE I DID AND WEAR A MASK.
WASH EVERYTHING PROPERLY WITH FRESH WATER.
I tested this method first, to get the timings right, by using an old pentax spotmatic bottom plate which by the way, doesn't have nickel and the chrome came off VERY easily.
And please, DON'T have any kids, minors or non common sense people around whilst you attempt this.
THIS CAN BE TRIED AT YOUR OWN RISK, NO ONE ELSES!!!
I hope this helps, happy black painting🙂

 

[ZorkiKat]

I did a similar procedure to an old rusty FED 2 years ago.

The procedure for chrome removal and metal preparation is described here: BLACK FED

The article is a repost of something which used to be in the Russian RF board of this forum.


I used black epoxy acrylic spray paint. It doesn't hold up to wear as much as the baked enamels. A better painting material is still to be found.

 

[next1]

ZorkiKat and Nobbylon, thank you; I promise that I will be OK!

 

[35mmdelux]

simple procedure at the metalurgist. Hardly worth the hassel.

 

[ZorkiKat]

simple procedure at the metalurgist. Hardly worth the hassel.

Actually it is worth the HASSLE. Being able to create something wonderful with one's own hands and effort - carefully considering the risks- will justify the "trouble". And the risks, real as they are, are not exactly a Chernobyl waiting to happen. Lighting a gas oven or grilling steaks on a barbecue has just as many risks.

In some parts of the world, metallurgists are not as easily found. Maybe at where you are, there's one in every block. But not here...🙄

 

[35mmdelux]

Yep no problem. After asking on here and searching the net I came up with the above method.
Muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) is available ready diluted at hardware stores as concrete cleaner.
I used a 4amp 12 volt car battery charger. Fill a PLASTIC container with the liquid. Suspend the part to be cleaned in the container, I used some brazing wire and connect to one lead of the charger, on the other side of the container I clipped a piece of copper plumbing pipe immersed in the solution and connected the other lead. Make sure the leads are out of the liquid.
Use low power if you have a variable charger and switch on. Within seconds the chrome will come off of the smaller bits you connect up. The top and bottom plates dechrome quickly also however the nickel takes longer. Don't zap for more than a minute at a time and check the piece by taking out, neutralizing in water and rubbing with a nylon abrasive dish cleaner. The aim obviuosly is to remove the coatings without pitting the metal itself. As I said earlier, I originally had it connected up wrong and ended up giving my bottom plate a coating of copper! very nice but not the aim!!!
WARNINGS!!!
USE COMMON SENSE, YOU ARE WORKING WITH ACID AND ELECTRICITY. USE SAFETY GOGGLES AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING. THIS METHOD GIVES OFF EXPLOSIVE FUMES SO DO IT OUTSIDE LIKE I DID AND WEAR A MASK.
WASH EVERYTHING PROPERLY WITH FRESH WATER.
I tested this method first, to get the timings right, by using an old pentax spotmatic bottom plate which by the way, doesn't have nickel and the chrome came off VERY easily.
And please, DON'T have any kids, minors or non common sense people around whilst you attempt this.
THIS CAN BE TRIED AT YOUR OWN RISK, NO ONE ELSES!!!
I hope this helps, happy black painting🙂

Interesting. And thanks for the COMPLETE instructions!

[common sense is in short supply. hang around a hospital and you'll see what I mean.]

 

[nobbylon]

Actually it is worth the HASSLE. Being able to create something wonderful with one's own hands and effort - carefully considering the risks- will justify the "trouble". And the risks, real as they are, are not exactly a Chernobyl waiting to happen. Lighting a gas oven or grilling steaks on a barbecue has just as many risks.

In some parts of the world, metallurgists are not as easily found. Maybe at where you are, there's one in every block. But not here...🙄

I have to agree, I couldn't find anywhere to do it for me so I improvised. The powder to remove nickel is only available in the US and I'm not looking for perfection in the end result. Quite the opposite. A nice user black camera which looks it's age and that i'm not worried about scratching. Old chrome with scratches and dents to me looks ugly whereas black and brass looks nicer. No it won't affect my pictures. I just did it to see if I could! Rather like my home CLA and home made shutter speed testers. I enjoy finding out if I can do something and I learn something new in the process, which I find much more satisfying than just paying someone else to do for me.