Color Customizing Rollmarks

[Cavedweller]

My M&P40, the M&P's have excellent rollmarks for coloring.

Is that a crack in your frame? Just forward and below the takedown lever?

 

[Brandi]

Nope, just a scuff mark. It's basically brand new, it's only been to the range twice. I wanted a CORE but I got impatient and bought this. It is a fantastic gun but I really wish I had gotten the CORE, now I have to have this one milled for an RMR. Oh well, it's an awesome shooter.

 

[Cavedweller]

Good to know, just making sure. I had a M&P 9, loved it, but I love my Glocks a little more. I really like the way the RMR looks on pistols, but dont shoot enough to justify it.

 

[Brandi]

Very cool! How bout a short how to on here. How did you do it and all that.

Mods please delete this post - second post is the keeper. (Frickin POS tablet)

 

[Brandi]

Very cool! How bout a short how to on here. How did you do it and all that.

Methods vary slightly but this is how I did it.

1. Clean the area around the rollmarks you intend to color with NON acetone nail polish remover (the normal remover with acetone may damage the finish of your gun) using blue shop towels (they are like normal paper towels except more durable and most importantly, the won't leave lint that can ruin the job). You want to be sure you have no oil or anything in the rollmarks or the polish/paint won't stick.

2. Paint over the rollmark with whichever color nail polish you prefer making sure you are getting the color down into the rollmark and not leaving any bubbles (never shake nail polish like you've seen on TV, instead roll it in the palms of your hands like you would do building a fire with a hand drill). It is far better to do 2 or 3 light coats than one heavy coat.

3. Let the polish dry and cure. For you guys who don't have much experience with nail polish it needs to both dry and harden (cure) before the next coat. How long it takes depends on several different factors but an hour is usually good for a thin coat, longer for thicker coats. I would recommend an hour at a minimum per coat, remember that you'll get a better result when you are patient.

4. Now that the color has dried and hardened you want to put some nail polish remover (nonacetone) on your blue shop towel and very gently begin to wipe of the excess color around the rollmarks being very careful not to apply too much pressure which will remove color from down in the rollmark. Let the polish remover do the work instead of using too much downward pressure. You will learn quickly how much pressure is enough by trial and error. If you push too hard and remove the color in the rollmark don't worry, you can do it again as soon as the polish remover fully evaporates which just takes seconds. You want to keep moving to clean areas of your towel as the color builds up on it.

5. Now, if all has gone well, you have colored rollmarks but you aren't done yet. You need to do your second coat which is just like the first. Make sure all the polish remover has evaporated from the surface of your gun and paint on your second coat. Once that coat has dried and cured you remove the excess just like you did the first time, being careful not to get down into the rollmarks and remove the color you just put in. How many coats really depends on how deep your rollmarks are (i.e. how much color they will hold) and personal preference but I've found that two good coats work very well. The deeper the rollmark, the more paint/polish/color it will hold and the better it will look. Very shallow rollmarks are much more difficult but aren't impossible. Very shallow rollmarks will generally hold only one coat and you will have to be very careful not to press down too hard or the color will come off. If you do push too hard and remove too much color don't worry, you can do it again.

One thing I learned doing this is to use something hard but not solid, like a small piece of stiff leather to wrap your blue paper towel around to keep from going too deep when wiping off the excess color, much like a sanding block. This will make working with shallow rollmarks much easier. I used a leather strip about an inch wide and three-four inches long which was just the right size to get into tight areas and only one layer of paper towel.

Some people will say to use white as your first coat to make the color "pop". I tried it with and without the white base coat and found it made no difference. What it did do was take up valuable "real estate" by taking up rollmark depth which is better filled with whichever color you want. On shallow rollmarks, a white base coat may use up all your depth and make it impossible to put the color you want to be seen on top. Unless you want white pollmarks I would recommend just using the color you want to show for every coat you apply.

Just remember that if you make a mistake, don't worry, it's easy to remove the mistake and do it over again. Take your time, don't rush the project, the more time you take the better the results.

On mine I let the first coat dry/cure for 2-3 hours in an air conditioned area with cool dry air and then let the second coat dry over night. The second coat will always take longer to dry/cure. I've been told some folks apply a clear coat after a few days of being finished with the project to protect the color but I haven't done that and probably won't unless I have some kind of issue down the road that changes my mind.

If you decide at some point after coloring your rollmarks that you don't like it and want to remove it or want to change colors all you have to do is use that same nonacetone nail polish remover and an old toothbrush to easily remove it.