I originally wrote this article for HKPro.com and based some of the ideas on techniques others had used to dye polymer weapon receivers.
I bought a PTR-91 rifle since I really wanted something similar to an Heckler and Koch G3. I’d read about PTR making a high quality product and they seemed like a good value. Compared to other rifles I’ve handled this system is unique in that it uses a roller locking, recoil operated, semi-automatic action. I really find the mechanical operation of different systems intriguing and this system is fascinating to me.
From the factory the rifle looks something like this
I really like the rifle but out of the box there were a few things I wanted to change. PTR sells their rifles with the slim style handguard shown in the photo and I’ve always really liked the wide front end I’d seen on some rifles. The wide handguard will fit my rifle and after a bit of shopping I found that new handguards were available in black for a ton of money and in green for ~$50 from Numrich. I really liked the price of the green handguard but the black would match the original buttstock and pistol grip. I could have switched the buttstock for an imported green part, but since the buttstock is a US made part, it would be necessary to have a US part to stay within the law.
For those who don’t know, at least for the time being, there are many rifles that are legal to own that are built from a selection of imported and US made parts. The law limits how many imported parts can be used so that explains the need for the US made parts. If you ever change any parts out on one of these rifles it’s vital that you are attentive to whether the part is imported or US made and whether the change will increase the number of imported parts beyond the legal limit. I knew the handguard on my rifle were imported and so replacing them with imported handguard had no affect. Incidentally, I had a few US made parts lying around from a build I’d been planning and used them to replace some imported parts on the rifle. There really isn’t a point but I wanted to use them and it gives me the ability to swap parts out in the future and have leeway since my parts count is better than required now. Granted, this could have meant that I could use an imported green buttstock, but I’d already decided on using black.
Sticking with black components worked well but the green handguard was cheap so I decided to buy it and try to dye it black.
In order to dye the handguard, I used 3 bottles of black liquid Rit dye and 1 bottle of dark green liquid Rit dye. I also bought a styrofoam cooler for $1.99.
I boiled several pots of water and washed the handguard well in the kitchen sink with dish soap and a sponge. After rinsing, I dropped the handguard in the cooler and then poured in enough boiling water to cover the handguard. I’d guess it was about 3 to 4 gallons for my cooler.
After making sure the handguard was submerged I dumped in the 4 bottles of dye and stirred with a plastic rod I had lying around. I tossed on the lid to the cooler and came back about an hour later stir again. After a few hours I stirred and flipped the handguard around to try to help get even coloration.
I went out for a few hours and when I came back I removed the handguard and rinsed it. The dye solution was still pretty warm so the cooler did a good job of holding the heat. Total time in the dye solution was probably about 6 hours.
I rinsed the handguard well in the sink in cold water and then dried it with paper towel until I couldn’t get any more dye to rub off. The color was perfect black but was a bit dry looking. I coated it with a bit of CLP and then dried it off and it looks perfect. This also helped to protect the metal bits that had been submerged all day. It perfectly matches my rifles PTR navy style grip frame and buttstock.
NOTE – A word of warning – My styrofoam cooler weeped a bit of the dye/water solution through it’s sides while the water was still very hot. It seemed to stop as it cooled a couple of hours. I did this project outside on my wood deck and when I saw the weeping I put the cooler on a stack of newspaper. Plan on having a styrofoam cooler weep a bit so prepare for that by setting it on something you can throw away.
The handguards ended up looking like this – I should snap a shot of the assembled rifle sometime soon.
