Any informed opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Matt

It's me; I have not used cerrokote but have used many similar products. The important thing is just like painting anything; no grease on it, and the surface needs to be not polished too smooth; sometimes I bead blast parts so the paint will stick. Blasting is best way. Let it dry for a few days to cure; no oven is needed although I have baked parts coated with gun coat in my gas grill. It's easy.

I understand that cerokote must be baked. I am wondering if the entire bolt must be cerokoted, or if lugs must be left bare. Is the inside of the action coated, and if so, how is this accomplished? Will the baking process soften the action? Thanks

Not true; there are two versions; one is not baked; it is two part hardening. If you use the bake on type, it is only baked at 250 which is nothing. Yes, you coat everything but the bolt face and rear of the lugs. I polish off the back of the lugs. For a Mauser, it needs tightening up anyway. No, that low of a temp wont soften your parts.
I use a gas grill; if you use your oven, make sure you wife is not at home.

Since I didn't want to mess with the Wife's stove I made a little vertical oven. Walls were insulation boards the heat source was a electric stove burner and I had a small fan in the top for circulation. Yes I was doing more than just a bolt. As has been said NO GREASE or OIL. A bead blasted finish worked better.

I've done quite a bit of Cerokote, Part need to be blasted to allow the cerokote to get a bit on the part. H series requires baking but can be baked at a low temp that will not hurt anything steel or wood.

350˚ for one hour for all steel parts
250˚ for two hours for all steel if your oven won't make it to 350˚
150˚ for three hours and for all wood an plastic

You will get an instruction book with the material or you can download it of the web and they even have a youtube video.

FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS TO THE "T"

you do that and you will have no issues.

now as for coating thickness. This stuff is thin, goes on in one coat and covers very well. In most cases you will not need to worry about painting internal surfaces as the material build up is so slight you will never know.
The AR guys actually desire the inside of the weapon coated as the material has a self lubricating surface






Here's my two LR308 Lowers I did in Magpul FDE and the close up is so you can see how thing it is as the engraving is still sharp.

Here's Dad's old shotgun done in Graphite black



I did the color fill work the reason is looks faded is that was all the engraving left after fifty plus years of rust and handling



Now I'm not a fan of painting weapons. I believe weapons should be coated with whatever is appropriate for the style of weapon is it. i.e. slow rust blue, hot salts blue, french gray, Parkerised, Niter blued etc.

But this stuff impressed me and it's only similarity to "paint" is that it is sprayed on. Other then that it is a ceramic based bake on two part coating system. Yeah that sounds a little like a plug but you know what I sure as hell am impressed with this stuff.
and a little goes a long way. 2 oz. will do a typical handgun, every last part if needed, 4 oz, will do your typical rifle and add an once if you want to shoot the stock too.

I wish I had pictures of the first time i used the stuff. I friend of mine gave me a Rem 870 boat gun to "clean up' and "get working" it was beat to hell. so a full strip sand blast degrease and coat in black and I had what appeared to be a brand new weapon. Bought some new furniture for it and it was a brand new weapon. BTW i'm in no way affiliated with NIC or Cerokote other then that I use their stuff and love it.

Wow, I must have sent mine to the wrong place. It came back so thick I had to scrape it off the lugs and the bolt wouldn't even ride down the rails any more. Had to scrape it off there too.

The first one I did was fine, second one, not so much. Different people.

Also be aware that if you're using the bake on version that it is still "wet" even though it might look dry so make sure you don't touch or ding it until after baking. Getting the right thickness took me some practice as I don't paint regularly so there was a slightly learning curve to get adequate coverage without having to go back and add more which results in the thickness issues noted by a previous poster.

Thanks for all of the advice fellas- just what I was looking for!
Matt

MAybe it's just me and my experience with painting high quality coatings but you really need to hose this stuff on to get to thick of a layer with out it running.

Larrys unless these guys treated it like a rattle can there should be no reason that you could not put two parts together that were coated.

The cerokoted manual says to practice on a 10-32 screw and see if you can thread the nut on after you paint it. now that is a thing coat.

The trick is to learn to cover it in one coat. Not fog on a little bit then go back and recoat to completely cover. You have to get it to cover in one coat. if you can do that with out it running you should have a good coat that is also thin.

this is what i did today

Very nice!