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I need some advice and thought why not post it here.
I am trying to help out a friend of mine. He is headed back to Germany for what is left of his Tour before getting stationed back in the states (less he heads to SK). I finally got his rifle back for our other friend and to be honest, am highly ticked at the state it is in. The rifle needs to be desperately refinished. I do me badly. The lower is worn down to the bare metal on much of it. Though they never shot it that much, it was handled roughly. Also it appears that there is surface rust on outside of the barrel.
My question is first, any good local place in the greater Houston area that could refinish the entire rifle? The other option I am looking at is to try and do it myself. How hard is it to do and what product would be recommended to a novice like me. I have a shot gun personally that needs a little refinishing in the future that I am thinking about doing my self as well.
Thank you for any help or advice.

This is an AR?

Handle the surface rust with OOOO steel wool and light oil - WD40, CLP, or whatever is handy.

If the lower is black anodized aluminum, you can refinish with Gun-Kote or equivalent. Brownells has it in aerosol cans, or you can buy a small bottle with activator and a cheap airbrush. Some finishes require baking in an oven. 400 deg for 30 minutes is typical. Pretty easy stuff.

And don't loan your guns to that "friend" again.

Yes it is an AR-15.

No I don't loan him anything any anymore. He is still my friend but he just doesn't treat things very well. Hopefully I can get the rust off. If I do get it off the barrel, should I try to have the barrel refinished?

Try some ZUD first. You can buy it at the grocery or hardware store. It is waterbasd based. Will attack rust but will not hurt the blueing. Only a couple of dollars. I have used it for over 30 years.

would it mess with parkerizing of the barrel, the zud I mean? Though would taking the steel wool also take the parkerization off as well?

I think Lauer Custom Weaponry has a DuraCoat kit for about $50. It includes an airbrush and all the DuraCoat paints to do it. This is designed for firearms and I'm told it's better than the stock finish on most weapons.

on the topic of the duracoat
How much do I need to disassemble the AR to put the coating on? can I leave the barrel on and the front sight with out any problems?

With the wd-40 afterwards all I need is to do is give it a good oil covering?