Vapour Blasting Results

As you will remember I sent some aluminium parts to be vapour blasted.  They looked like this:

Well here is what they look like now!

And some close ups

Clearly the water box outlet pipe has seen better days.  This will be hidden by the hose so I wont do anything more with this.

Top Engine Mount.  Really impressed with the visible detail.

 Alternator Mount Rear

 Alternator Mount Front - This was so dirty before.  Looks brand new!!

 Inlet Manifold.  Photo does not do it justice

 Throttle Body - Look at the brass fittings!

Rocker cover.

To say I am impressed is an understatement.  It will all need a thorough clean to ensure no blast media remains.  This lot cost £100.

Passengers side inner wing - Back to bare metal

I have been poking around the passengers side inner wing.  Things are looking a little crusty in places.

I peeled back the very sound looking underseal to reveal the following.

 Brake pipe bracket looks nasty

 Place where the subframe bolts on.  Looks like several panels come together at this point.  Things look like they have distorted slightly due to swelling from the corrosion.

 I had a poke about the underseal on the suspension turret.  Did not take long to find rust.  Prior to removal the seam sealer looked absolutely fine.  This gets me worried enough to want to remove more to see the extent.

 Closer view

 From underneath.

 Started pulling the stonechip and sealer off to see what I was working with.  Looks like the panels themselves are largely sound, but there is corrosion where the panels join.

This was hard work so I enlisted the help of a heat gun.  Great bit of kit.

 The bits in the corners seemed to be quite localised.  They did not extend far before I located clean steel.

 Bit more work on the wing.  Getting bake to bare metal in a few areas now.

Some horrible looking corrosion on the wing stiffener.  Thankfully it looks much worse than it is.  Mostly surface pitting only. 

 I popped some Deox Gel on it.  Never used this before but heard good things.

 After 24 hrs its turned black which means its finished.

 Took the worst of it off.

 Sprayed some zinc primer to keep it from rusting again.

 More heat gun - Stonechip removal.  What was quite interesting here was that it fell off in big chunks.  There did not seem to be much panel adhesion.  Thankfully this has not resulted in any corrosion. I guess despite the poor adhesion the protection was offered by the surrounding material.

 Crustyness in the corner bewteen some panel joins.  Again not severe.

 Nice and clean at these panel joins for the most part, with the exception of one area in the middle of the photo.

 Where the arch is joined to the inner wing there is some corrosion.  Not severe.

 Getting somewhere now.  Its getting more awkward as you go up the arch.

 Nice clean steel for the most part.

 I used some Hydrate 80 on the seams.

 More Hydrate 80

 Used a bit more Deox Gel

 Into the suspension turret now.  This is a pain in the neck!

Some bit I had cleaned at teh front started to show some light surface rust.  I cleaned off again and applied some zinc primer.  The front of the car gets the weather with the garage door open so this will do for now. 

 Getting there - Note corrosion on the bottom of the panel i think will need chopped out and welded along with the brake pipe bracket.  I cannot weld so I need to either learn or get someone to help me.

 Top of the turret.  Almost all of the stonechip is removed.  There is some light pitting where the strut bolts on.  Looks like there may be some more under the remaining paint which is really hard to get off due to the angle I need to get at to reach it.  This would have been easier on a ramp or on a spit of which I have neither.

 Turret as bare as I can get it.  Looks pretty cood condition v=bar the light pitting

 Worst of the pitting in the turret.

 Deox Gel applied.

A bit more Deox Gel.

I need to let this all go off, wash it off and see if in needs another coat.  I think it will do.

That's this thread completely up to date (or the first time ever) with the last of the photos being from the afternoon.  

Until next time.

Exhaust Manifold

I have been stripping a lot off the car recently and have not really made any refurbishment progress, so I decided to refurb the exhaust manifold to get my refurb mojo.

Crusty looking manifold as removed from the car.

Part of the fasteners were stuck due to corrosion.  Needed to give these a tap out. 

 Attacked with a wire brush.  It did ok but not well enough

 Deox C bath made up.

 In it goes

 I was very impressed by the results of the Deox C.  The rust fell off when it came out.  You can see the tide mark where the fluid has been up to.  Quick finish off with wire brush and its ready for paint.

 I made use of Hycote Extreme Heat Balck which I saw on another thread.

 Painting in progress

I ended up using the entire tin.  Was not going to need it again. 

Cured in the wifes oven.  She was out - no pics as I don't want her to see the evidence.  Luckily she does not read car forums :D

I am really chuffed how this turned out.  Looks really good.  Probably would have preferred silver but the shop only had black.

That's all for today.

James