Posted by Ed
on 10/24/2008, 7:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Aluminum Bellhousing"
65.101.41.125
Ok, for the record listen to these guys who answered previously! This is what I'm doing and the following is purely a suggestion; If you're serious, ditch the notion of "sand" and only use the "glass", "walnut" or "soda" {which ever best suits your tool space and monies). I use primarily glass, on occasion I get soda. Look at the Eastwood charts for media vs. metal/material to be cleaned. It's been my observation, English aluminum from that era tends to be more porous than the US kind, in general. A wet cleaning solution/cleaner Simple Green (watered down) for initial removal of the big [s*$#] is gonna save your bead blaster [BB] equipment in the long run and speed-up your cleaning time on the component. I also use wire brushes; Brass only! Steel brushes will eat-up your alumn. Stick with BRASS brushes!! Seal any/all areas you don't want the [BB] materials to get into ie. moving parts, seals, vents and the like.
Remove/cover/cap/tape parts you don't tend to want to replace if you happen to BB them ie. hardware [boltheads, nuts & washers I.D. plates] etc. Once your surface is clean and ready for refinishing, seal the surface with a solid aluminum primer and high temp finish. Let them thoroughly dry to a hard finish before handling them.
I've been doing all the above on both my '80 Spit & '72 GT. VERY time consuming and very satisfying when done. I've selected silver brake paint from Eastwood and putting the Diamond Clear coat over the silver when it's a component I would've rather had powder coated such as the trailing links, suspension A arms, Brake systems, suspension parts. My current budget won't allow the powder coating.
After having it overhauled, I did the GT diff with chrome after hand buffing the metal casting out; the thing has a glass finish. I've done the same thing with the Spit water pump housing; after glass-bead blasting, hand filing internal chambers, inlets and outlets, the inside is coated with zinc chromate and the exterior is chromed. Makes a new water pump look wimpy! Clear coating the (painted) finish is really helping the finish last vice just spray painting. When bolts got replaced, the equivalent AN type was supplied. The Spit bell housing has all new AN6 (as I recall) series with Cadmium plated washers. Most all aluminum is buffed by hand after going through the above cleaning cycle. The GT gas tank was cleaned like above, then sent off for sealing internally and powder coated silver outside.
I've rebuilt the carbs, intake manifolds are clean and buffed[ported], windshield washer, seat frame assemblies, about everything that comes off and is gonna get rebuilt/refinished gets this treatment. You mentioned corrosion. Good, in that you recognize this and want to prevent further development. Me too. That's why I've adopted the above aggressive measures, plus other measures. Seems to be working ok for me so far. If I could download pic.s of the before & after I would. Photographing is also a great help along the way. Nobody replies, doesn't matter anymore. 'Hope this helps you or someone who cares to refinish their Triumph, cause there's some beauties out there!
--Previous Message--
: The new thing in media blasting these
: days is using soda (as in baking soda)
: Supposedly won't harm plated parts or
: glass but is still effective against
: rust and paint. But it won't work with
: an ordinary blaster. Eastwood is
: pushing hard on their version at twice
: the price of anywhere else but you can
: see what is involved at their website
: or in their most recent fliers.
:
: --Previous Message--
: Sand blasting, though not necessarily
: with sand. Glass beads or walnut
: shells. Automatic transmission
: rebuilders have a washer. What do you
: have to work with?
:
: --Previous Message--
: I picked up an aluminum bell housing
: and
: it shows 40+ years of use and
: corrosion. How's the bes way to clean
: it? Not looking to polish it but at
: least make it respectable looking.
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