Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

so while the frame rail was drying we decided to check on our inner fender which had been marinating in a light muriatic acid / water bath

you can see where the liquid could reach, as there is a distinct line, I could not fit the entire fender into my container so I would rotate it upside down, and down side up, etc

[greg64]

I hear ya, Gregski. I've gone through a million wire brush wheels in my grinder too.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

I hear ya, Gregski. I've gone through a million wire brush wheels in my grinder too.

Do yours also wear out unevenly and make your hand vibrate / wiggle until it goes completely numb?

[greg64]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Do yours also wear out unevenly and make your hand vibrate / wiggle until it goes completely numb?

Yup. Meanwhile the wheel bristles end up flying off and hitting everything, including me!

[MannyDantyla]

Dude I love this thread. You're just fixing every little thing like I do. If it's not broken, clean it up and put it back on!

[MannyDantyla]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Do yours also wear out unevenly and make your hand vibrate / wiggle until it goes completely numb?

Yes. So numb. My hand is still numb from trying to use it last week.

[Gregski]

Could someone explain to me please, why when one single tiny drop of brake fluid drips from my master brake cylinder onto my brake booster it takes off half the paint off of it, yet when I shmear / lather the entire inner fender with DOT 3 brake fluid it won't remove a single spec ???

[Gregski]

since the brake fluid did not come through for me, I wasn't going to allow that to be a show stopper [get it - brake fluid...] I'm on fire today

I decided to call up my friend Walter. Now many of you know that The Greg is a One Clown circus act, but when a friend offers to help, who am I to say no...

So The Greg and his buddy De Walt working together stripped the paint off that fender in 5 minutes flat, things were going so well they even decided to stripped the paint off the belly too

now why strip the paint if you is just going to turn around and paint the thing? well if you look see closer, you will see that cancer lurks beneath the paint, that my friend is the evil we effectionaly call RUST

[enaberif]

Stupid wire brushes! I hope your wearing a face shield using that.. I've had a few of those come loose and lodge in my face and hurt. Coveralls I've had look like a porcupine attacked me.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Stupid wire brushes! I hope your wearing a face shield using that.. I've had a few of those come loose and lodge in my face and hurt. Coveralls I've had look like a porcupine attacked me.

Always

[Gregski]

Tomorrow

[Gregski]

got the inner fender all cleaned up and hung it up in the paint booth, then it was 1.5 coats of Rust-Oleum Rusty Metal Primer (cause that's all a single spray can has)

Sunday we'll shoot some undercoating on it's belly...

[Gregski]

then it was back to the crappy power steering pump, check this out this is the $80 dollar one from Carquest

it came soaked in power steering fluid (despite the pink blanket) and the warning stickers just slid right off of it, well taking some paint with them

at least the pulley slid right on this one, that's why I chose it over the one from O'Reillys

I think I'm gonna touch it up with some semi flat black paint once all mounted up

[Gregski]

wrapped up the afternoon by giving the frame rail a second coat of POR15

[greg64]

Inner fender looks great! Hope your new pump works okay. Good luck at the swap meet tomorrow.

[Gregski]

scored sum finned chevy valve covers for $20 bucks at the swap meet today

[Gregski]

this can't be good... this is the underside of my hood after I POR15ed it a couple weeks ago

[hatzie]

Fish-eyes are oil contamination of the paint. You didn't get it perfectly clean. Not surprising considering that it's the bottom of the hood.

[Gregski]

so tried another brand of paint stripper in a spray can on those $20 dollar swap meet valve covers, and just reaffirmed myself to not waste any money on those and just buy the larger containers of the jelly like stuff you brush on, I have now officially spent more on the paint strippers than those covers, LOL

but with about three coats and some elbow grease scrubbing, they did improve, I will work on them some more later on and maybe put them on in a couple months when I mount the alternator lower, you see we have to re route all the wiring so it's hidden Hot Rod style

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Gregski

so tried another brand of paint stripper in a spray can on those $20 dollar swap meet valve covers, and just reaffirmed myself to not waste any money on those and just buy the larger containers of the jelly like stuff you brush on, I have now officially spent more on the paint strippers than those covers, LOL

but with about three coats and some elbow grease scrubbing, they did improve, I will work on them some more later on and maybe put them on in a couple months when I mount the alternator lower, you see we have to re route all the wiring so it's hidden Hot Rod style

I prep for powder by scrubbing with Dawn Dish Detergent and hot water, baking the parts for several hours well above the powder cure temp, shell blasting, re-baking, and shell blasting again. Baking will drive the contaminants out of the aluminum along with any trapped gasses in newer castings.

The best paint and powder coat primer for aluminum is anodizing but die cast parts are notoriously difficult if not impossible to anodize because of the way the alloys flow into the molds. I would shy away from anodizing these.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by hatzie

I prep for powder by scrubbing with Dawn Dish Detergent and hot water, baking the parts for several hours well above the powder cure temp, shell blasting, re-baking, and shell blasting again. Baking will drive the contaminants out of the aluminum along with any trapped gasses in newer castings.

How do you bake 'em? Specialty equipment, or a do it yourselfer rig?

[Gregski]

shot the Rust Oleum undercoating on the inner fender today and was disappointed with the results

remember last time I used this product on the other side, and it left a puddle of liquid over night as I was waiting on it to dry, well this time it let me down by not drying all lumpy bumpy you know with that rough texture we expect, it just dried smooth, weird - and I did shoot two coats

I am done with this product, I saw that they have a Professional version of it, so I may try that, of course it costs almost twice as much

[Chaplain]

Keeping it moving. I'm parallel processing with you.

Make sure you share how you reinstall the steering gear box. I'm concerned about how to get the Pitman arm back on so that that the steering column is correct.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

Make sure you share how you reinstall the steering gear box. I'm concerned about how to get the Pitman arm back on so that that the steering column is correct.

Well you don't remove it at the end you did, LOL cause there you have to pay attention to the splines, if you leave it attached to the gear box like I did and separate the other end from the tie rod linkage then even Ray Charles can put it back on correctly with his feet, hee hee

Seriously though you should be ok, end to end is about 3 to 3.5 turns, so turn it all the way to one end, then turn it all the way to the other and count the revolutions then put the splines in the middle, the pitman arm when on points almost towards the driver, trial and error won't hurt either, put it on and twist the steering wheel if you are a tooth off pop it off and adjust (of course without driving, but when parked)

[Chaplain]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Well you don't remove it at the end you did, LOL cause there you have to pay attention to the splines, if you leave it attached to the gear box like I did and separate the other end from the tie rod linkage then even Ray Charles can put it back on correctly with his feet, hee hee

Seriously though you should be ok, end to end is about 3 to 3.5 turns, so turn it all the way to one end, then turn it all the way to the other and count the revolutions then put the splines in the middle, the pitman arm when on points almost towards the driver, trial and error won't hurt either, put it on and twist the steering wheel if you are a tooth off pop it off and adjust (of course without driving, but when parked)

Oh that makes sense. I was getting worked up for nothing. Last time I did one of these was in 1998 when I was working on my 1980 K5 Blazer.

Thanks...for the build thread (wink wink).