Railroadman

As long as the bell housing is off, might as well make it look somewhat decent. It's been through the parts washer. Now what? I'm sure glass beads at 90 PSI is too nasty. Walnut shells at 70? Soap and water and elbow grease? Brass bristle wire brush? Never did something like this before, educate me. Thanks!

Nowhere Man

aluminum paint

Greg

pop23235

I do paint stripper (you won’t need) followed by a very light sandblast with ultra fine sand (~15psi) followed by light brush with a soft steel brush I find at Harbor Freight.

jprop

Try this aircraft specialty site. Unfortunately, it was a while back and I can't remember which product I used. I know Rolite is popular among the airplane crowd. Lots to choose from. I thought the polished aluminum looked more natural than the painted aluminum.
https://www.aircraftspruce.com/searc...minum%20polish

Railroadman

Even if go with paint, I'm going to have to clean all the crud off first. I've got play sand, but maybe not fine enough? Also may have some scrap aluminum I can practice on with it turned down to 15 psi. And the aircraft site has a mind-boggling array of choices!

cv67

play sand to abrasive. Soda blast will look great, walnuts good....if you are up to having it put in a tumbler it will look like it just came out of the foundry. Its cheap.

VHT cast aluminum....rallye wheel paint argent, would look nice also.
INtake is brighter than it is in pics, in person looked pretty damn nice

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...take-pics.html

AZDoug

Powder coat. Make sure they mask the mating surfaces to block and trans.

Doug

Railroadman

Good idea but it's going to be a driver. Sorts nice is OK but the powder coating is more $ than I want to bother with. Thanks, though!

Railroadman

I figure to test blast somewhere INSIDE the bell housing to be sure whatever I have will work ok. Any suggestions on pressure if I use soda? 15? 90? somewhere in between?

AZDoug

I would start at 45 PSIG and see what that gets you.

Glass bead blasting is an option, also. It will peen the surface. Small glass beads, maybe 80-120 screen size or so. Maybe larger, like 60-80.

Doug

irongate

check to see what it would cost you, might surprise you.

Just had my rock rails for my jeep -4 door, sandblasted and power coated for $322. here in this area. They do stuff for all over the country.

XTREME POWER COATING
507 583-7448
PO Box 415
Blooming Prairie, MN 55917

Just to give you a idea what it would cost to do yours.

pop23235

I found a local farm supply store that carries sand for potable water filtration and the “very fine” grade at low pressure will give good results once paint and grease are gone. Get it clean before you start.

Nowhere Man

Brake clean and elbow greese will have it clean and ready to paint

DansYellow66

Well - glad to see I'm not the first to suggest aluminum paint. I usually scrub them as clean as I can get them, give a light coat of adhesive promotor and then "dust" on a couple light coats of Dupli-Color aluminum paint. I apply it light and sort of dry so it doesn't build any gloss or thickness. Really just a bare coverage necessary to make it mostly uniform.



Also did this entire Torqueflite transmission case with some light coats. Never looked like this from the factory but looks good. .

ben dover

If you're going to do media blasting, I would start with the nozzle fairly far from the surface, this gives better control.

Robert61

If I can come up with the soda I'm going to blast my auto trans case tomorrow. I'll post results if you want to see.

dmaxx3500

blast and satin clear paint

mjv1953

Have your bell housing "Vapor blasted". Vapor blasting is a cabinet like a sand blast cabinet but uses high pressure water with 10% abrasives. It will come out looking like the day it was new. Google "Vapor blasting" and find a business in your area that does it. I just had 3 bell housing done and it cost $30 each. Many motorcycle restoration businesses use this method. I am speaking from my experience living in Seattle.

Railroadman

I have never heard of that process but it sounds interesting - I'll look it up.

I probably will not go that route as I have a large compressor and a blast cabinet already set up. I've only run 80 grit glass beads through it so far, going after heavy rust on various parts. I think all I'll need to buy is a bag of soda. A good cleaning of the cabinet, back off the pressure a bit, and ready to go. Or so it would seem.