After I wire brushed it, it seems the 5 quart oil pan I bought has some light surface rust pitting in one area. Is there a rust preventative primer paint that can be applied and sanded before top coat to fill in small surface voids due to rust corrosion .. ? .. The primer paint can labels that I have read, so far, say not to use the product if temperature will exceed 200 degrees .. Not sure if that is 'high enough' .. I would think this problem comes up from time to time. Is there a better way to fix this problem that you guys might have used . .? . .
mrg

 

Mrg-
I was in your boat just a few days ago - someone had "restored" the 6qt oil pan I purchased by spraying a ton of paint and primer over rust. I spent the better part of an afternoon wire brushing it to remove paint and rust. I then hit it whith a wire wheel but it still looked a little rusty and not paint friendly:


Used a product called Ospho that converts rust to zinc phosphate - non toxic. I just brushed it on every couple of minutes for about a hlaf an hour and rinsed it with lacquer thinner - it converted all the oxidized iron to zinc phosphate. It is reusable and available from Eastwood.


Add some self-etching primer and little paint and you're good:


Good Luck!
Brian


[Modified by Allcoupedup, 7:27 PM 3/13/2004]

 

Duplicolor has a primer in their line of engine paints. I have used it with satisfaction.

 

Nice series of before and after pics, Brian. Thanks for posting them. Looks like there was some pretty extensive rust and corrosion on the pan - more so than I would have thought. The end result turned out great .. Looks like I'll be ordering from Eastwood some of that Ospho stuff along with the exhaust manifold paint the guys have been posting about in another thread.

Thanks too Gary for the lead on the Dupilcolor primer. I had seen their engine enamel paints on the shelf at the auto parts store, but not the primer ..
John

 

BTW, Brian .. How far along are you on the rebuild .. ? ..
John

 

John,
The block, crank, and heads are at the machine shop - I'll know the details by the middle of next week. The dilemma is whether or not to go with vintage heads or a nice but relatively inexpensive set of aftermarket heads. I don't care about numbers but I'm kind of picky about functional correctness - kind of like the "as it was back in 1965" type of goal. I'm going with the LT-1 cam and I have a feeling a really good rebuild of mine or any other 462/461 heads is going to be upwards of about 800 bucks. A better performing set of aftermarket heads would be in the range of 600-800. I'm torn.

The engine is the easy fun part. I have an engine compartment to clean up - not looking forward to that.

I have a buddy that works at a place with 3 bead blasters - ultra-fine, fine, and coarse. I took all my parts there including my 6qt but decided not to blast it in fear of not being able to remove all the beads. Well ---- if I could do it over again I would have spent 10 minutes blasting and 1 hour cleaning beads instead of 3 hours removing paint and rust with laquer thinner and a wire brush!

I'm impressed with the eastwood products. This Ospho stuff was on sale so I picked upa bottle, the manifold spray looks awsome (be sure to get the factory color - not the SS stuff), their under-hood black is a nice matte lacquer - perfects for pulleys and shroud, the self etching primer looks real nice but needs a properly prepped surface. Also in my purchase was a can of alumiblast and then cast-blast.

2 very light coats of alumiblast after a thorough cleaning with lacquer thinner:


I haven't tried it but I hear cast blast is the best alternative to a unprotected parts. Not sure if the come out better with a clear finish.

...moving along - slowly.

And you?

 

POR-15 engine enamel.

Before:



After:



Last week:

 

Brian ..
I know what you mean about going with the either stock heads vs. new. I mulled that one over too and decided to go ahead and use the stock 461's. The main reason is I already have them. Don't know if that's much of a 'reason', but that's what I decided on. One nice thing about the newer aftermarket heads is they have thicker decks - around .400 in. compared to .250 in. for the stockers. Better crack and warp protection with the thicker decks ..
I'm in the process of pocket porting the 461's right now and am just about finished with one head, so far. All I'm doing is gasket matching the intake ports, intake manifold and smoothing up the factory machine tooling ridges inside the port pockets of the heads - nothing fancy.

I figure to get my short block components into the machine shop in the next couple of days. I'll be using the LT-1 cam too in my own rebuild. We can 'compare notes' when it's all said and done .. :chevy

John

 

Brian ..
I was wondering, too, what to do about my own engine compartment. It's a bit 'scuzzy', alright. I was thinking super cleaning it might suffice, but now I'm having second thoughts. Will you be painting your engine compartment, or .. ? .. Inquiring minds wanna know .. ! .. Thanks
John

 

John,
My engine compartment was probably painted 15-20 years ago. It just needs a good cleaning and that's all I intend on doing. The engine will be nice and clean + new radiator + repainted shroud. The wiring harness needs some work too - parts of it are unwrapped and super oily. A good degreasing should do the trick - I don't plan on using a pressure washer so I'll be in there with rags and a bucket of soapy water.

Have fun.
Brian

 

- Simple Green works good to remove the dirt, oil/grease, etc.
- low gloss blk Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on any parts with rust (frame rails, etc)
- then top coat everything with Krylon semi-flat blk, or John Deer blitz black (the blitz has just a touch more gloss, and would be my choice if you have a John Deer dealer near by)

 

Jughead ..
Looks super NICE .. ! .. Really impressive finish .. Thanks for posting the pics .. And I thought POR-15 only came in black .. ? .. Awesome looking BB too.

Brian ..
It'll be interesting to see how the engine compartment turns out. It's never been painted before - still original 'finish' .. If it doesn't spiff up too well, looks like I'll have to hit it with something . .

450 ..
Great tips .. Well, there 'ya go .. ! .. Ask and ye just might receive .. ! ..

Thanks, guys ..

John