How far do you go

When restoring your pride and joy how far do you go in stripping it down ?
Do you get all bits shot blasted or do you use wire brushes ?
How many primer coats of paint do you use ?
How many top coats of paint do you use ?

These are my answers tothe above
I get all the bits shot blasted he nows his stuff and normally uses glass beads not so harsh on the castings.
I paint 2 coats of primer normally Red Oxide.
Top coats normally 2 to 3 coats deppending how well it go's on
Chris

i have never had anyhing shot blasted wish i had though saves so much time, i usally spend weeks rubbing down, i have always used hammerite primer, about 3 spray coats, then the top coat a few weeks later, i no this is a rushed process, but im being honest, i have learnt from my mistakes, and will do better next time

shot blasting is ok, but I cant really afford to do it :P...

I normally use wire brushes and a sander...
Flappy discs work well....

Then prime it, and paint it....

I have found a great chap who do's all mine , I make sure all oil and grease is off then I bolt things back on to the main castings and cover things with Gaffer tape. This way he do's not have lots of bits to blast.
Normally 1 engine and 4 wheels he charges £20 to £30, save me a lot of hard work
Chris

I might have a go at building my own sand blaster

I like building all sorts of things, so its another project...

I did look into buying a sandblaster but found my compressor wasn't big enough . I need at least 3hp even for a small one. The problem I have is I don't have the room for a compressor that size, but it's still in my mind to get one now the next problem is price, the cheapest compressor at Machine Mart is about £450 you need to do a lot of blasting to make a dent in that price. It wouldn't be so bad if I could find others that were local that would pay me for doing some work for them. I'm still looking but for that kind of cash it would buy a nice engine. So it's wire brushes, has anyone found that it's difficult to get the steel brushes now that attach to a drill, around here it's all brass ones for sale, yet I still managed to pick up so big brushes at the weekend 6 for a fiver which I'm happy about coz I normally pay £1 each, now I wish I'd bought more . I've some flap discs but not tried them yet so I'll road test them soon and let you know which I prefer. I've got coach enamal, but i'm going to try just household gloss on a small engine see what finish I get and how long it lasts (well its the wifes engine). I've also gallon of white coach enamal that I used when I had the buses (stock colour lol) would anyone know if it's ok to mix with a coloured enamal as it seems a waste just to leave it on the shelf.

Stu.

Stu, the shot blasting at home was a dissaster for me. Like you said my compresser did not have the pressure, so got bigger one.
I got all the kit and grit cost me about £2500.00 in total with everything, I think I managed to do a Lister L type all the grit was gone.
The noise and all the crap it left every were was s**t.
Got more grit got my self a shed I will do it in there and save some grit got the engine done no grit in the shed it was all over me and out side
I sold it all on never again
Chris

Why buy the sand?
Cornwall is abundant with beaches so shouldnt be a problem :P

My compressor is 2hp I think...

2hp not enough according to the guy from Machine Mart and he wasn't after the sale just giving good advice, if you want to try one there only £20-25 so might be worth the risk just do small areas and let it keep building up pressure.

Stu.

The horsepower rating is only of the motor though :S...

So it just takes longer to refill the tank than say a 3hp...

The 2 things would have thought were important are flow rate and pressure....

Maybe thats what the bloke at machine mart was saying...
I suppose the bigger the compressor tank, the more flow it can produce...

IgorVigor wrote:The horsepower rating is only of the motor though :S...

So it just takes longer to refill the tank than say a 3hp...

The 2 things would have thought were important are flow rate and pressure....

Maybe thats what the bloke at machine mart was saying...
I suppose the bigger the compressor tank, the more flow it can produce...

Sorry it didn't come across to good but you need the pressure constant not like a small motor where it drops and you have to keep waiting for it to reach max pressure and a resonably sized tank should be enough with the right motor.

Stu.

Thats basically what I meant

At least we are clear now :P

Mine isnt too bad for constant pressure...
Its a 25L tank as well, which lasts for a good few minutes on full flow, full pressure

get engine going to make sure theres no horrible noises
then strip down and take to shot blasters (THANKS MR JONES FOR THE HEADS UP)
then 3 coats of primer and then 3 coats of top coat(with a paint brush,not sprayed im sh** at it)
leaving each coat for at least a week to harden off
then put it all back together(thetas if you can remember where thay all go)
if youve done it right it should go first turn of the Handel :smokin: :smokin:

that's the way i do it now,thanks to the top man himself MR JONES.
CHEERS MATE, :smokin: :smokin: MIKE.

Sand blasting, I have sandblasted door panels and engineparts with a syphon type sandblaster they cost about 40.00nz at som,e stage i would like to buy a container type unit i am happy with

the results i bought the biggest compressor that i could afford it run on the mains i think 17cubic foot has triple heads it is slow though with the syphon but easier than scrubbing

by hand and gets into places that you couldnt do anyway i use river sand doesnt cost me anything apart from fuel it means i have to seive it and dry it in the summer its not a big

deal when i take the kids for a swim i fill up a few buckets and take them home over here it is about $1.00 a kg sandblasting grit and i live out in the country so i make do with

what i have you go thru a 25kg bag in no time i do wear a respirator for safety issues the grit goes everywhere i did try lining a trailer with a cage with polythene and sandblasted

in there that reduced alot of the drift and easier to collect the used grit which i seived first and reused it meant i was mobile as well depending on what you are doing buying a

good compressor is a investment i hope to use mine for spray painting when i improve and i have air tools which are handy to use and cheaper to buy than electric i use the air all

the time for cleaning and blowing out carbys fuel lines etc rustyreks

my usual aproach is to check the most obvious things on the engine first (post acquisition) i.e. condition of the oil (always needs changing) spark etc etc, and make an attempt at starting the engine to reveal obvious faults issues, beyond that its a full strip down, i'm a lot more juciduous with diesels, as the settings are more particular, like bump clearence spill etc etc, so where i can leave the barrel and fuel pump alone, i will.

aside from that, i'm not a great believer in sand blasting, the polishing action of the sand post paint removal takes the "grip" out of the metal, and makes keying paint on awkward sometimes, and it doesnt remove grease/oil, above all though the flash over of rust afterwards is minutes rather than hours, so the paint needs to be applied quick! we jet blast the castings with de-greasing detergent and then rub it down with sand paper and water, "wet and dry", followed by red oxide and build up primer, usually 2 to three layers of red then two coats of primer, zinc/cellulose primer is preferred, but it can be expensive. we then use cellulose paint on top, 3-4 coats depending on the finish needed, the paint is flattened between every coat from the red oxide to the finishing coat to keep everything as flat as possible, i'm not one for showing casting marks, i like to make engines as good as i can, so they look as good as they run. a lot of restorers prefer 2k paints for older machines and exhibition finishes, but if we used that for the number of layers we paint, it would take weeks to paint an engine

we've not gone down the road of lacquer with engines yet, but might after we've painted one of the tractors, that said, we did use it when we painted the range rover, with good results.

mechanically, we replace/rebuild anything that is out of tolerance or damaged, details that arent correct bug me, even if they are inside the engine, when parts are not available, we usually do our best to make new ones, where possible.

my knowledge of magnetos is not great but it is slowly improving, so a clean out and a decent spark is the limit of my endevours into the magneto world, but with diesels i tend to, where required have the pump and injector overhauled, however, with all but two of my engines, that department has been like new anyway.

cheers.

Paul.