Petter A1 restoration project

Personally I didn't bother with the spaces deep in the fins. I washed the head & barrel with some degreaser stuff I had, gave them a bloody good rinse & let them dry thoroughly.

Then I gave them both a good coat of "Plasticote" hight temp, matt black engine enamel spray paint. I've had nothing but trouble in the past with "so called" high temp engine paints, but the Plasticote one seems to stay put, you need to follow the instructions carefully though, remembering to handle it very carefully until the engine has been fired up & it has cured properly.

Originally these probably would've had the cylinder barrel painted black (I always use matt black, as it dissipates heat better than gloss, & I think it looks better) but the aluminium head would not have been painted. I have seen people paint these with high temp silver, but I reckon that a bit OTT for a stationary engine.

As a general rule with engine barrels & heads (& to a lesser extent exhausts) if it's cast iron it's black if it's ally then leave it in it's natural silver.

Looking good BTW, more pics the better I reckon.

pauldg wrote:That'd probably work, but you will lose some media.

Also - if you do it that way - make sure to wear some decent goggles, good gloves, and the best dust mask you can get.

You could always knock up a little cabinet from a few sheets of ply if you have any laying around - it won't last forever but it'd do a turn.

(btw, never use kiln dried sand, or sand at all really, for blasting. Unless of course breathing sensibly is one of those chores you just can't be bothered with any more...)

Coconut and walnut shells are good for blasting as there not to coarse, and not a bad price, they sell them on ebay.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:
Coconut and walnut shells are good for blasting as there not to coarse, and not a bad price, they sell them on ebay.

Stu.

Would they get that rust off the fins?

nutgone wrote:Personally I didn't bother with the spaces deep in the fins. I washed the head & barrel with some degreaser stuff I had, gave them a bloody good rinse & let them dry thoroughly.

Then I gave them both a good coat of "Plasticote" hight temp, matt black engine enamel spray paint. I've had nothing but trouble in the past with "so called" high temp engine paints, but the Plasticote one seems to stay put, you need to follow the instructions carefully though, remembering to handle it very carefully until the engine has been fired up & it has cured properly.

Originally these probably would've had the cylinder barrel painted black (I always use matt black, as it dissipates heat better than gloss, & I think it looks better) but the aluminium head would not have been painted. I have seen people paint these with high temp silver, but I reckon that a bit OTT for a stationary engine.

As a general rule with engine barrels & heads (& to a lesser extent exhausts) if it's cast iron it's black if it's ally then leave it in it's natural silver.

Looking good BTW, more pics the better I reckon.

Sounds like a good idea, and I guess that once the rust has a good covering of paint it will stop even the rusty areas oxidising any further... I may do this, or I may try and see if I can give it a quick shotblasting using what I have. Does anybody know how much it would cost to get something like this blasted by the profesionals?

Either way, I'm getting closer to needing that puller to come off!

You need to get the rust off as it will just show through in a few weeks, there's various shapes and sizes in wire brushes that fit to drill and that should do a good job then you need some primer on, I always tend to use red oxide first then a grey or white primer depending on colour.
There was another forum member that told me about the nut shells for blasting so the thread should be somewhere on here just need to find it.

Stu.

I wouldn't think primer will handle the heat. That Plasticote is self priming, I think, & most paints like that have rust inhibitors these days.

Obviously it'll be better if it is blasted, but if you can't then what I suggested before should work fine. I suppose it depends how bad it is & how much loose material there is there. But I've never primed the hottest bits of an engine myself.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Rust+Converter+/p51990

Flag have been making marine paints for a long time, used this on the fins on my A1, it reacts with the rust leaving a black surface, get any loose off first though and make sure it is de-greased.

I also used it on the manifolds which is the the only bit it was used on I have a photo of:



EDIT:
infact you can see some of the fins from that angle

I've looked at that stuff from Tool Station before and wondered if it was any good, so looks like I might give it a try as it's cheap enough.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:I've looked at that stuff from Tool Station before and wondered if it was any good, so looks like I might give it a try as it's cheap enough.

Stu.

so far so good Stu, the way I look at it I would always expect to touch up those particular areas yearly anyway so watch this space

It's good to hear if a product works and how it continues to keep rust at bay in years to come so it should be very interesting. I did buy some chemical rust remover that was designed for oil rigs etc but not got round to using it yet so when I do I'll let you know how I get on.

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:It's good to hear if a product works and how it continues to keep rust at bay in years to come so it should be very interesting. I did buy some chemical rust remover that was designed for oil rigs etc but not got round to using it yet so when I do I'll let you know how I get on.

Stu.

had a look at it today, finns are looking good after 2 months but exhaust is showing some rust, as to be expected really lol

Yes it's difficult to paint an exhaust and get it to keep looking good, after a while the paint just gives up and starts to flake.

Stu.

I've only just read this thread (all 6 pages of it!) and I think I can shed some light on the mag being offset the wrong way around.

What i think you have there is a mag off a Petter A, not an A1. They are the other way round because they are mounted on the extreme rear of the engine (crank handle side), facing the opposite way.

If you don't already have the holes in the mag flange for adjusting it, I wouldn't attempt to drill new ones. The exact angle of the mag is crucial for timing unless you want to take the whole gear train apart and re-assemble it in a non-standard way.

Andy.

andy1702 wrote:I've only just read this thread (all 6 pages of it!) and I think I can shed some light on the mag being offset the wrong way around.

What i think you have there is a mag off a Petter A, not an A1. They are the other way round because they are mounted on the extreme rear of the engine (crank handle side), facing the opposite way.

If you don't already have the holes in the mag flange for adjusting it, I wouldn't attempt to drill new ones. The exact angle of the mag is crucial for timing unless you want to take the whole gear train apart and re-assemble it in a non-standard way.

Andy.

If that's the case (& it certainly sounds very feasible), would the mag not be the wrong rotation as well??? So probably wouldn't work anyway.

nutgone wrote:

If that's the case (& it certainly sounds very feasible), would the mag not be the wrong rotation as well??? So probably wouldn't work anyway.

I'm not sure about that, but it may be the case. As you look at the governor end of the mag, if it's corect rotation it should click when turning anti-clockwise (I think!)

Andy.