Today I shot blasted ......

[JOEPRO]

Its pretty amazing isn't it. The shot blasting process. You can take old gnarly looking rusted parts and blast off decades of grot revealing a shiny part below.

Just finished with this old magnesium valve cover. It had many layers of paint and a super tough original coating of paint.



I started shot blasting it with recycled glass bead and it was taking way too long to break through the old paint. So I lashed it in paint stripper, covered it with a bin liner so the stripper wouldn't dry off and left it all day. The remaining old paint was loosened



I then used my Lavor hot diesel washer and a 15 degree nozzle and blasted off as much paint as I could. Then about 1 hour covered it all well in my shot blast cabinet



Some imperfections are showing so tomorrow I will use a small qty of body filler to fill those and spray it with several coats of gloss black high temp caliper paint.

 

[Puglet1]

Looking forward to seeing the end result.
Keep us posted .

 

[fizzy]

Lovely job. I wonder how temp will effect the filler? Having said that I once filled a casting hole for someone after they had an engine block skimmed. I used 24hr araldite mixed with iron filings. Engine did 100,000 miles after

 

[JOEPRO]

Lovely job. I wonder how temp will effect the filler? Having said that I once filled a casting hole for someone after they had an engine block skimmed. I used 24hr araldite mixed with iron filings. Engine did 100,000 miles after

I have repainted several magnesium MB valve covers over the years and used regular body filler its been AOK for me anyway.

 

[fizzy]

I have repainted several magnesium MB valve covers over the years and used regular body filler its been AOK for me anyway.

I suppose it will be fine - many are plastic these days

 

[JOEPRO]

Filled + sanded:



Sprayed with 3x coats of E TECH gloss black high temp engine enamel



No runs which is my biggest fear! Curing now. The last step is to use silver paint markers to paint the top lettering etc in a couple of days time.

 

[Puglet1]

That’s a great job done.
Many years ago I did a similar thing but rather than paint the top lettering in silver I used a small whetstone to remove the paint from the lettering which exposed the bare metal. As far as I can remember I then treated the lettering with a clear lacquer.

 

[MattF]

I used a small whetstone to remove the paint from the lettering which exposed the bare metal.

That was the type of approach I expected he may use, before he mentioned markers.

 

[JOEPRO]

That was the type of approach I expected he may use, before he mentioned markers.

The original way these were painted was silver lettering. Never bare or exposed metal. As a restoration project, these minor details do matter to me. (That's what separates my cars from others out there. MB valuers know it and have complimented my cars for this reason)

Example:

 

[Puglet1]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to contradict your method of refurbishment.
I was purely stating what I did in the past.

 

[JOEPRO]

Sorry, I didn’t mean to contradict your method of refurbishment.
I was purely stating what I did in the past.

No offence taken! You are right it is a way some cars were done and looks good too.

I intend to drive the Cossie and drive it hard. So having painted parts is always a plus for longevity.

 

[Turbo]

Filled + sanded:

View attachment 515852

Sprayed with 3x coats of E TECH gloss black high temp engine enamel

View attachment 515853

No runs which is my biggest fear! Curing now. The last step is to use silver paint markers to paint the top lettering etc in a couple of days time.

Did you sneak it into the hotpress to bake the enamel?

 

[JOEPRO]

Did you sneak it into the hotpress to bake the enamel?

I tested a chrome paint pen and it is working really nicely, full coverage in one coat and looks close to exposed metal.

 

[MattF]

I like your style.