abrasive blasted carburetors

Recently someone posted that they abrasive blasted there carburetors with a combination of soda and glass bead. The combination resulted in final finish that looked clean but not overworked.

I did some experimentation along the same lines and agree that the finish of the mix looked good; I also did some testing at 30 then 40 psi with just glass bead and found that the finish was similar. Your blasting equipment nozzle size and air supply may yield different results.

So now that I have my blast setup figured out that gives me a satin finish without a overworked look I am ready to go at the carburetor castings.

My question is what have others tried as an after blasting treatment for the now raw exposed satin finish aluminum to prevent staining of the clean finish?

FlyGp

 

To keep "satin" satin without accidentally over-buffing it, I prefer Nevr-Dull. If it was good enough for Grandma, it's good enough for me. http://www.nevrdull.com/ I get mine at Meijer or the Auto Parts, and the graphics on the can are different, but Nevr-Dull is the stuff.

I'm a big fan of differing degrees of polishing on bikes. My Norton has alloy "sideplates" that are part of the Isolastic system plus the passenger peg supports. The outer rims of these are highly polished; for a "proper" appearance, it's important to not "over-polish" the inner portions.

My '81 550 has a "natural" valve cover, with highly-polished lettering and highlights, but the rest of the valve cover needs to retain that "satin" finish you're referring to.

And I too don't want overly-shiny carbs. (I just use soda for blasting though. Worried about removing or changing the dimension of ANY metal.)

For all of the above, I use Nevr-Dull. And have for years. Just don't over-polish. Use it gently, rub gently, then buff. Nice protective finish too.

Highly recommended.

 

http://www.kgcoatings.com/auto-coatings-products.php

 

The first photo is a before and after shot of the bead blasted carburetors. Still haven’t selected how to protect the finish yet, Thanks for the suggestions however.

This was blasted with straight glass bead at as low a pressure that my setup would pull the beads into the gun. I would think that with a direct feed VS siphon type blaster the pressure could be even lower.

The next photo is of random parts awaiting reassembly. The links rails and caps are powder coated, man I love to powder coat stuff almost as addicting as polishing aluminum. The linkage is a reflective copy chrome powder coat; the assembly hardware will be all stainless steel.

FlyGp

 

looks great fly!!

 

Would a clear powder coat be out of the question on raw carb bodies??
What could go wrong??

 

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... rt=15.html

Leave them natural finish blasted and spray with RP7 or WD40 to keep from fingermarking. Clearance and fits between moving parts becomes an issue with all coatings on assemblies and the carbs are a complex assembly. They look good just blasted with a few highlights, like you have already done.

If you coat them one day you'll want to renew that coating after it chips, scratches or peels and it will need a very aggressive blast medium to get powder coat off, and that will damage the base metal. Last time I took powder coating off steel I needed crushed copper slag at 80psi and it left ugly dints everywhere, I'd hate to think what that would do to carbs.

 

Last time I got something done they chemically stripped the old powdercoat so that wouldn't happen

 

My reluctance to powder coat or paint the carburetors is echoed in the comments of others. My concern is future harsh chemical cleanings altering any materials used to seal / paint the aluminum. One thought was to use a polymer coating like Rejex.

http://www.rejex.com/rejex.html

Iandmac: thanks for adding the link to your blasting topic, mixing the Soda and glass was an interesting experiment thanks for the idea, unfortunately in my setup the glass bead without the soda worked better as long as I used the lowest pressure.

FlyGp

 

i sprayed my carbs with that gun kote years ago and they look like the day they were painted. cleaners even aircraft stripper won't even make a mark, the over spray is still inside the float bowls, inside the master cylinder too

 

Polock which specific product did you use?

 

http://www.kgcoatings.com/protective-co ... -gun-kote/

 

It isn't expensive either. 8O

How much did you buy? I may rethink the use of caliper paint on the engine and carb details.

 

4 OZ will easily do a rack of carbs using a airbrush.