ConcoursMustang Forums
Marketplace => Services Offered => Topic started by: Countrysquire on April 18, 2019, 11:02:35 AM
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UPDATE - Finally have the machine up and running, I've been working on a seemingly endless garage expansion project, but it is nearing completion and I can finally get back to working on cars. I've only done a few test pieces so far, but I wanted to post the results here which I'm very happy with. The first piece is the distributor body from my son's '66 GT convertible. The iPhone photos aren't the best, but I tried to capture how the details, including casting flashing, were preserved. The natural color variations in the aluminum are there and it feels like a new piece when you pick it up. Also pictured is a used Blue Thunder FE intake that was showing some age and it came out nice as well.
Let me know if you would like to get a test piece done, either something good or damaged. I would like to test a die cast Boss 302 or 428CJ valve cover if someone wants to send me a damaged one.
Thanks,
Bobby
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Thanks for sharing. Wish I had the time - maybe at some point - as I would like to take a bell housing cut it into 4-6" slices and try different processes for each section to produce something that can show the differences. But must say that the experiments so far show allot of positive outcomes and a big improvement over the "older" techniques. Thanks to all that have made and shared their efforts.
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Did you build your own setup? Saw some online DIY that looked a bit involved and mentioned that the cheapest unit to buy outright was around $4k.
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- as I would like to take a bell housing cut it into 4-6" slices and try different processes for each section to produce something that can show the differences.
Would alternator housings suffice? There should be a lot available.
Jim
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Charles, I bought the machine from Vapor Honing Technologies up in your neck of the woods. I encourage you or Jeff to send some pieces to me and I will blast them and return them to get your opinion. Photos are great, but nothing like holding the item in your hand. While NOS parts are the best we have to compare to, I have to think 30-50 years of oxidation has to dull parts a bit, even when sitting in those FoMoCo or Autolite boxes that we all love to see. When I compare a freshly blasted aluminum part such as the alternator housing to the same part on my 2018 F150 or my son’s 2019 Mustang GT, they are essentially the same. It’s what you expect to see when you raise the hood on a new car. I’m really impressed with the results of a bellhousing that I did today. It’s ‘ugly’ with a great deal of color variation, exactly what I’d hope to see. I have a rough pair of original CJ valve covers on the way and I can’t wait to see the results on them.
The greatest compliment that I can give to the process is that parts don’t look restored, they look new.
Bobby
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I am very happy with our new vapour blaster. I am doing every part that I can fit inside the machine. Here are a few before and after pics
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Works on brass too...
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Really pleased with the outcome of member Morsel’s hipo servo cover.
(https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6784f6_b3543252456049208c3ae2866d9ccf77~mv2.gif)
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How would you go about vapor blasting a small transmission case, say a C4 Case, bellhousing and tail shaft case? Do you have a way to prevent media from getting embedded in the internal areas?
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How would you go about vapor blasting a small transmission case, say a C4 Case, bellhousing and tail shaft case? Do you have a way to prevent media from getting embedded in the internal areas?
Richard,
The great thing about this method is that it does not open the pores and embed the media, BUT, because of all the water, the glass beads seem to get into more places than in a dry blast cabinet. After blasting, I rinse the parts with a sprayer in the cabinet, then move them to a tub where they are submerged several times, which seems to remove all remnants of the media. That said, on something like a transmission where any contamination would be disaster, I like to seal up the item as much as possible. Thinking about a C4, I think it would be best to blast it with the tail shaft housing, servo cover, and pan in place as well as a piece of gasket material to seal the front pump opening. All the holes would be plugged. I would still expect something to sneak in there, so several thorough post-blast flushings would be a good idea.
Thanks.
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428CJ die cast valve cover straight out of the cabinet.
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Her's a little before and after of steel parts. The first pictures are of a hinge (?) bracket and an original non-tach Boss 302 oil pressure sending unit. The bracket was in excellent shape to start with and the blue dichromate is still present. The sending unit was fortunate enough to have been preserved in FoMoCo oil and grease for the last 50 years. Being careful, most of the original gold dichromate was preserved, though it doesn't have quite the 'sparkle' of what it looked like when new, but look at the copper solder that was used on the bracket.
(https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6784f6_4d7ce4482110447e97b586657cba97e0~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_438,h_698,al_c,q_90/IMG_16121.webp)
(https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6784f6_a4e8e43891454a4593a69b9212ee65ed~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_460,h_409,al_c,q_90/IMG_16321.webp)
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A few new photos of some 1970 items that Dashmore sent to me to do that were not aluminum.
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So, this would seem to be an excellent way to clean aluminum parts. Any suggestions to preserve to parts after cleaning?
Flat clear?
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So, this would seem to be an excellent way to clean aluminum parts. Any suggestions to preserve to parts after cleaning?
Flat clear?
CRC 3-36 has been unmentioned.
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So, this would seem to be an excellent way to clean aluminum parts. Any suggestions to preserve to parts after cleaning?
Flat clear?
I personally don't like clear paint because it can change the look of the part. Sometimes though you might not have a choice depending on the service. I have had good luck with Boeshield T-9 and recently bought some of the Lear Chemical ACF-50 that is designed for aircraft. So far I'm very pleased with the ACF-50 on both aluminum and ferrous parts as they don't change the look of the freshly blasted part at all, but time will tell if it holds up as well as Boesheild. On parts that are to be painted, such as that glove box door in the photo, I use Eastwood's AfterBlast which is a combination of ospho and a degreaser.
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Here's a short video of the process in action on a very faded plastic seat back from a 1970 Mach 1.
https://youtu.be/7-DA-J6kbFo (https://youtu.be/7-DA-J6kbFo)
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So, this would seem to be an excellent way to clean aluminum parts. Any suggestions to preserve to parts after cleaning?
Flat clear?
In my experience a painted clear will only cause you more work and aggravation in the long run
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Here's a short video of the process in action on a very faded plastic seat back from a 1970 Mach 1.
https://youtu.be/7-DA-J6kbFo (https://youtu.be/7-DA-J6kbFo)
Nice to see there is some hope for faded plastic. It seems like a lot more effort that I expected! Is the panel ready to use when done or does it need to be painted?
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Nice to see there is some hope for faded plastic. It seems like a lot more effort that I expected! Is the panel ready to use when done or does it need to be painted?
The downside of a gentle process is that it's a slow process on some materials. Each of those seat backs took about 25 minutes and that's at a low pressure (~40 psig). Bare metal parts clean up quickly, but paint removal can be very slow compared to dry blasting.
After those panels dry, they still look faded even though all the surface oxidation is gone. The short answer is that I feel that they should be dyed. I believe that a professional grade trim restorer (Black Wow is what I use) would bring them back to close to new, but my concern would be that the chemicals in that stuff could soak into the plastic and make it impossible to dye them in the future and not have adhesion issues. Also, the trim restorers that I've tried that work well all leave a wet, shiny (almost sticky) appearance like some solvent based tire dressings do, and I really don't like that. It would have made for great before and after photos, but then the owner wouldn't be able to dye them back to the original black or another color and I know that this particular set might end up in a car with vermilion interior.
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I'm the owner and I agree with bobby. They look new texture and detail wise but they will need to be dyed. My friend with the vermilion interior thinks they look like a good candidate for dyeing. I showed several plastic pieces to Bob Gaines at Tulsa and he was glad to see them first hand and spoke positive of the plastic fender splash shields, rwsr side marker interior retainers and seat back all for a 70 mustang. Bottom line is it did not damage the plastic and looked nice.
Dan
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Here's a couple items from this week - a C4 bellhousing for Morsel and a Boss 302 intake from a member over on the B2 forum.
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Just want to throw it out there, but I've used Bobby for serval items now and I'm extremely happy with the outcome. I've been mainly using his services for aluminum parts. Previously I would do them myself with a very long, time consuming process that involved lightly glass bead blasting (which took forever), then following with light metal ball peen blasting to get proper sheen, followed up by using steel wool to smooth everything out. While I got really decent results, the process was so time consuming, it was brutal, especially when doing large pieces like a bell housing.
I sent Bobby first a distributer casing, it came out so good that now I've been sending other miscellaneous pieces to him, starter nose cone, C-Servo cover you see in one of his earlier post, the C4 bell housing you see in the his post above, and some other small items. His pictures he's been posting don't do the items justice, they look so much better then I can do with the method I mentioned above.
Anyway, with how extremely reasonable his prices are for this service, I highly suggest just giving him a shot on something you need done and seeing how you like it, I've been extremely happy with what he's done for me and will continuer to use him for miscellaneous items...
Thanks Bobby...
Jason
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Video of the process on a Boss 302 intake.
https://youtu.be/561mb5T4T5k
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How would you go about vapor blasting a small transmission case, say a C4 Case, bellhousing and tail shaft case? Do you have a way to prevent media from getting embedded in the internal areas?
I did my transmission and it turned out great. The wet slurry get completely rinsed out with water and acts more like a polisher than a blaster, hence the b righter smoother finish ideal for parts requiring a natural untreated finish
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Video of the process on a Boss 302 intake.
https://youtu.be/561mb5T4T5k
Hi Boddy I did a bell housing as well as some other parts. So far the Vapour Blaster has been the best shop investment yet.
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It's funny, I thought I would be doing nothing but aluminum parts, but have learned that it does much more as you have demonstrated in your photos. I blasted some rusty reproduction T-Bird K-H wire wheels yesterday and they came out great (considering what I started with).
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It's funny, I thought I would be doing nothing but aluminum parts, but have learned that it does much more as you have demonstrated in your photos. I blasted some rusty reproduction T-Bird K-H wire wheels yesterday and they came out great (considering what I started with).
Agreed. It works so well on everything, even rubber. I am putting everything I can in the vapour blaster. I also only planned on doing aluminum originally, but now any part to be finished naturally is an ideal candidate for this process.
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Bobby
I’ve got a couple of aluminum parts I’m going to send you.
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Bobby
I’ve got a couple of aluminum parts I’m going to send you.
Sounds good. Shoot me an email at bobby@houstonvaporblasting.com and I will give you my shipping address.
Bobby
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Hello again, haven't posted in a while so thought that it would be a good idea to give an update. I have recently retired from my job of 30 years and now get to spend all day at home in my shop blasting parts for customers and working on old Fords, which is as wonderful as it sounds. The pay is much worse, but life is certainly better.
Anyway, wanted to remind everyone about the service for those who need it.
Feel free to PM or email with any questions.
www.houstonvaporblasting.com
Thanks,
Bobby
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I picked my 428 valve covers from Bobby yesterday ... very happy with the results
(https://photos.imageevent.com/sibayak/billjansas69rcodemach1/large/Picture1.jpg)