Sunday, April 29, 2012

I got a few more parts ready and painted them today.

This is a coolant pipe.  I replaced one of the hose barbs with a -10 AN fitting, I had it TIG welded on.


Mudded

More supplies!  The adhesion promoter is for bare plastic parts.  I'm going to try it out on the timing belt covers.

Speaking of timing belt covers, after getting all the grease off I cleaned them with SEM Scuff and Clean.

We took a break from working for a quick ride in Rusty, the old 1994 Toyota that lives at the shop.  It isn't roadworthy anymore... but it's fieldworthy!

Safety first.

The Snell certification says 1975!

Rusty.


In related news, we got a new shop fridge today!

Hazmat was called to remove the container of unknown substance.

Beer snobs beware!  This arrived at the shop as a joke and I drank it on a dare... it really is as bad as it sounds.  Beast is smooth by comparison.

Back to work.  I made a fixture to paint the brake booster.

This is how I'm racking the pulleys, that way there are no exposed seams or paint edges.


Similar setup on the timing pulley cover.  Take note of this beautiful weld.

In the booth



The plastic parts turned out pretty good.  This is only primer, they need some finish work before paint.





This isn't  a great picture, but the brake booster has a ton of dust in the finish.  I forgot to clean my painting fixture and it was flaking crap all over the fresh paint.  I'll try again next time!

The next step is to take apart the alternator for paint.  I started with the pulley.  I had to counterhold the center shaft (10mm triple square) while removing the 24mm nut holding the pulley on.

I homebrewed up a tool

Success!

Now I have to figure out how to remove all this.

I discovered yesterday that Wendy's now has Mac'n'Cheese!  What a glorious day.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Jetta's starter bolts are 4-1/2" long and thread into the motor mounting bracket.  I can't get metric stainless fasteners long enough, so I'm converting to English threads.

Here are the three M10 nuts welded on the stock bracket:

I made these on my lathe with 3/8-24 threads.

I'm going to have these TIG welded on, which I can't do myself.

I pulled the drive flanges off of my spare trans, I will paint these and install them on my transmission.  I had to cut the OEM pieces to get paint to flow around them, so they need replaced.

I cleaned up the starter today.  The flange is aluminum, the case is steel,  and the end is plastic.  The whole mess was painted with some sort of really weak paint, most of it flaked off pretty easily.


Woody had to pull the motor in his beetle to re-torque the cylinder head bolts, which apparently stretch and need re-torqued every so often.   Thanks Wheeler Dealers' for the toolbox idea!

Monday, April 16, 2012

I thought about taking the power steering pump apart, sandblasting each part, and rebuilding it with all new seals - but this is where I drew the line.  I painted the rusty steel hub with rust converter and cleaned the aluminum with Awesome, I will paint it satin black.


FYI, driving the AC compressor clutch off with three 1/4-20 screws is NOT the right way to remove it.  The threaded holes are to attach a pulling plate.  But it worked and didn't really destroy anything.


Here was the original sticker on the AC compressor.  I removed it and might recreate it after paint.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I repositioned the TV so I could watch the Pens game from my lathe.

New tools! 

I got another batch of engine parts painted this weekend. 

I masked the sealing surfaces on both sides of the oil cooler to prevent sealing issues or paint chips in the oil stream.

I made a bunch of hooks to make racking easier.  This is just 1/8" steel rod welded to 1/4" washers.



Oil filter housing

Serpentine belt tensioner

All strung up and epoxy primed with PPG DP40LF

Painted!  This stuff is all the same satin black I used on the engine block and transmission.




Get a good look at this oilpan while it's fresh, it will be dented and scratched before I get the car out of the parking lot!