auzivision

Stopped on my way home and picked up a cheap stripper. Told the old lady not to bother coming out to the garage because I had some really nasty work to do. Of course I used protection, but the stink was so bad it required a gas mask. I must admit the stripper did take almost everything off in relatively little time. The rest is history.

Full Body protection



Nasty Flappy and paint job





Project prep, this stuff is messy and dangerous… so I attempted to have everything needed close at hand.



Intake Before



Stripper taking it all off



Intake After



HF Dremel wire bush fail (lasted about 2 minutes)



Started detailing with steel wool



Next, time to open up the lungs and complete a thorugh cleaning

Lizard928

might I recommend that you simply sandblast the intake, and make sure that all the peeling paint is coming off the inside of the runners too.

Imo000

I've used furniture stripper on other cars and it worked great. It's the same formula as the automotive paint stripper, just labelled in a different can, at half the price.

I've seen it on TV to, after applying the stripper, to cover the part with cling wrap and let it sit overnight. This way the stripper will not dry out as fast and will have a lot more time to do it's job.

Nice work by the way!

auzivision

Thanks for the input and interesting you bring this up. I’m guessing you might be speaking from experience since I didn’t mention or picture this happening, but sure enough the interior is flaking. Actually, flaking might be an understatement; I picked off some big ole sheets several square inches in size.

The ports closer to the head have a lot of carbon build up and are not really pealing, but the big port closer to the throttle is. So I take it the interiors were paint in the factory? Would media blasting the interiors chambers be a good idea… will it get most of the out?

auzivision

Cool thanks, I'll keep this alternative in mind if I need some more.

I originally wanted to stop by Wal-Mart on my way home, but it end up being out of the way so I picked up the stripper at Autozone for 8 bucks.

I'm debating about doing a second round to really get at the nooks and crannies, plus now I'm starting to worry about the interior situation.

Imo000

Do a search on sandblasting the intake. People have destroyed their engines after media blasting.

auzivision

I've never done this before and don't know much about the subject. I thought sand blasting and media blasting were basically the same thing.

I’ve heard of blasting with sand, glass beads, and walnut shells…. and loosely consider them all 'media'. Sounds like you are suggesting sand is better since you can clean it up get it out more thoroughly afterwards.

antsmands

Just can across your thread. This is a big job and look to be aaaalllllloooottt of work and fun. I bet the bbbbbbeeeeeerrrrr fridge helps alot. I am 171mls away. Haven't been to Indy since Joliet raceway opened up. Maybe I should run down and turn a wrench for a beer or two (-:}. Anyway I,ll keep watching the thread. Excellent work soooooooooo far. You be back on the road soon!

AO

If you do get it media blasted, (glass, sand, soda, etc) the main thing is to make sure all the passages are cleaned out thoroughly before re-installing.

Why not just take it to a powder coater?

auzivision

I’m beginning to ask myself the same thing. It’s mainly because of my shoestring budget and somewhat because of time constraints.

It started with I’ll just spray the intake and water bridge (saves money, like the looks and not planning to match with cam covers). That became well I need to strip it first. Which now becomes the inside looks like **** and can flake into the engine. Plus I already have ‘procured’ the paint and thought I’d have it done by early next week.

The cam cover cores have been at the powder coater for over a week and should be just about done now. It looks like the intake might be heading in the same direction. However red on the Gantt chart makes getting to SITM more challenging. Yet I do my best work under pressure and need a pending deadline to really get motivated.

Most importantly I’m going to do it right and not going to cut corners. I did a quick analysis and have roughly 80 available ‘play’ hours between now and then. So I think I can make it… now where is that piggy bank?

AO

My experience with PowderCoaters is like that of contractors.

2 WEEKS!

But it quicly becomes 3, 4, +

Seeing you have roughly 4 weeks. I think you're down to sparying. You can always powdercoat during the winter if you feel the need. Just make sure you use lots of high temp clear to smooth the dimples out and give it that nice shiney look.

Tony

Looks like fun and the rewards will be WELL worth it. You can see what a slippery slope this can all be when you dive into it. It will take MUCH longer than you thought...trust me!

That stripper is NASTY stuff. It works, but be sure to keep it FAR AWAY...i mean VERY far away from your cars. Even if you have some on your shirt/gloves and rub against your car it will blister the paint! That spinning dremel can send small "blobs" of it flying!

be sure to turn the engine over by hand before you "crank it". The simple 5 minutes of extra time saved my engine a few years ago. I had a small washer slip into the intake port...of course it happend to be JUST the one that was open enough!

Looks like you have some good helping hands on hand

auzivision

Hey guys, thanks for the tips.

AO… I leaning towards sticking with plan A and doing the best I can with the intake and rattle can. The paint inside the intake would or has been flaking all along. I’ll do my best to get out the loose stuff and call it a day. My guess is paint versus metal… metal wins.

Tony… very slippery slope indeed!

I pulled my car by the sink out of the garage and covered stuff near it except for the rear entry door (looks like I’ll be repainting that someday once the rev limiter catches on LOL). No kidding, I wore that silly bunny suit and a carbon filtered mask. Also, I thoroughly rinse every thing with hot water several times. Then I sprayed it with foaming engine cleaner, brushed it down and rinse several times more before removing it from the sink. Took it outside and power blew it dry with a leaf blower.

I only think two cylinders have partially open valves right now and hope nothing fell down in there. I will try your trick about hand cranking first… thanks. This was definitely a case of jumping in with two feet before I knew what I was doing. Still hoping the ‘missing’ parts will still show up. I may need to ‘inventory’ the contents of my shop vac next.

Like many things, doing this a second time will be so much easier.

Thanks again for all the tips and suggestions. This is all unchartered waters for me and I haven’t slept at Holiday Inn Express lately.

auzivision

Not sure why, but always thought it would be cool to have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...X0DER&v=glance

The prices have come down a lot lately.

Does anyone know if these will fit through the valves in the open position?

It might be worth it just for the peace on mind... and for checking the ATF levels!

auzivision

Never mind, just thought about the spark plug hole...