Restoring Rusty

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by flashed

Those look great black.

Yeah. Those look better than I figured they would blacked out.

[enaberif]

Those radiator support rubbers are a PITA to to find. I ended up spending a few bucks and bought the Energy versions and still had to make them work.

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Those radiator support rubbers are a PITA to to find. I ended up spending a few bucks and bought the Energy versions and still had to make them work.

Even the OEM parts had to be massaged with a knife.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

Yeah I actually discovered four of those pads. Two up top and two below. Had to order replacements.

Where did you get 'em, I refuse to believe that at $5 bucks a pop LMC Truck has the best deal.

[Gregski]

could someone please tell me what size / thread these "expansion" plugs should be, I am having the hardest time finding ones that want to go in, are they regular threads or pipe threads? these are the little rascals that screw in to the bottom of the engine block, one on each side

today I tried some brass ones from NAPA and they would only go in about 3 turns

(I know my jacked up threads don't help matters much)

[Jake Wade]

1/4" npt

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by Jake Wade

1/4" npt

Are they 1/4 or 1/8? The knock sensor for the 1985 ESC screws into those holes... I think it was smaller than 1/4 NPT but I reserve the right to be wrong.
Just grab a caliper and measure it.

NPT specs from Machinery's Handbook 15th edition;
1/8-27, Drill size R, Decimal 0.3390"
1/4-18, Drill size 7/16, Decimal 0.4375"

Gitcher a copy off ebay 10th - 16th editions are pretty useful for old iron... The newer editions have a bunch of CNC etc info that's not as useful to me and they dropped some of the blacksmithing info.
http://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/ind_pres/machine.htm

[Troy Sr]

Originally Posted by Gregski

could someone please tell me what size / thread these "expansion" plugs should be, I am having the hardest time finding ones that want to go in, are they regular threads or pipe threads? these are the little rascals that screw in to the bottom of the engine block, one on each side

today I tried some brass ones from NAPA and they would only go in about 3 turns

(I know my jacked up threads don't help matters much)

Those are 1/4-27 NPT, you probably need to run a pipe tap in to clean the threads. One thing you can do is put a petcock in so you can drain the block if you ever wanted to.

[Gregski]

well another one of those ton of work days with nothing to show for it

just spent hours upon hours fighting the rust, using both a wire wheel and a Phosphoric acid bath (at 1 parts to 50 gallons of water) it was too weak it would take weeks for them to clear up so I doubled the cocktail to 2:50 today

so here are some pics of things getting cleaner

[Gregski]

the brackets on the back of the grille molding were rusty and the only way to clean them was with acid as I could not get in all the nooks and cranies with a wire wheel, plus under them

here's how they are progressing (I have to do half a stick at a time, since I only have a 50 gallon drum which is only about 3 feet tall)

[Gregski]

the entire core support was covered in rust, I had no idea it was going to be this bad

Fun Level = -2.8

[Gregski]

I was bored (and $164 bucks short) so I decided to make my own tumbler

first I tried using my square sander figuring I hardly ever use it now that I have my orbital, an aluminum vice, a Folgers "decaf" plastic coffee can (empty preferably) a bolt or two, and the key to the entire operation a pot or aka dim switch from home depo for like $2 bucks plus 20 cents for the plastic case for it

so here is Tumbler Jr. 3000 ver. 1.0

before and after bolts after 1 hour of vibrating using Walnut "blasting" media

[Gregski]

well even after wiggling with that thing for 2 hours it was just nothing to write home about

[Gregski]

you could say the wheels in my head starter a turnin'

Tumbler Jr. 3000 ver. 2.0

[Gregski]

finally upgraded to Ol' Milwaukee 1/2 inch drill (man those guys make great drills but their beer stinks, ha ha) and got some actual "tumbler" media

so here are the results now after tumbling [ahem] spinning for an hour

Tumbler Jr. 3000 ver 3.0

[rich weyand]

You could just drop them in EvapoRust overnight, then wash them off.

It's a chelation catalyst, and turns Fe2O3 (rust) into Fe3O4 (magnetite). The orange crusty rust turns into a sooty black powder that wipes or washes off, without dissolving any metal.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

You could just drop them in EvapoRust overnight, then wash them off.

It's a chelation catalyst, and turns Fe2O3 (rust) into Fe3O4 (magnetite). The orange crusty rust turns into a sooty black powder that wipes or washes off, without dissolving any metal.

Thanks Rich but wouldn't my Phosphoric acid do the same thing? I've tried all the name brand solutions and they just charge 5 times for a diluted Phosphoric acid, and all the "green" products you know environment safe couldn't remove a bugger off my finger.

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

You could just drop them in EvapoRust overnight, then wash them off.

Yeah, that stuff works great! Just be sure to degrease and de-dirt the parts first. I usually hit them with a wire brush too.

[rich weyand]

Phosphoric acid will also eat at the metal. EvapoRust won't. You can throw stuff in there for a week, no prob.

Oh, and it's a catalyst. It doesn't get used up by the process. Buy it once and just keep using the same stuff.

[Will206]

Once again, I agree with Rich. I used evapo rust when I started and it worked pretty well. It doesn't seem to do that great on stuff that's pitted really badly, but I guess if the pitting is real bad a part replacement is probably in order.

You can even use it on sheet metal by spraying it on and then letting it sit covered in plastic, using magnets to hold the plastic.

That said, there have been a couple times where I wished I had phosphoric acid to use. Like for example, I ordered new rubber bushings for my core support from energy suspension, but they don't come with the metal cups and giant formed washers, so I've got to use the old ones that were in such bad shape and had to grind some of the pitting smooth. Couldn't find replacements, soaking them probably would have saved me some time.

Right now I am looking for a less labor intensive way to clean up the factory aluminum accessory brackets that are dull, dirty and mildly oxidized.

[rich weyand]

Originally Posted by Will206

Right now I am looking for a less labor intensive way to clean up the factory aluminum accessory brackets that are dull, dirty and mildly oxidized.

Tried Simichrome?

[Will206]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

Tried Simichrome?

I haven't. It looks a lot like a product called Wenol that I used to use though. I bet they would shine up real nice, however there doesn't seem to be getting around that elbow grease I am trying to get out of.

[rich weyand]

Simichrome doesn't take a lot of effort, and you end up with a near-chrome shine. Used to use it on the Norton engine case.

Not mine, but that sidecover and those heads are aluminum, done with Simichrome.

[Gregski]

used an old school trick on the radiator rubber pieces, I stuck them in boiling water, than spent some time with a nylon brush at the sink

I was even able to get one part number off of them for us 3966800, still trying to read the other one, I recon there are two types maybe tops and bottoms

conincidentaly there is someone selling four of these on eBay right now for $67 bucks, [pronounced] Highway Robbery, LOL

of course the ones that told me their part number seem in better shape, ha ha

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Gregski

used an old school trick on the radiator rubber pieces, I stuck them in boiling water, than spent some time with a nylon brush at the sink

I was even able to get one part number off of them for us 3966800, still trying to read the other one, I recon there are two types maybe tops and bottoms

conincidentaly there is someone selling four of these on eBay right now for $67 bucks, [pronounced] Highway Robbery, LOL

of course the ones that told me their part number seem in better shape, ha ha

Tops are shorter than the bottoms. To make matters worse depending on the radiator you have there are two different kinds as well.

As with your rivnuts you found the larger and thicker radiators used different rubbers.