A couple of questions about cleaning 356 stuff

[William Crowell]

The first question concerns areas where I am going to be sandblasting, such as this rear wheel well. The layers of dirt and grease have built up over the years. I have heard that you need to clean all the dirt and grease off before you blast; otherwise you will be forcing it into the surface of the metal where it will cause fish eyes when you paint.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4iz5go543jgqv78/wheel%20well.jpg?dl=0

How would you clean this area?

Second: items that I am not going to sandblast, such as this 741 transmission. How can I get this nice and clean?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4cs58aw6cxxt6y1/741.jpg?dl=0

(The system does not seem to be letting me upload pictures directly.)

[badsix]

William, I've done a lot of sand blasting in my restoration shop and were I work. yes you should try and scrape brush or wipe as much of the grease as you can. a thin film here and there will blast away if you don't clean it it makes a real mess. with your trans you can use a number of things such as solvent, soaps or gas. if your on the cheep diesel works good with various scrapers and brushes. simple green works good and do the same as you would with diesel, or use it after the diesel. gas I would not use as a kid helping my dad back in the 50s we would use gas. I have bad dreams about having gas on my hands and a spark, ouch. don't use cleaner that have acids in them such as oven cleaners they will attack the aluminum in a corrosive way.
just some ideas
Jay D.

[AMP]

For the transmission, suspension, wheel hubs, etc. soda blasting also works great. Remove the vent and plug the hole with a thread in plug.

Soda works really well on virtually every part of the car except plastic lenses.

It will not remove rust but will take off paint and is great cleaning old caked on grease.

Very good on chrome too.

It is water soluble.

I dangled mine under a forklift and cleaned it with one of these from harbor freight.





This is a good soda brand which you can have shipped or pick up from a local supplier - google search. I would avoid soda with abrasive particles.

http://www.armex.com/armex-difference ( their flow formula xl is good)

[JTR70]

Great suggestions guys! That's pretty much what I do for greasy parts but I'll lead off with a pre-soak of engine degreaser first. After a few rounds of that (day or two) its a stiff brush with some old gas or diesel to take it the rest of the way. Simple green is fantastic for removing the residual film for the final rinse. You could also hit it with carb or brake cleaner with a rag to bring back that nice sheen after that.

William, if you're having trouble loading photos I'm guessing your with Firefox as a browser? This site doesn't work well with that browser for attachment loading. Try Safari, google chrome or IE8 and see iff that helps. Also be sure to hit the "insert' button on all your photos so they will display large.
Justin

[bbspdstr]

No one uses a pressure washer with perhaps hot water? That can blast off the old grease and oil residue and loose old undercoat and leave it clean enough to media blast to bare metal, etched and ready for a shop primer.

I have a local blaster who uses glass shards for cutting and never has warped anything (yet). No mess for me to clean up and not expensive at all. He even sprays a light coat of Eastwood (nearer to him for pick-up and less expensive) epoxy primer for surface stability as repair goes along.

For complete transaxles, pressure wash with soap and then use a good old siphon feed spray gun on a hard stream loaded with less expensive lacquer thinner, outside, over old cardboard to catch the residue and that can get the aluminum looking nice with a few quarts/liters. Flip the unit over and up to get it all clean, all over. Plug after draining and don't forget personal safety equipment.

[JTR70]

"No one uses a pressure washer with perhaps hot water?"

Only if you want the easy way out Bruce.
I don't own a pressure washer but I have heard of guys taking their stuff down to the self-serve car wash. Those things definitely put out enough volume...

[William Crowell]

Really excellent answers, and I do appreciate them. I think I will use a combination of the methods discussed.

Sometimes I think the 356 Faith is the only remaining viable religion.

[AMP]

I have used it all and for the last 15 years we use soda blasting every day in my shop to clean brake calipers, roller bearings, anodized aluminum and other parts. I have also used it with great success to remove carbon from pistons and cylinder heads. lots of engines shops use soda blasting.

You can rig one of the $190 Harbor Freight blast cabinets for soda.

One nice thing is the media is water soluble for easy clean up.

For grease caked nasty parts you don't pre clean or scrape parts. You just blast the grease away with the soda. Think of it as cleaning rather than blasting in the glass bead sense. That is why its so much better for cast aluminum parts and anodized parts like trim. It wont leave a texture on the surface of cast aluminum.

Now, if there is corrosion then you are left with only the glass bead or other abrasive media option. Soda at 40PSI is non abrasive - that is the key. At 100psi its mildly abrasive but still will not harm anodize or a cast aluminum surfaces like glass beads will.

Like Forest - that's all I have to say about that.

"No one uses a pressure washer with perhaps hot water?"

Only if you want the easy way out Bruce.
I don't own a pressure washer but I have heard of guys taking their stuff down to the self-serve car wash. Those things definitely put out enough volume...

[JMO]

The best solution for removing grease on engine and transmission parts as well as under body coat is blasting with dry ice.
This is the best what I have experienced.
Everything looks like new.

[AMP]

I agree. You can get going with soda for a lot less money though. The results are very similar and with dry ice there is nothing to wash off the part when done which is a plus.

The best solution for removing grease on engine and transmission parts as well as under body coat is blasting with dry ice.
This is the best what I have experienced.
Everything looks like new.

[JTR70]

Was not familiar with using either one for stripping but both sound like the perfect media for cleaning delicately. Very surprised to read that the soda doesn't hurt anodized alloy Ashley. Thank you for sharing this tricks you guys!