Just let me start by saying this is a convergence of my posts which I am answering questions to other members on a different site... 300ZXClub.com So if you want the whole story and have an account you can just check it out on there for reference and to not think I am a whack job talking about wanting to kill my cat! lol Here is the original thread that i took most of my posts from to make this thread... http://www.300zxclub.com/showthread.php?t=118215 I was bored today and remembered that I had my old rusty rotors from my brake swap. I also remembered that I have a new blast cabinet. Sooooo...I thought I would put it to use. Check it out. Truck in the snow. I know this has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it looked kind of cool. Rusty rotors. More Lembas bread... Mr. Horse says it is cold since I ran out of propane. #4, 5, 6 and 7 size tips for the gun. I figured go with the big one. Virgin blaster filled with sand. WOW!!! About 20 seconds of blasting. First rotor finished. Second rotor finished. 1 beer finished. Two fronts done and two rears to go. 2 beers finished. All 4 corners done. Then a light coat of wd-40 to prolong the rusting. So I would have to say that they look a million % better than before. Heck they might even be worth selling now! One question I do have is...What kind of oil should I use to protect the metal from rusting? I know new rotors come with a thin film of really heavy oil on them for protection. Does anyone know what that oil is? So to sum up sandblasting 101 1. Put sand in box. 2. Put part in box 3. Spray sand at part. 4. Remove part. Thanks for lookin'! More pics and stuff for reference... Yeah blasting in a sealed box is one thing. Blasting out in the open is a whole different story. The free silica that is associated with using sand is HORRIBLE! You must use a real respirator or filtered mask. Even from just doing that last night my lungs feel the damage. You can also just use different media though, like walnut shells or synthetics that don't cause as much damage to your lungs. From now on I am going to have a fan blowing on me the whole time and the garage door open and a plumbed in exhaust system to keep the dust out of my face. Still I am going to purchase a mask as well. You can pick up a gun for like 20-25 bucks at home depot or harbor freight. Just don't get the gravity fed one they are teh suck. Get a bag of sand and poke a hole in it for the feed and blast away. I would highly recommend to NOT use this this method on body panels! They will warp faster than you can believe. Even the rotors would get hot in spots when I would try to get a tough spot out. You can do it but you can do a whole lot of damage real fast. My pump is a Craftsman Black #6 rating 6HP(2HP run) 25gal 8.6scfm@40psi 6.8scfm@90psi It is not really enough to do large jobs for extended periods of time. You have to let it catch up or it does get warm. For small parts it is great. You can use any pump you just have to be aware that if a pump is just running and running will get way too hot after a while. Especially if you are in warmer ambient temperature situations. More... So since my cat decided to piss on my wheels repeatedly...they are pretty much ruined. Stained even my rotors and ate through the chrome plating...BAD KITTY! So back to the blaster... I installed Hawk Blue pads on my rear brand new rotors also. Not a good idea. The rotors are only a couple of years old and they are out of spec already. The pads look brand new. Pics. Here is the inside of the wheel where the car sat for a while and all of the cat pee drained in between the tire and wheel. Rear rotors... and Rear pads...not even worn, may as well be all metal. Freshly blasted rears Fronts... Freshly blasted fronts... I took the rears to have only the lip taken off as there is no more metal to have them turned...F@#kin' LAME! Chalk it up to a $360 lesson on brake pads. They will be for sale soon if you want to buy them and f@#k your rotors up too! One good thing is they will NEVER wear out!!! lol More pics and questions answered from this thread over on 3zc.com... Yeah they are pretty versatile. They are really messy though. Sand everywhere..even in the gina. Nice article GP2GP DD It sucks because this cat is the only cat that I have really liked. I am not a huge cat fan but this dude is pretty cool. I had him since he was a kitten. I can throw him up in the air, swing him upside down in a 5-gallon bucket, flip him around whatever...he loves it and comes back for more then just sits there until I throw him again. And here is the part that makes me want to rip his little heart out with a pair of long handled needle nose pliers and a blow torch... FAIL! This is where the center cap got it and it sat after I washed it off. You can see the inside of the cap in the other pic This is how the rest of them look... They are old wheels and they are starting to flake a little bit but the one is just F@#king ruined. I think I am just going to give it a sand and then prime it and paint it silver on the inside. The outside chrome is ok. More... So I prepped and primed and painted my rotor hats to help with the rust from the kitty pee and normal rust issues. I went with a "Cast Iron" color from duplicolor. It has kind of a metallic dark color to it. I didn't want anything outrageous looking so I tried to match the caliper color. Of course to really tell what they look like they will have to be on the car but here is a finished product. I primed the inside of the hat also to help with the rotor to hub rust issue. I will also clean up the hub and give a shot of primer there to further eliminate the rust issues. Since my car is always garaged I will not have to worry about the cat piss again. The brake contact area will also be polished metal looking as soon as I get them back on the car. They still have the sandblasted look to them. Fresh blast and wiped clean with paint thinner... I forgot to add that after prepping I used my salamander 150k btu heater to heat up the rotors almost too hot to touch right before masking and painting. This makes the paint flow SOOOO much better. It also takes less time to dry between coats. That is why I did them one by one for the paint too. Masked off front and rear... Two coats of primer, still wet... Two coats of paint... Pretty little maids all in a row... If the color doesn't do it for me then I will just repaint them. What color do you think would look good on a blue Z? Or opinions on the whole thing. So this is a continuation of the panting my rotors deal...I was looking at my nice clean and painted rotors then when I went to put them on I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I took care of some rusty hub issues and did a little cleaning and priming. Of course this will never be seen once you put the wheels on but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside just knowing everything is clean...
I am in absolute awe the amount of detail you put into your posts mate. Very nice work. ...Im curious though, what do you do for a living? I ask because you take on these jobs almost every week and are fairly meticulous about them which would be quite time consuming, yet still have plenty of dosh to buy engine bling for multiple Zeds lol. MoulaZX
Well I am a Finish Carpenter, General Contractor and a Zed Mechanic. I charge $100/Hr for my Finish work. 10-15% of total bill for General Contracting. $50-$100/Hr for working on cars. With the Economy over here the way it is I do whatever pays the best. Sometimes it is Finish work others it is working on cars. You can guess what my finish work looks like. A lot of word of mouth and such. Good example is I was paid 3k for my last TT job. Took me about 80-90 hours. I don't charge for every hour though. Some of it is just mind numbing cleaning work. I don't even come close to taking that many pics on every job either. It usually turns out like my Blue car's write-up. Before...After.
Keep them coming Rockchucker. I look forward to your enthusiasm, detail and sense of humour. My grandad was an Irishman living in England and he wore a cheesecutter (flat cap) like yours. He gave it to me as a cherished present many years ago when I was 16. So you are alright in my books.:thumbup:
