Cosmoline Removal

[M42boy]

Hehehe. Stay tuned for my extremist cosmoline removal technique! :cool:

[GrippyDrifty]

Fire?:D

[jfdublyu]

intriguing-sp? it's too late....

[M42boy]

Basically, to rid my engine bay of rust (while the motor is removed and being torn apart), I am doing a lot of grinding/sanding and painting in there anyways, so what the heck... I've decided to sand down all the paint in the engine bay and repaint it! Yes, the WHOLE engine bay.

This isn't for the faint of heart. On top of that, I'm painting the whole thing with cheap-ass off the shelf rattle-can paint.

Anyways, the sanding process has also made pretty quick work of removing all the cosmoline. See picture of shock tower below.

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4767.jpg

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4768.jpg

Rust was hiding everywhere in this engine bay!

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4776.jpg

[M42boy]

Rust is evil... it must be removed! :D

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4779.jpg

Rust removal equipment:

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4750.jpg

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4751.jpg

[M42boy]

Oops... Yeah, I fried my Dremel! Maybe it's not up to this kind of abuse. It's kinda hard to see, but that's smoke pouring out of it! :eek:

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4758.jpg


When the engine bay is nice and clean and all this crap is removed, I'll be primering the whole thing and then painting it with this:

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4748.jpg

Turns out, this Dupli-Color "Arctic White" = BMW Alpine White. Dupli-Color claims it doesn't make a BMW paint, but I painted a test strip in the engine bay and it looks like an exact match... or at least close enough for an engine bay! See pic below:

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4735.jpg

What do you think??? Looks pretty good to me!

[tim_s]

looking good! i'm tempted to do the same to mine when the engine's out, haven't made up my mind yet.

[sheepdog]

Chicken.. Cut out the battery tray.. :p

[M42boy]

looking good! i'm tempted to do the same to mine when the engine's out, haven't made up my mind yet.
I highly reccomend it as it's really only something that's realistically feasable with the engine out. I was just going to "touch up" a few spots on my car, but I decided to go all out get rid of all the cosmoline and after various mixtures of chemicals, sandpaper seems to be the only thing that works! :rolleyes:

Chicken.. Cut out the battery tray..
Nah, I may need it to carry a picnic basket or something someday! :p

Speaking of that, Tim, don't the UK cars actually have a battery there?

[M42boy]

I was able to return the Dremel I fried and get a new one today, but decided to move up to something a little "beefier" for this job. I'm now alternating between a wire brush attachement and some sanding wheels on my DeWalt cordless drill. Works much better, but harder to get in the tight places.

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4800.jpg



I'm going to put a coat of POR-15 rust proofing primer on the areas that were affected most by rust. Then sand and apply paint.


http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4805.jpg


It's definately a slow process. I hope it will prove to be a worthwhile project when it's all finnished.


http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4801.jpg

[dbgrubbs]

You've got to love Por products. They really do the job.

[M42boy]

Okay, thought I'd throw out a few pics so everyone could see my results. I'm not entirely thrilled with my paintjob, but I don't think I could have done any better considering I painted the whole thing with a bunch of cheap ass spray cans from Pep Boys.

I used a lot more paint than I thought. If I were to do it all over again (if I were to do it all over again), I'd have prepped everything, taped everything off, and then paid one of the russians from Strictly German to come over and shoot it all with Alpenwiess with a real spray gun.

Duplic-Color "Arctic White" isn't an exact match for BMW Alpine White, but hopefully no one will notice as it's in an engine bay. I put a quick coat of the Dupli-Color clear enamel over it all when I was done to seal it in. I felt that since it was in an engine bay, it would be easier to clean if it had a clean coat.

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4981.jpg

Rust proofing 1

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4857.jpg

Rust proofing 2

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4851.jpg

Primer

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_4980.jpg

Paintwork

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_5024.jpg

Strut tower painted...

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_5029.jpg

Paintwork 2

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modules/gallery/albums/danh/IMG_5028.jpg

So, what y'all think???

It's not perfect, but I wasn't going for a Concours d'Elegance winner... but a big improvement was what I was looking for, and I think what I got. :cool:

[twinpop171]

I think it turned out well for a spray bomb job.
Looks good, Dan.

[sheepdog]

Hell of a way to remove cosmoline.

[RMachucaA]

Im so tempted to do all this, but i dont have a a garage so im screwed :\. Looking good man, thats the type of thing i itch to do.