Cleaning old paint off an engine.

[mag2rick]

My thou has been repainted black and whoever did it must need some practice its coming off all over the engine.

Now the motor is sweet so i dont want to break it right down i want to try and get it done in one peice, has anybody used

1,vapor blasting, 2, soda blasting. as thats what people keep telling me to go for any ideas please? im in suffolk but can travel to most places for the right job.

cheers
Rick

[hanskloss]

Hi , years ago I've tried a standard NITRO MORS paint remover on stock Z1 engine paint with some results but removed about 70% paint with some hard spots left, if it's later amateur paint on your engine the NITRO MORS AUTOMOTIVE could be an easy route now:
http://www.bikemeet.net/topic.asp?ARCHI ... C_ID=3818&

[scott]

John Wyatt.....in Tadcaster, i think.......used to be able to blast a whole engine without dismantling it......it did have to come out of the frame but it could be done as a lump......worth a try. He did mine for me and the paint is still solid after 4 years, so it must have got a verly roughed up surface ready for the paint.

[tedsonthezed]

I had some items soda blasted a few months back. The good thing about it is that it will remove paint but absolutely no metal - I had some lacquer removed from some H2 alloy engine covers and they still had the linishing marks in them. They told me that they had blasted an Aston Martin head with the cams in situ and there had been no damage or subsequent problem, which says something about how gentle it is, I guess. It was crap at removing corrosion, though. Also, if any medium gets in the engine, it will not cause any damage. But............if I wanted a really good key for paint, I may well opt for vapour blasting.

[Tonka]

My thou has been repainted black and whoever did it must need some practice its coming off all over the engine.

Now the motor is sweet so i dont want to break it right down i want to try and get it done in one peice, has anybody used

1,vapor blasting, 2, soda blasting. as thats what people keep telling me to go for any ideas please? im in suffolk but can travel to most places for the right job.

cheers
Rick

Hi rick, do you mean that you want to remove the paint and then repainting it black again or just remove the paint and have it in bare metal as it should be?

[mag2rick]

Tonka,
I would like to remove the paint and go back to bare metal.

Cheers
Rick

[Bruce Sexton]

I had my engine blasted many years ago by a company near Rayleigh in Essex. The engine is left bare and is still in a reasonable condition.
The engine was out of the frame and I had to carefully cover all the polished bits.
I think I still have the blanking plates i made for the carb and exhaust openings. If you decide on going down this route pm me if you want to borrow the plates.

Bruce

[Dark Skies]

If the paint is really crap and you adequately block all the access points into the engine and surrounding electrics then a decent pressure washer will probably get it all off with the engine in situ. I bought one off Ebay from Argos for about £30 and it tore through all the crap paint on my Landy's axles.