Vapor blasting

[lateapex911]

So, I have to pull my motor out for repairs...sigh....and that means I'm driving fast down that road called "While You're There Way"....

I'll media blast and powdercoat the engine tin in house. But..My fan is grungy as is the housing. I have seen some vapor blasted aluminum parts, and man....gorgeous!

So, has anyone here done a fan and housing like that? Tips? best practices? Did you protect the finished surface in some way? Sources?

Finally, the fiberglass fan shroud is black. The engine is essentially a 2.7 RS motor...Built loosely around RS specs... solex cams, 9.5 CR, and PMOs....What color is appropriate for such a motor for the fan shroud? I know the 2.4E motors were green shrouds for example.

[tirwin]

Mark Motshagen and Shaun @ TRU6 both do fan restoration.

Here are some pics:
Mark Motshagen is a real craftsman.

I know Mark does Cerakote (sp?). My understanding is that it is thinner than powder coating and won’t have issues with clearance between the fan housing and blades.

If you vapor blast them you’ll have the issue of whether to clear coat the bare metal or do something like Cerakote. Mark fills in the imperfections in the mag when he does Cerakote. It’s like a work of art.

[Flojo]

vapor blasting is THE thing without "touching" the old alloy compound like media blasting, chemical bath, or wire pad.
The best!

Unless one needs to remove paint from a PO job.

When cleaned to bare material, you have two options:
- the expensive way: ceracote. thin, durable
- the bargain-way: just treat it with Protewax and let it gain it's patina in time.

Here's mine after ceracoating (aprox EUR 300,-)

[Mervo]

Better than factory!

[1987 Porsche]

My fan and housing were vapor blasted. I did have the housing powder coated but left the fan natural. I also sprayed a little clearcoat over the hub area where the rivets are.

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by Flojo

vapor blasting is THE thing without "touching" the old alloy compound like media blasting, chemical bath, or wire pad.
The best!

Unless one needs to remove paint from a PO job.

When cleaned to bare material, you have two options:
- the expensive way: ceracote. thin, durable
- the bargain-way: just treat it with Protewax and let it gain it's patina in time.

Here's mine after ceracoating (aprox EUR 300,-)

You can build a vapor blaster for around $500 it's just a trash pump with 320 glass beads. You come off the pump 2" put a 1" pipe down to the bottom to agitate material and send the rest to the gun, add a solonoid for the air triggered by a foot pedal.
Best way to clean magnesium and aluminum.
Cerakote is $40 and you shoot it with a small tip around a .8 to 1 comes air dry or oven.

[Mike Andrew]

Ceracote. Did mine in powder and it was a mistake, Just not durable enough and the fan looks like crap now, chipped and rough. And Al Reed did it so I know it was quality work.
If I get motivated enough before it comes out of storage, I will pull everything and have it done in Ceracote.

[FrankM_]

Originally Posted by Flojo

vapor blasting is THE thing without "touching" the old alloy compound like media blasting, chemical bath, or wire pad.
The best!

Unless one needs to remove paint from a PO job.

When cleaned to bare material, you have two options:
- the expensive way: ceracote. thin, durable
- the bargain-way: just treat it with Protewax and let it gain it's patina in time.

Here's mine after ceracoating (aprox EUR 300,-)

Can you share where you got that done please ? Looks awesome.
(I am in Belgium)

[Flojo]

it was done in Germany, from a PBN-Partner.
Guess there are PBN partners in the US for sure as well

[lateapex911]

learning a lot here! Cerakote looks great, and I have a paint set up, hmmmm

[4flyboy]

Talk to Shaun:

Shaun @ Tru6

[RDM]

Originally Posted by FrankM_

Can you share where you got that done please? Looks awesome.
(I am in Belgium)

I took my Cerakote needs to Bollenbeck in Solingen, Germany, which is not so far from Belgium. Lars took good care of me there.

SC Windshield / targa window seal replacement and trim refinishing

[r-mm]

I'm interested to hear from those with Cerakoted parts about long term aesthetics. I believe the durability is there and that is ultimately what matters but...

I went to my excellent local powder/cera shop who does lots of great work on autos, firearms, industrial parts etc. I went in ready and willing to be up sold to Cerakote for my fan and housing and they recommended against it, pointing out the way Cerakote will mark easily and quickly look like it needs to be buffed out. They were clear this does not impact the life of the coating but also make it clear to me it behaves a lot like paint and for a fast moving part subject to abrasions would show marking quickly. I went for powder and the fan/housing came out beautifuly with no clearance issues at all. Durability remains to be seen.

[KTL]

flojo,

Vapor blasting is actual media blasting (typically glass bead) with water and detergents. So it does remove a very fine amount of material in order to provide the finish it does

https://www.vaporblastingequipment.com/wet-blasting/what-wetblasting-guide-vapor-blasting-process

[RDM]

Not my experience with my Cerakoted external trim pieces. They see more UV but probably less abrasion than the fan. Shaun would be the man to answer this authoritatively.

[mepstein]

I originally sent out my motorcycle parts for vapor blasting. They came out so well our shop bought a large vapor blast cabinet. They aren't cheap, the large ones are $10-20K. It peens or burnishes the metal without removing material.

This is the guy I used to send my parts to. He does a great job. noreastervaporblasting dot com

[r-mm]

Vapor blasting is such an incredibly satisfying way to clean these parts.


I was thinking a bit more about Cera coat versus powder coat and I suppose wheels are useful example. They get exposed to a lot of UV a lot of abrasion and at least some heat both from brakes and the sun. Powder coating seems to be a good fit for that application. My understanding is that Cera coating shines when absolute thinness and extreme heat resistance are required, aka firearms. I understand there is a point at which thickness would cause a problem with the fan but there is certainly not extreme heat. Any finish system is a compromise and the preferences / budget of the client matters a lot so there will never be absolute answers here, but I’m curious as to how cera became the go to for fans

[mepstein]

Originally Posted by r-mm

Vapor blasting is such an incredibly satisfying way to clean these parts.


I was thinking a bit more about Cera coat versus powder coat and I suppose wheels are useful example. They get exposed to a lot of UV a lot of abrasion and at least some heat both from brakes and the sun. Powder coating seems to be a good fit for that application. My understanding is that Cera coating shines when absolute thinness and extreme heat resistance are required, aka firearms. I understand there is a point at which thickness would cause a problem with the fan but there is certainly not extreme heat. Any finish system is a compromise and the preferences / budget of the client matters a lot so there will never be absolute answers here, but I’m curious as to how cera became the go to for fans

Vapor blasting isn’t great for cleaning but it does leave a nice finish. It won’t remove paint, powder coat, tar or most adhesives. It will remove cad and zinc plating and light rust. Any ferrous metal will rust very quickly after vapor blasting.
Cerikote has Thinness, durability, chip resistance, shows the texture of the metal vs a plastic like coating. There is a non heat cured cerikote so it can be applied with a standard spray gun, without the need to heat cure. But to each his own. Everything works.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Jake, thanks for the note on the other thread. First, thank you Gentlemen for the posts, appreciate it.

Subjects at hand are vapor blasting, powder coating and Cerakote.

Mark's pieces above look really nice! I would buy a vapor blaster if I didn't have the combination of a standard media cabinet and a tumbler that fits things as large as 915 case sections. Getting a perfectly clean surface and then conditioning that surface, whether aluminum, magnesium or steel, is a big part of what we do. What I like about the tumbler over vapor is you can adjust the resulting surface peening and shine with time and media and burnishing agents. But there's no doubt that vapor blasting is a high quality option for what you want to do.

If you go with vapor blasting, even though it peens the surface, I would still clear the fan and housing so it lasts forever. Cerakote has a special clear, MC-5100 for aluminum that also works on magnesium. See video below. You could have your fan and housing vapor blasted and then, if you don't have a gun, grab one at Harbor Freight and shoot the both yourself. I've used it a lot, tumbled pieces and then cleared, there is no better solution if you want that look. And it's extremely durable. See video. One potential issue you will face is imperfections in the magnesium. Doing this at home, I would: media blast, use 60 psi. It's a good pressure that cleans the surface and digs out rotten oxidized magnesium but if you are careful and move the gun around, it won't dig into good magnesium. From there I would sand with 320 to 500 wet so you can start to see better what kind of pitting in the fan and housing will show. You can elect to sand these out and then vapor blast for a clean finish and then clear with the 5100. That's one good option.

I'm doing something similar for a custom finish on a set of late window frames. Later, painted frames use a cheaper porous aluminum that doesn't anodize from an aesthetic standpoint, well. Instead of having to buy a new set of early frames and anodizing, we are creating a brushed grain finish and then clearing with the 5100. First test came out great. Just don't put too much on. Cerakote's strength is that it's designed for extremely thin coats, whether clear or color.

Cerakote vs. powder. I am adamantly against powder coating. If you have a 1976 Dodge Aspen, I say go for it. To me, it doesn't belong on anything Porsche. It's thick, looks cheap and chips. I have a set of brand new Porsche longhood spring plates in-house that I'm stripping the powder off and redoing with Cerakote because the powder is already chipping. And looks like hell too.

I also like Cerakote because you can play around with mixing colors easier than powder. I'm actually not sure if you can mix colors in powder. I do with Cerakote all the time to get just the right look. Looking forward to mixing brown and red in a few weeks for an exact match for heater ducts under the car.

There is no doubt that Cerakote is substantially more durable than powder when applied correctly. I increase that durability (confirmed by long term customer use) with sanding and shooting 2-3 coats on fans and housings, 3 on suspension, and 5 on door handles. It's time and labor intensive but the finished product is unparalleled, which is the goal for everything we do here.

Let me know if you have any questions, happy to help.




Door handles.















Testing different colors for a customer's 928 project








993 package. Cerakote is just plain elegant.




Mg case 915 tumbled/polished before being cleared

[Tremelune]

Right, so, who is the Tru6 Shaun of Los Angeles...?

I'm dying to get some cleaning/finishing equipment so I can approximate this stuff myself, but the skill and knowledge is as expensive as the hardware...I just can't routinely ship stuff across the country and back!

Every part is a jewel.