Oily and Greasy

To balance my work on the nice and clean circuit design and software writing, I decided to get some muck work under way. To this end I have started reconditioning the donor parts. The first task is to strip it all down and clean up, then protect with a suitable finish. The donor parts came from the scrap yard in major chunks which required final disassembly.



Front upright assembly as supplied from the scrap yard

After a flurry of activity with hammers, sockets and a handy press, I reduced it to its component parts:

Some people choose to grit blast and powder coat, but many use the POR15 system so I thought I would give it a try. The process requires the loose rust removing, then a good clean with 'Marine Clean' followed by a coat of 'Metal Ready' to neutralise the rust and provide a zinc phoshpate coat. Finally, two coats of POR15 and you are finished. If the parts are to be exposed to direct sunlight, a UV barrier is recommended. Since these are suspension parts, I don't need to worry about that.

I set about cleaning the rust and grease off using wire wheels and paint srtipping wheels in my drill. Once reasonably clean, I could move onto applying the POR15 system. The paint covers well and the scond coat was applied when the first was 'dry with a slight finger drag' as required by the instructions. I trialled the system on the two front lower wishbones and two front uprights:

It seems to have gone reasonably well, so I need to press on with the remaining donor parts