Winter Restorations / Soda Blasting

Hi everyone,

I have been slowly cleaning up some mildly rusted parts on my various project bikes in my new blasting cabinet from Harbor Freight.

My media of choice thus far has been soda blast media for its qualities of not damaging metal, no heat generated, health safety compared to sand, and protective coating it leaves on the parts until you wash them. I have successfully blasted carb bodies and bowls, front fenders, engine side covers, and carb hats along with other various parts. results have been great, as it removes all surface corrosion.

My question is in relation to blasting an entire XJ650 engine. I have a motor that has a fair amount of surface corrosion on all aluminum parts and it won't fit in my blast cabinet. The rate of use of the blast media doesn't make it practical to blast it in the yard and lose all of my blast media. I don't want to disassemble the motor to blast it, and I am looking for ideas to recover my media. If I can blast and recover media without having to remove the engine from the frame that is a bonus.

So how does everyone else blast / remove light corrosion from aluminum? Also, what methods are used to protect the surface of the metal from corrosion in the future? I'm working on a bike to sell, not to keep, so I want to keep the cost down if possible while drastically improving the appearance and finish of the aluminum.

 

I know when we use our portable sand blaster we lay down a cheap piece of plastic sheeting. MOST of the media will land on it and then we just filter it to get the junk out and pour it back in the hopper. You can get large sheeting in rolls at any hardware store so buy one, surround your engine and have at it. Its basically like building a "blast cabinet" around your bike. Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

What about cutting open/unbolting the back of the cabinet and using a plastic sheet to extend out the back and put the engine in.

Might work...

 

just a bit of info on soda. it is not generally reusable...

http://www.armex.com/faqs.aspx#faq7

CN

 

Depends on how cheap you are and how primitive your rig is. I use media over and over but my whole rig is "crude but effective." Capturing it is simply a matter of a big sheet of plastic and then screening it back into the hopper (I do it outside.)

As for polishing the originally "polished" aluminum, you need to remove the original clear coat first. The best thing for this is Aircraft Paint remover from the auto parts store. The old clear coat is quite tough, often horribly grey and mottled cases are corroded under the clear coat.

Once you get it polished up, a semi-annual touch up with Mother's Billet Metal Polish or a similar quality product will keep it looking better than new.

 

Hey Bluebass ! Hope you have already figured your way out. Having entered the scene way too late, I’m in no position to answer your questions now. But I do wanna suggest one thing. Getting a corrosion protection coating will help. I got a blasting corrosion protection done from Automatic coating at Toronto. They charge was a do-able one and the result lasts a long time. Hope this helps.

 

I’ve always been interested in the blasting bit, but never have coined up to get the equipment.