Making engines beautiful

Drew20

Drew20

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Just looking at the b35 engine up in "parts for sale"... stunning. I've got the intake and fuel system fully in bits right now, with the aluminium parts in the boot/trunk, and want them sparkly before rebuilding. What's best to do? I confess I've never worried too much about engine bay detailing before now.
If I go for a clear finish (either powdercoated or ceramic) what prep do I need to do, or ask the shop to do?
Just putting a clear finish on them, as they are now, will not make my engine beautiful!!
How do I get mine to look as good as jefflit's?!

Steel parts will be yellow zinc btw
 
there are 2 different approaches in use to do this - one is to send to Speedway for ceramic coating, the other is to powder coat. i suspect that cleaning + ceramic coating will yield the best result. its not inexpensive but the look is great
 
Spoken to a couple of shops here in the UK. Both propose media blasting for the alu parts, with glass beads. One shop then proposes leaving the alu bare, i.e. no coating. The other shop suggested a clear lacquer or clear powder coating.
Have to say, I'm leaning towards leaving the alu finish bare/ natural/ raw
Surely this is how the engine would have been when new?
Can't see BMW lacquering the alu parts on the production line?

This is just the intake parts and the valve cover. The cylinder head and ex manifolds are not coming out. Also the stat housing and timing covers are staying put. So there will be a bit of a mix of spangly stuff, and other parts with 45 years of grime
 
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On lacquer - how long does it last on an engine, and how does it look as it ages?
 
Vapor blasting is an option with great results and less surface damage. It's also touted as reducing the surface porosity which helps items stay clean.

It really just depends how far you want to go to make things look good.
 
I just had a spare set of intake manifolds, runners and plenum vapor honed/blasted for my e12, looks amazing, we will then shoot Cerakote ceramic on them much like Speedway does after media tumbling. I will then compare the results.
 
HB Chris said:
I just had a spare set of intake manifolds, runners and plenum vapor honed/blasted for my e12, looks amazing, we will then shoot Cerakote ceramic on them much like Speedway does after media tumbling. I will then compare the results.
Click to expand...

Chris - interested in seeing your results. Have you found it easy to locate cerakote shops to do your parts? Up here in Nor Cal, it seems all the shops focus on gun parts...
 
Speedway is the best, they also do firearms which is a popular use for this. I bought a pint directly from Cerakote in satin clear, Paul Cain will spray it for me, three hours of air dry required is all.
 
HB Chris said:
Speedway is the best, they also do firearms which is a popular use for this. I bought a pint directly from Cerakote in satin clear, Paul Cain will spray it for me, three hours of air dry required is all.
Click to expand...

So the cold cure stuff. I've been thinking about trying it on some things...
 
Cast aluminum is very porous which is why it is nearly impossible to clean the grease and grime. Cerakote is an ultra thin clear coat that is extremely durable and virtually undetectable. Imagine wiping off your valve cover with a cloth and some detail spray.

All the aluminum bits in these photos have been finished in the process described by HBChris. The parts are media blasted, tumbled then coated with Cerakote. This project was completed in 2016 and still looks like it did in these photos.
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Imagine what that Csl that did NOT meet minimum on BAT would have sold for if OCCoupe had prepped it.
I'm guessing $50 large got left on the table.

At our shop we degrease, glass bead blast and powder coat with Tiger Drylac Matte Clear.
 
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