Restoring Aluminum engine covers

[Garym]

I have a 1965 pan, and unfortunately, I was in an accident, which caused some minor scraping of my cam cover. I also have the original primary cover, which is in very good conditon. I have heard that blasting with walnut shells is good for the original sand cast look. Since the scraping on the cam cover is not very deep(just deep enough to scrap off the sand cast finish), should that area be bead blasted first, then finished with walnut shells?

Thanks,
Gary

[joestuff]

Bump

I'm going to bump this thread back up. I have a sproket and cam cover for my sportster that are polished and should be sandcast. Has anyone tried to restore this finish. If so, how did you do it and how did it turn out?

Thanks
Joe

[Kojack]

Walnut shells won't do much but strip paint. In fact, advertising claims that they won't affect the substrate. I did a small area once by smoothing the damage with a file and sandpaper, them hammering various grades of sandpaper against the smooth area. It did an acceptable job but it would take a while to do a whole cover.

[Perry Ruiter]

This came up over on the Hummer exchange a while back. Here's a link to one fellow's proposed solution. I've never tried it so can't comment on it's effectiveness ... Perry

[billpedalino]

Restore Sand Cast Finish

I'm restoring a 1964 sportster and the cam cover was previously polished. I decided to use a small hand-held engraver to 'tattoo' the sand-cast finish on all but the factory-polished surfaces. Well, needless to say, this is a VERY laborious job, although by using the finest engraver setting, it works quite well. However, I may turn to ash before the task is completed.

I just read the above attached link and I'm going to give it a try.

Thanks for the info. Perry !

Bill Pedalino

[T. Cotten]

I use steel shot to texturize after removing blemishes from aluminum castings, as shown in the attachment.

....Cotten

[GrandpasHarley]

Backyard Bob's Aluminum finishing technique?

Has anyone tried the etching/finishing methods found on the Hummer website?

If so how did it turn out? I have only been able to locate Turtle wax's polishing compound and wondered if that would do the same thing as the Dupont No. 7?

I made the mistake of blasting crushed glass on my case halves before using the #6 glass bead. Needless to say the look better than new, so bright it looks like they are painted silver.

Was thinking about giving this a try but wanted to know what success some of you have had with it.

Thanks,

Josh

[Chris Haynes]

My friend Ron mastered the art of passing his heliarc, without rod, over polished aluminum to give the textured look back to it. Sadly he is no longer with us to tell us how.

[Duda]

I welded a servi rear end, I cleaned up the exposed weld and then sandblasted it with worn media and then used a brass wire wheel on a drill. It did not make sense to me but you can not see the weld.

[Chris Haynes]

I have a 1965 pan, and unfortunately, I was in an accident, which caused some minor scraping of my cam cover. I also have the original primary cover, which is in very good conditon. I have heard that blasting with walnut shells is good for the original sand cast look. Since the scraping on the cam cover is not very deep(just deep enough to scrap off the sand cast finish), should that area be bead blasted first, then finished with walnut shells?

Thanks,
Gary

Blasting will not restore the finish. I know a guy who passes his heiliarc over damaged areas and blisters the finish. Then when blasted it look more like the original finish. Walnut shells is more for cleaning. You will need a heavier grade of media. Mosy likely sand.

[rustyderby]

Restoration Of Cases

I Was Thinking About This Lately Because Of A Jd That Was In The Ground For A While That Had Lost It's Original Finish. I Thought Of Useing A Needle Scaler .this Is Used To Clean Welds And Steel Surfaces. Done Whith Light Air Pressure Maybe It Would Recreate The Texture We Are Looking For??? Try It On Something You Don't Care About?

[exeric]

I use a needle scaler for texturing aluminum weld repairs on engine cases. It works great. You have to play with the air pressure and experiment with your technique. You can create different textures by how you angle the tool, how long you keep it in one area, and how firmly you hold the tool against the work. Glass beading after needle scaling helps to dull and clean the textured surface. It probably does a pretty good job of stress relieving weld repairs too.

[T. Cotten]

When steel shot gives too fine of a finish, I have a coarse-grained badly-fractured grinding wheel stuck upon a piece of poolcue for beating character back into undisciplined castings.

Low tech rules.

....Cotten