The ZPower Project

Jay1969 · #61 PostAuthor: **Jay1969** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:34 pm

Did you make your own soda blaster with an air compressor?
Very neat Phil :up

zpower · #62 PostAuthor: **zpower** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:20 am

Hi Jay,

No One of my friends has a soda / sand blaster and was going to do the crank casings etc for me but he hasn't had time to do them so he lent it to to me so I could get them done this weekend.

Cheers,
Phil.

Jay1969 · #63 PostAuthor: **Jay1969** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:46 pm

Vapour blasting was my original plan, but there's no corrosion to worry about, so change of plan
to soda blasting for the engine exterior on my Z900.
I'm spraying mine black too as per the Z900 I rebuilt in 1989,
the casing covers will also be polished, as per Z900 I rebuilt in 1989.

Anyway, enough about me, keep up the good work with your
project, I love to see positive progress, especially someone's
skill I admire.

yamaha341 · #64 PostAuthor: **yamaha341** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:39 pm

hi jay,,,very very nice finish with that soda blaster ...what make is it? and did you have any problems with the soda clogging up? also what preparation work did you have to do prior to the soda blasting as I read the soda can stick to where is not real clean thanks and good work

freddyz1r · #65 PostAuthor: **freddyz1r** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:53 pm

yamaha341 wrote:hi jay,,,very very nice finish with that soda blaster ...what make is it? and did you have any problems with the soda clogging up? also what preparation work did you have to do prior to the soda blasting as I read the soda can stick to where is not real clean thanks and good work

I think you need to direct the question to phil :wink:

yamaha341 · #66 PostAuthor: **yamaha341** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:12 pm

sorry about that looking at too many post at the same time

zpower · #67 PostAuthor: **zpower** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:52 am

yamaha341 wrote:hi jay,,,very very nice finish with that soda blaster ...what make is it? and did you have any problems with the soda clogging up? also what preparation work did you have to do prior to the soda blasting as I read the soda can stick to where is not real clean thanks and good work

Hi yamaha341,

I used alloy wheel cleaner first then degreased (Gunk) the casings and made sure they were 100% dry.

Wire brushed everything during and after.

I spent ages making sure there were no lumps in the soda and just did the best I could. It blocked up a few times but I cleaned it out and continued.

It became a test of endurance at one stage but I got there in the end

Used gunk again then did a final rinse of the casings and allowed them to dry.

Then masked them up ready for spraying.

Cheers,
Phil.

yamaha341 · #68 PostAuthor: **yamaha341** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:54 am

Thanks for that phil, I was curios to know if the soda would back up, you say it did and I understand your frustration very well as my sand blaster tends to do the same especially when I use very fine media, even on a slightly damp day with the fine media it backs up much more often, I imagine it to be a little worse as the soda is so much finer. At some points I almost give up and wonder if its worth all the effort?----UNTIL your finished and then you feel great, standing back and admiring the end result ,,,,,, as you say a bit of perseverance and patience and you got there in the end with a great finish too, which I imagine after all the hassle made you feel it was really worth the effort, is there a manufacturer name on you blaster and is it a sand blaster using the soda as the media ? I have looked at soda blasters on the frost resto site and they look similar to my sealey blaster, looking forward to seeing your paint applied, cheers

zpower · #69 PostAuthor: **zpower** » Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:18 pm

It was a sand blaster that looked like this and it worked ok.

I kept having to shake it around as the baking soda didn't drop in and fill the space left when it was sucked through it just left a hole in the soda like a vent hole so it was just sucking in air.

zpower · #70 PostAuthor: **zpower** » Sat Sep 27, 2014 6:47 pm

Today was quite a nice day so I got on with spraying the engine casings, head, barrels and cam cover...

This is the paint I used. I had four cans but three was more than enough.

Applied thin coats and left about one hour between coats...

Finished and very happy with the results...

Very pleased with the finish of this paint...

They should dull a little to a slightly less glossy more bright satin finish once the engine has been through a few heat cycles.

wild_zed · #71 PostAuthor: **wild_zed** » Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:27 pm

That looks awesome

ROZZER · #72 PostAuthor: **ROZZER** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 12:15 pm

Engine looks Pukka, have you considered putting the parts in the oven to cure the finish? (yer missus will be delighted!) This would harden the paint to be less prone to damage when assembling the motor/install in frame. Once the motor is running the paint will harden further.

Jay1969 · #73 PostAuthor: **Jay1969** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 4:20 pm

+1 with the baking method, Rob (zed1015) had great results with doing that to his engine.

snotie1965 · #74 PostAuthor: **snotie1965** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:50 pm

That looks A.C.E so far , i have a spare uni-trak frame and may well go down the same sort of route ? so will be watching with lots of interest !!!
Any up-dates ? Andy

zpower · #75 PostAuthor: **zpower** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:15 pm

Cheers Andy.

Just collecting parts for the engine build atm.

Here is a small selection of what I have so far but more stuff on order

Ran a tap down every thread.

The ZPower Project

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