37 B- sandblast or cook parts????

You might want to try the electrical equivalent of hot tanking by using an electrolysis bath. Using a low voltage power supply, such as a 10 A battery charger, to ionize a conductive fluid (typically washing soda and water) so that it works like lye, in fact much better than an alkali cooker because it lift the deposits as well. The most impressive added beneift of the e-tank is that any red rust will either float away or be converted into black oxide, which is inert to further oxidation. The surface can be rinsed with clear water (hot makes the part warm so ti dries faster), spritzed with some phosphoric acid to flash phosphate protect the clean iron/steel from re-rusting, let to dry, then scuffed smooth with some red Scotch-brite, and the part is ready for paint.

It's cheap, safe, and effective. Pretty muich like aspirin. I have a document that I can e-mail you if you would like to study the "how-to" of the process. Shoot me an e-mail at frank@fboerger.com if you would like me to forward you a copy.

On the powder coating, I've seen it tried, but I have never seen it stand up on the high temperature side. You really need to use a ceramic product like Jet-Coat if you really want it to stick, stay, and not dis-color.

Frank

But my question revolves around the objective of rust-prevention. If you expect to prevent rust, I do not think the stove-black will serve you very well. And I also believe that even for Muffler Black to prevent rusting, you need (1) to apply to clean, bare metal, and (2) to have driven moisture out of the part. The latter is accomplished by bringing it up to a fairly hot temperature long enough to have drawn out the moisture -- then you apply a quality muffler-black while it is still hot -- some say -- inside & out! The kitchen stove does wonders here for the manifold.

All this seems hardly worth the effort for an ordinary restoration for two reasons (1) You either have to mask off the manifold during paint, or remove it and reinstall it AFTER paint; and (2) There is a 50% chance that rust will come into play at a later point because so many of us are aware of the rather extraordinary preparation needed, and do a half of the job!

An interesting side note here -- In messaging with the Paint Engineering section of Valspar, I learned that they believe the Muffler Black will hold up to its rust-prevention properties even if, during paint, you shoot green over it. The green (of course) will burn away over time.

I am building up another New Johnny, and I have applied JD Muffler Black to the exhaust pipe, muffler and manifold. My plan is to go forth with a final engine run-up before final paint, and then pull the manifold for paint. I am using semi-hard brass nuts on the manifold studs which makes removal easier. They will still withstand the 45 ft-lbs of torque I apply without question. I bought an extra manifold gasket for this very purpose. And so if I did the preparation steps right, it should look pretty for a long time. My thoughts on this one! (PatB)

• Restoration Site, JD-H

The black paint looks nicer but will burn off when you work them.