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New Scrambler owner! YeeHaa!

AJ2393

Scrambled in the Head
Silver Member
Lifetime Member
City
North Dighton
State
MA
I did manage to hit the transmission tunnel cover with the cheapo Harbor Freight sand blaster. Man, let me tell you, that thing is actually somewhat impressive when it’s pushed by a decent compressor (in my case a Quincy 60 gal). Stripped the rust and paint off in minutes!
Just curious if our sandblast setup was able to get into deeper, pitted rust areas. I think that cover you did may have been only surface type rust. I've been thinking of getting a sandblast setup. I'm tired of the time it takes for wire wheels/sandpaper, etc. Plus those don't do a great job to begin with and take much longer.
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
That's awesome. I really need one of those before I get into the body repair I need to do.
Thanks BW! I'd go with the cheapo plastic hopper model that has the carrying handle $31.99 before using a coupon). That's the one I'm using. My 83 year old tinkering dad bought the more expensive metal one with the holding tank and had mediocre results.
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
Just curious if our sandblast setup was able to get into deeper, pitted rust areas. I think that cover you did may have been only surface type rust. I've been thinking of getting a sandblast setup. I'm tired of the time it takes for wire wheels/sandpaper, etc. Plus those don't do a great job to begin with and take much longer.
AJ- Good question! Yes, this actually had a few spots where the rust was in there good, and it was able to get deep. Hold on; let me circle the areas in one of the photos. I'm at the office, otherwise I'd take a closeup. I think the key is having a compressor that can keep a good head of pressure at the gun!
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
C5EF7C31-6BF5-46D5-A3B5-BA84F135F4CA.jpeg
This is an example of where the rust had gotten into the metal. I thought it penetrated nicely for a 32.00 setup. I used the sandblaster in sections of the rocker panels (at least the parts that I didn’t cut out) on my smaller 30gal compressor a year ago and I was actually impressed at the rust it blew out.
 

ag4ever

Average Nut
BENEFACTOR
Gold Member
Silver Member
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Richmond
State
TX
I have used the hopper sand blaster from HF.

It works well if you 1. Have lots of air flow, 2. Have DRY air, 3. Jiggle the hopper every now and again.

I also have a Barrel Blaster. It works on the same siphon principle, but works much better.

Both require lots of air, and the air must be dry. Dry air is VERY important.

Have I mentioned how important it is that the air is dry?
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
Good points, Ag! I have all 3 which probably explains why it's working for me. I definitely had to shake the hopper a couple of times.

I just looked at the barrel blaster online which looks to be a stationary "contained" sandblaster. I also see the "Blast Master" which appears to be something good to hit the frame, larger body parts, etc. Nice stuff. If I ever get heavier into the sandblasting I'll have to consider this. I also like that it's American made.
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
So last weekend we (me and my wife along with a contingent of other friends) decided to make our annual pilgrimage in our boats from Charleston SC to Beaufort SC. Always a fun trip and we generally turn that poor town known for The Big Chill and Forrest Gump upside down. This year was no exception other than we had the new freedom of NO MASKS. Well, a couple of days later here I am lying on the couch, not doing anything on the Scrambler because I have MAN FLU (you know; common cold). I’m a wimp but I can’t stand feeling run down so I’d rather look at pictures of everyone’s Jeeps all over the Interwebz. That’s ok; I’m hoping this pandemic stays gone-I’ll take a cold every now and then over social distancing all day long.

Anyway, before last weekend’s trip I squeezed in what WalkerHound calls “minutiae projects”. Like him, I sanded/painted the accel pedal, then decided to finally break out the powder coating machine and try it out on the bolts that hold the seats to my new, glorious (to me) Raptorlined floor. I sandblasted the bolts, punched them all through a piece of cardboard that I wrapped in tinfoil (gotta have that electrical charge for the powder to stick to), grabbed my cheap sawhorses, placed a copper pipe across them and hung the whole mess from that pipe with two metal hooks. Well, I’m not an old salt at powder coating but I was pleased as I dusted the parts with the black powder while sipping on my gin n tonic and it seemed to be “sticking”. When I finished, it was a bit dark outside ( that powder goes everywhere so I had no desire to do it in my already crowded garage) and I didn’t realize that one of my “S hooks” was hanging on that copper pipe for dear life. Suddenly, it all fell to the ground on the driveway. Rather than cry or sling a wrench into the neighbors yard, I took a few gulps of the gin and transferred my now imperfect powdercoated bolts into the worlds smallest “oven”...my old toaster oven. :-). Shockingly, they turned out decent. Not perfect, but good enough to be hidden under seats!
B1AB0F9B-E561-466A-8950-2683EC03FD99.jpeg
Sandblasted (left) crusty original (right)721EA100-8186-4F76-A7A1-B1F68D607C83.jpeg
Note the dangling s hook in this shot. Nothing like showing the embarrassing stuff on the forum.
 
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Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
Anyway, I got to thinking about powder coating bolts. Yes, it’s tough paint, but it’s apt to chip when you put the sockets to it. Which had me thinking “why didn’t I just strip them and give them the black oxide OEM finish? Out of boredom, I was staring at the transmission tunnel plate screws and decided to do this. I really need to get a life, but pressed on.

I hit these screws with a wire wheel, dipped them in a 9:1 solution of distilled water/ Black Oxide, left them in that brine for about 3-4 minutes, transferred them to a cup of tap water to rinse, blew them completed dry, then sprayed them with WD-40 to complete the process. Turned out good and in hindsight should have done the same to the seat
bolts.



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Before
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After...


A quick note on the screws. If you have any that have a “zinc” plating on them, that needs to be removed with a solution of Citric acid, or the black oxide won’t take. These screws were rusty and a couple of them had zinc on them.
 
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Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
I was worried mhinchliffe was going to call me a cicada again, so thought I’d better pipe back in here. More piddling with Knick-knackery on the Scrambler, and keep drifting back over to the CJ5 and Wagoneer as well. So much for focus!

Anyway, a while back I read a tidbit on restoring the luster on the gearshift pattern stickers and steering wheel horn medallions. So intrigued I was that I printed out the instructions years ago and that piece of paper has sat on my work bench this whole time. Last night I decided to try this “cleaning solution”. It consists of 3 tablespoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Mix these together, then take a paper towel and rub the medallion in a circular motion. Rinse with warm water and repeat until you get the desired result. Finish it with unscented coconut oil as, per the instructions, it soaks in deeply covering the scratches and give it a nice luster. I need to find out the forum member that posted those instructions originally to give them credit. The results were truly amazing!

I wish I had taken a before pic of the T-5 shifter knob. It was so far gone that you couldn’t even read the numbers!

6650FF2C-F372-4C50-A4EA-0C6D6C175A30.jpeg83CD608E-666E-470B-8F14-0A4F41F1F97D.jpeg7E636DBC-2024-469A-8310-C11BAF481E62.jpeg
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
WOW!!! Makes me wonder about Bar Keeper’s Friend. I had a couple of Waterford crystal tumblers that I regularly washed in a dishwasher until they were so cloudy I couldn’t take it anymore. Looked up ways to fix it and only found shops you mailed stuff to and they did it for big money. That wasn’t happening so I tried a number of things around the house. Bar Keeper’s Friend with some water cleared them up so well (with a LOT of rubbing) that I can’t tell which of the four were the cloudy ones (two were never dishwashed).
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
BW- Funny you mention Barkeepers friend because I’m OBSESSED with that product and was tempted to use it on these. Since the baking soda/vinegar was a proven method, I stuck with that but I don’t see any reason why Barkeepers would be risky since it’s a very mild abrasive. Hmmm...
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
BW- Funny you mention Barkeepers friend because I’m OBSESSED with that product and was tempted to use it on these. Since the baking soda/vinegar was a proven method, I stuck with that but I don’t see any reason why Barkeepers would be risky since it’s a very mild abrasive. Hmmm...
Maybe using the red wine vinegar with it??
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
No real updates here, with no other excuse than the constant distractions of fishing, hunting and watching my son beat the tar out of me in the woods on the dirt bikes.

Anyway, I needed to powdercoat the transmission boot trim ring for my wife’s CJ5 (it’s for the T150 and came as a raw piece of steel). While I was at it, the T5 boot trim ring really needed some help. It is (well, was) a piece of chrome, presumably aftermarket at some point, and had the typical rust that you’d expect on one of these things, so I tackled that as well. I was super pleased with the results!

if you recall, my initiation into powder coating was a bit haphazard, so this time I decided to build myself a cheap little “booth” of sorts. Pretty simple: I just took an Amazon box I had laying around and cut the back out to the size of a small AC air filter. I took a scrap piece of steel, cut a hole in it to assist in hanging my items to be coated and ran it through the box. I then set up a box fan behind it to draw the excess powder away from me and into the filter. It worked for its intended purpose.
 

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Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
That was the T150 ring. Next up was the T5 chrome. Out came the trusty, cheap Harbor Freight plastic bucket sandblaster. It once again did a great job, easily stripping the chrome off. Best 35 or so dollars I’ve spent in a while! 7A2C5132-3EB1-4F2D-BB81-007A1D9805F5.jpeg102BCC46-F5B9-4DCD-BA81-9891BE49D7AE.jpegB0D094C3-A931-4A57-9453-464926132D7E.jpegEE859C67-C649-4FB2-90D6-7C061D000253.jpeg9CCF676F-3E05-48BC-B74F-BBDD58249258.jpeg
 

Pman

Busted Knuckles
Lifetime Member
City
Mount Pleasant
State
SC
Sorry those were out of order. It’s late! I guess I’ll eventually make a more permanent “booth”. I just tossed this one when I was done. I saw on YouTube where a guy made a decent sized one out of a Rubbermaid tub.

I also need to get a bigger oven. 7 years ago, we remodeled our kitchen and I gave the electric oven to some buddies that leased a building they used to build hot rods about 5 minutes from my house. They ended up moving operations across town, along with that oven. I’m now using the most ridiculously small toaster oven imaginable. It gets hot enough, but it’s nerve wracking trying to situate your freshly powdered piece of metal in there!

As the weather cools off here in SC, I plan to make some final moves on this never ending project and hopefully lay some paint on the exterior. At least that’s what I keep telling myself!
 
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