Coating or Painting 5.0 Mustang Under Hood Aluminum Parts
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 12:08 am
I've been doing a under hood restoration and all of the aluminum parts looked pretty bad.
I tried glass bead blasting and they looked way too white. Definitely did not look original and every touch left a mark. I tried media blast but that didn't clean them enough. I tried bead blasting, followed up by media blast, still no go. I tried bead blast followed by Eastwood Bare Metal Clear and they looked gray. [almost like Ford under hood grey used on older model valve covers].
I was attempting to match to a OEM/NOS Ford water pump I had bought.
I then figured I was going to need to find a paint. I've used Eastwood products in the past, especially "AlumaBlast". Tried that first and it almost looked like a green tint compared to the water pump.
So, I made some test cards, first spraying a coat of Eastwood Gray Self-Etching Primer, then 2 coats of each paint on each strip.
I tested;
Eastwood Silver Argent
Eastwood Detail Silver
VHT Cast Aluminum
VHT Universal Aluminum
Eastwood AlumiBlast
Rust-oleum Silver Metalic
and
Por15 Detail Paint/Stainless Steel.
By far, the closest match was the Por15 Detail Paint/Stainless Steel. Most of the other samples had far too much metal flake to look natural. Or they were too bright and "silvery" looking.
I'm not sure if it will show in the photos, but in person it was a very close match.
I hope this helps someone else.
I guess I should add, "your results may vary…"
robj
Note: The pump has not been painted.
I tried glass bead blasting and they looked way too white. Definitely did not look original and every touch left a mark. I tried media blast but that didn't clean them enough. I tried bead blasting, followed up by media blast, still no go. I tried bead blast followed by Eastwood Bare Metal Clear and they looked gray. [almost like Ford under hood grey used on older model valve covers].
I was attempting to match to a OEM/NOS Ford water pump I had bought.
I then figured I was going to need to find a paint. I've used Eastwood products in the past, especially "AlumaBlast". Tried that first and it almost looked like a green tint compared to the water pump.
So, I made some test cards, first spraying a coat of Eastwood Gray Self-Etching Primer, then 2 coats of each paint on each strip.
I tested;
Eastwood Silver Argent
Eastwood Detail Silver
VHT Cast Aluminum
VHT Universal Aluminum
Eastwood AlumiBlast
Rust-oleum Silver Metalic
and
Por15 Detail Paint/Stainless Steel.
By far, the closest match was the Por15 Detail Paint/Stainless Steel. Most of the other samples had far too much metal flake to look natural. Or they were too bright and "silvery" looking.
I'm not sure if it will show in the photos, but in person it was a very close match.
I hope this helps someone else.
I guess I should add, "your results may vary…"
robj
Note: The pump has not been painted.