I tried out the wire wheel on my bench grinder on a junk steamer shell. it took the paint off completely without any damage to the shell.
TANKS Dave!! Salute.........(plugs in the wire wheel, sets speed to "delicate")
I would suggest that you try a junk part before you try it on the one you want to restore.
One of the best ways I have found to remove old paint and do surface prep for new paint is using a blast cabinet, low pressure and glass beads. The glass beads won't do damage to the zinc used in die cast boilers, etc.
I discovered a place that does small blasting jobs for me. It is a generator/alternator/starter repair guy. He has a sand-blasting cabinet that uses a very fine medium. The parts come out with a slight matte finish that can be made a little shinier with steel wool, then primed and painted.
Sounds about right. Glass bead blasting leaves a matte finish that takes paint very well. It also removes slight burrs from machined parts..
I don't do this full time, it's just a spare time thing but I would love to do it full time if the opportunity presented itself.
Miggy, I like to do everything old fashioned. So I would say to use a wire brush if you can.
I've got a blasting booth at work I use. I just got done with with an 1835E resto for a customer. It looks great but the gloss black paint is soooooooooo hard to get perfect. Every little thing shows. I'm much more critical of it than the customer will be but no matter what, it has it's imperfections. I'd wet sand n buff out but the rivet detail will get screwed up
Matt Makens posted:I've got a blasting booth at work I use. I just got done with with an 1835E resto for a customer. It looks great but the gloss black paint is soooooooooo hard to get perfect. Every little thing shows. I'm much more critical of it than the customer will be but no matter what, it has it's imperfections. I'd wet sand n buff out but the rivet detail will get screwed up
Years ago I had access to a glass bead blaster where I worked.
One of the trains was a 2025 and it came out great.
They also had a decreasing machine which prepped it for painting.
Never tried it on prewar tin stuff.
Matt just enjoy the machine you have a work as I do not have that luxury now and resort to paint stripping and manual prep.
Would love to invest in a system but the cost would be kind of steep for a large compressor, and the exhaust system. The large blast cabinet would be the lowest cost parts.
Do not know if it would be profitable, but who knows, maybe when I retire.
I am using as many of the original parts that can be salvaged and making a list of what parts I need. I'm cleaning all the steps, handrails, journal boxes, trucks, wheels etc.
More done
Attachments
ATERRY11 your pictures did not come through
This is my first resto too by the way.