Here's some pictures of the progress I made tonight. Very labor intensive but hopefully it'll look nice when it's done.

mothers?

The case was bead blasted which left a rough surface. What I have to do is sand with 400 grit sandpaper, then polish with a rubbing compound and then a polishing compound. I am using a die grinder with felt cones for the rubbing and polishing compounds, but the sandpaper is all manual. I'm not that happy with the bead blasting of the case, but it's the only way to get rid of the oil stains.

kind of anal dont you think?

I got lazy doing that to my wheels, so I just etched them again..

Just giving you a way out..


M

I've used a drill w/ a couple different wire brushes before, you can get a little shine that way, and it actually leaves decent base for poishing-eliminates the raw fingers. Try using ...Eagle1 (I think) Mag wheel stripper stuff too instead of sandblasting, it etches the top layer of metal, removes whatever stains and coatings are on it. Just dont spray it on your wheels thinking it will 'clean' them- because it WILL- in a big way.
Luckily on a 914 you only have to polish the top of the case there.
R O

Post pics of the end result when you're done say, mid August maybe?

No seriously, that's gonna look great. You're surely not as lazy as I.

ghost, I'll check out the Mag Wheel Stripper. Sounds like good stuff. I'm not sure how far I'm going to go. I have a month or two before the internals come back from Jake, so I've got lots of time to kill.

Hey, I polished the top of my case when I had it apart, I just wanted to clean it up a little. The end result is not quite what I expected and it was a lot of work, but it looks better than it did.

Pictures?

Mark, you're going to at that job for a long time.

Tip for ya. After bead blasting, it's easier to start with a rougher grade paper. I used 80, then 200, then 400. And for wheels I went on to 1000. IIWY, I would start your sanding with 80 or 120. It will make the job a little easier.

I fear this. My subie engine has some crust on it (from the boat crossing I assume) and I fear trying to clean it up any will result in months of polishing like McMark is doing.

What's the best way to remove casting marks from aluminum? Dremel?

You could polish the case inside, it actually will be good for oil flow or quicker oil return to the bottom of the case depending on where you polish!!

On outside curves, a nice hard-cut mill file. You have to get a rat tail for the inside curves, and you get real pissed off about 10 hours into it.


M

I polish my knob on a regular basis.

Paul

If you have bead blasted that case you better pull (and tap) your oil galley plugs.

I absolutely guaranty that you still have glass beads in your oil galleys, no matter how well you have cleaned the case.

what are you gonna do to the case to keep it shiny after it's done?

I wonder how it will affect cooling.

Mark H. - They're already out.

Sean - I was thinking about anodizing.

You guys belong on a 911 list