Suspension Paint and Prep Questions

[zack_280]

I am looking changing my bushings and ball joints and replacing the springs and struts. Since I have the suspension taken apart I also would like to paint the parts. My goal is to do something that looks nice for the short term. I only need this to last 3-5yrs because I will be doing more extensive resto work in the future. So, I'm looking for a fairly easy way to apply the paint to the parts so that it hold and look decent for a fairly short period of time.

I just finished taking everything apart and tomorrow I am going to start working on cleaning up the parts and stripping them down to the bare metal. I have the basics: a wire wheel, a few wire brushes, some degreaser, some anti-rust primer and some flat black paint. Looking at these parts I'm thinking that it may take more than these tools to completely strip them down as there are many years grime and light surface rust. Are there any other tools or chemical treatments I should or need to be using?

The way I see it I am looking for advice on the following steps.

1. Stripping parts...What chemicals/tools work the best (or should I say the best for you)? This is the important one, I think

2. Prepping parts...Can I just spray primer onto the metal or is there more that I need to do (keep in mind that this is short term, and hopefully fairly easy and cheap)

3. Painting parts...Do the break calipers/hubs need a differnet type of paint than the suspension parts?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

P.S. I know there are a few topics that loosely cover this, but I couldn't find anything that would really help me.

[kenz240z]

Hi Zack, I disassembled the front & rear suspension on my Z when I did the suspension rebuild. For grimy parts, I soaked them in a 5 gallon bucket filled with hot water & Super Heavy Duty Degreaser (I got this at Harbor Freight). It helped loosen up a lot of the caked on crud that had accumulated over the years. Then I followed up with a wire brush. It took a bit of elbow grease, but I got the surfaces clean. A sandblasting cabinet could be put to good use to strip the parts, too, and a lot quicker. I don't have one yet, though...

Most of the parts were clean enough to paint after the hot detergent treatment/wire brush/etc..., but some had a bit of rust. I used a product called Rust Mort to convert the rust to a paintable surface.

I used a couple of Eastwood products to prime & repaint the suspension parts. For a primer I used Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. It's their version of POR15. I then sprayed the parts with Eastwood's Chassis Black. It gave the parts a nice, durable satin black finish, close to the original look. I used the same primer/paint on all the suspension parts, including the hubs & drums. My calipers looked good enough that I didn't refinish them.

I've got a few before & after pics in my gallery taken as I did the suspension rebuild on my Z.

[Zs-ondabrain]

All good suggestions so far, and here's my 2 cents worth.

As for getting to bare metal to do it right, I started by scraping off years of gunk and grease, dust, and dirt with a standard 1 inch metal (flexible) scraper or some people call it a putty knife.

Next I used a wire brush for all the corners and grooves and loose dirt and such.

Then I used a degreaser (like GUNK ) which makes it easy considering all you do is spray it from the can, wait ten minutes, wire brush the part to make sure every thing got loose, then spray it off with the garden hose.

As for stripping paint, the best stuff I ever found was a product called

Mar-Hyde Tal-Strip II. It's an aircraft coating remover in a 15 oz. spray can.

It's safe enough for aluminum but rips thru paint crazy. Takes a couple of minutes but you'll be happy with the results. Wipe the paint off with a wet cloth (wear the heavy dish washing gloves from the super market) wipe again to get it all off and most of the time it only takes one regular coat.

If you have an air compressor, GET A MEDIA BLASTER!!! mine only cost my $80.00 at Harbour Freight Tools, Get the Aluminum Oxide media for about $20 for 30 pounds worth. That enough to last you quite a while. Months in a small blasting cabinet. Aluminum Oxide will remove paint, rust, por-15, tar or what ever is in the way, with out distorting the metal or hurting it.

It take a little practice, but I guarentee you'll be happy with what you can do with it.

When priming almost any metal, use a (Metal-Etching Primer) It chemically adheres itself thru use of an etching acid) to the metal which helps keep it on there much better than regular primer. thru use of the blasting cabinet, you'll most likely eliminate all the rust and won't have to use a rust converting primer. Every piece will most likely require a different process of prep to get the desired look that you're going for

Brake calipers can get VERY HOT. There are many Paints that are specifically made for drums and calipers. They are usually HI-TEMP (800 to 1200 degree) and chemical resistant to keep your brake fluid from eating it back off when bleeding the brakes. The best one I found was from VHT. it cost a little more but remember that you get what you pay for.

Visit my galley for all the update pics of the front and rear suspension work that I JUST got done with.

Your main concern is to keep the rust from coming back. So if you like the shiny surface that the wire wheel makes on a freshly sandblasted bolt. Clear coat it with a hi-temp engine clearcoat from Duplicolor. it's an enamal with ceramic in the paint so it will hold up to the heat and stay clear without yellowing like most clear coats.

Good luck,

Dave.

[2003z]

easiest way, but it takes a dedicated non food oven. Place in oven and put self clean cycle on. Everything will burn off of it. Then remove any surface rust by soaking in muriatic acid and follow up with eastwood's metal wash to prevent flash rust.

[Ed]

As you can tell by the previous suggestions, do it once and do it right. If your going through the trouble of removing the suspension components, stripping and cleaning. Then painting. Why paint with something that is only going to last 5 years? But if that's what you want then strip away. Clean and then paint your parts with a rattle can paint.

Or you can do it right the first time and strip, paint with a rust preventative paint. (powder coat or something else). And have it last for 30 years.

But if you have your mind set on doing your complete restoration 5 years from now, why waste your time now. Take a spray bottle with some used motor oil and spray all of your suspension components. The light coat of oil will spread and will protect your metal.

[Zs-ondabrain]

easiest way, but it takes a dedicated non food oven. Place in oven and put self clean cycle on. Everything will burn off of it. Then remove any surface rust by soaking in muriatic acid and follow up with eastwood's metal wash to prevent flash rust.

Oh thats just cheatingLOL

But seriously, what about parts that have rubber perminately attached, like the upper front strut assembly that houses the strut bearing and bolts to the body?

Or the lower lower control arm, if you plan on not converting to poli-urethane bushings?

Thought i'd burst your bubbleLOL

[mlc240z]

wire wheel and wire brush for the heavy gunk.

then i used electrolysis for the rust. it just sounded pretty cool and i was curious to see how well it worked as a cheap alternative. takes a little time but converted the rust to a paintable surface. also by soaking in the washing soda solution, most of the other crud just fell off.

scrubbed parts down with detergent and a nylon brush, rinsed and dryed with a blow dryer.

coated parts with Rustoleum Rust Reformer paint as a primer/rust converter/protector. then coated with Rustoleum rattle can semigloss. looks great but time will tell on how long it will hold up.

wish i could have afforded more but this was very easy and cheap.

check out before/after pics in my gallery.

good luck!

[zack_280]

Thanks for all of the info guys. It really is helping. I'm still trying to get all of the paint/rust/gunk off with a wire wheel. It was my best bet since all I don't have a sand blaster or a battery charger. I'm starting to think that it might have been work the investment, but I'm pretty sure that my wife would disagree. I try to pick my battles carefully and I think the trade was worth it. Anyways, everything is getting pretty shiny. I think I'll be finished stripping everything tomorrow and then hopefully finish the painting before Tuesday.

Then it'll be the same thing for the rear suspension...I have a spindle pin puller tool, so hopefully that won't cause too much trouble.

Thanks again.

Zack

[kenz240z]

Bart, I've had good luck using Rustoleum primer & paint on suspension parts. Back in my younger years I rebuilt the suspension on a '62 Buick Special and used Rustoleum refinish the parts, plus detail the engine bay.

As an off-topic note, I've been thinking that the Buick 215 might be a good candidate for a V8 swap into a Z car. It's an aluminum engine, aluminum heads, aluminum intake, very light. And, the distributor is mounted at the front of the engine, so no problems clearing the hood latch, like with a SB Chevy. I haven't really compared performance specs with the L24 or L28, so I'm not sure if it would truly make a good swap or not.

Zack, sounds like you're making good progress, post some pics when you get a chance! In fact, if you've got a digital camera, it would be wise to take before & after pics as you go along. The before pics will be extremely helpful when it comes time to put everything back under your Z! At least it was for me, but then I've only got a couple brain cells left, the rest have fallen victim to the tasty barley pop I enjoy so much! Speaking of... gotta go!

[=Enigma=]

I started out with this idea on mind as well but as soon as I saw how much work stripping the components was I decided I would do a complete job of refinishing them. After spending a couple days stripping parts, I decided my time was worth more than the $$$ it would cost to take it to a media blaster so that's what I did. I paid $140 to have the two rear transverse links, transverse link crossmember, crossmember braces, rear struts and front calipers blasted. If I had to do it again I would have taken in the front transverse links and front struts as well for another $40-60. It's not cheap but the results are better than I could have done with the equipment at my disposal. I still need to get the diff mount, diff, and front crossmember done. My guess is that that will cost me another $80.

[ZSaint]

I used my glass beader and took everything down to bare metal. I then had everything powdercoated black. Tough stuff.

[ricksaia]

I made friends with the local engine machine shop, and he charged me $20.00for about 4 hours of doing it myself on his sand blaster. It also helps to have him do some of your engine work. I was there for three days and $60.00 bucks later all of my suspension pieces looked great. When you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Rick.