Abrasive blasting and painting – the start

I’ve been away on holiday for the last 2 weeks, but I’m back now and able to have another go at the Land Rover.

This is a really good moment – the first time I’ve been able to start building, rather than stripping and cleaning.

The next big step is to get the engine out of the chassis.

Before I do that, I want to get the sump off the engine and cleaned up, so that I have a clean piece of machinery to deal with.

Having previously drained the oil from both the engine and transfer box, I pulled the sump covers off the transfer box and engine.

The gearbox and transfer box oil was nice and clean, and was at about the right level before I drained it, and there were no nasty twisty bits of metal in the transfer box sump, so that’s all to the good. The gearbox isn’t leaking at all, so I’m pretty satisfied about that.

The engine sump was a bit of a different matter. There were no metallic bits in the bottom, so that’s a relief, but there was about half an inch of grey sludge in the bottom of the sump. I attacked the sludge with rags and kero, and eventually got the sump nice and clean.

Then . . . off to the abrasive blaster. I piled all the bits that came off the engine, and some other assorted shrapnel into boxes and hauled them down to Ultimate Strippers in Penrith.

The box below shows you what came back – rusty crud restored to bright metal.

Next step – painting. As these are engine bits, I’m painting them in engine enamel, using Septone paint from Super Cheap Auto. I’ve had good results with this before, so I’m using it again. The colour is gloss black.

This is the sump after painting. To cure the enamel I put it in the oven for 30 mins at 100C. I’m not sure if the other half really approves of me using “her” oven for engine parts, but it certainly does the job.

Below is the transfer box sump after I put it back on. I was very keen to get the sump covers back on, so that nothing untoward got into the engine or transfer box.

I painted the exhaust manifold with Septone High Heat paint, in Cast Iron colour.

The aluminium rocker cover and intake manifold came back looking a bit sintered, and I wasn’t sure I liked the look of it. I have been able to polish aluminium back on previous occasions, but this time I decided to see how painting went.

I bought some VHT Engine Enamel in Cast Iron colour (Repco or Autobarn) and painted the rocker cover. After curing in the oven, it came out looking very impressive. I have done the intake manifold in the same colour, but I used the High Heat paint, in case the higher temperatures around the exhaust manifold buggered the normal Engine Enamel. The High Heat paint is rated to 650C, whereas the Engine Enamel is rated to 250C.

Having had a good look at how these have turned out, I’ve changed my mind again about the engine colour. I haven’t been altogether happy about the options for painting the block, and I am now decided to go with the VHT Engine Enamel in Cast Iron.