Cleaning Parts to Paint

I have washed the parts in kero and laundry detergent and sometimes Simple Green degreaser. They still dont seem to be free of grease because water will bead on them.

Steel parts clean ok. Its the cast iron parts I have a problem with. What do you folks use on parts to be painted? Thanks for any suggestions, Ralph in NC

I use a "hot tank" at my friends automotive shop. I am not sure what it is called but it is a light acid bath that will take the caked on grease and paint right off in about a day. Just dont stick any soft metals in it like aluminum, brass and babbitt or it will completely desolve it, but it will not hurt cast iron. I use it all the time, works like a dream.

Tanner Remillard

Just prior to painting to remove the last of the oil, including your finger prints, try ether such as used in quick start. Another good system is compressed cans of brake cleaner. Do it outside......no smoking

all i ever use is a 2500# hot water pressure washer.The last 6hp int M i done i washed it and 10 min. later i primed it.The hot water dries very quickly on the cast,and leaves it warm. guy in ontario

If you have it clean to the eye wipe it down with thinner. This way there is no residue left behind like some cleaners can. You might even try etching compound.

I don't have a pressue washer, so I spray the machine with Gunk engine cleaner (water soulable) then use a compressed air washer with a hot strong water solution of TSP and blow it dry. Before I paint, I brush / wipe it down with alchol. Ed

If it's a completely cast iron part, and small enough to fit. Put it in your wifes oven. Use moderate heat untill all the oil,etc. is boiled off. Dave in Holt.

I recommend that you NOT put in your WIFE'S oven if you like sleeping indoors. The idea of baking parts is a good one and baking is also a great way to dry paint, but I recommend that you get your own oven and put it outside to use.

Ralph, before any painting I always washing the parts or the hole engine with " white spirit". Take care for the safety rules, open air, no fire and no smoking! Spraying the final quality paint layers, I add ten drips "anti silicone" to the paint and you never have "craters" or "orange peel".

"Sixm" John

Nothing I know of works better than bead blasting and sandblasting....I bead blast the small parts in an inexpensive blaster cabinet, and sand blast the big chunks with a small hopper type sand blaster...Then I paint the parts before they have time to rust again!

David M.

[Harry]

I too am a firm advocate of bead blasting. Follow it up with phosphoric acid (metal-prep) and let dry. No primer required unless you want it smooth and filled.

WOW Dave, you have an understanding wife!!! If I ever tried that I would never hear the end of it - at least parts with grease on them!

Norm

I've always used gasoline to clean - yah, I know that its too explosive. But some of the other stuff mentioned here is just as if not more explosive. Works for me, just use common sense.

Norm

She looked over her glasses in a way that every man understands and said, "NOT IN MY OVEN, put them on the grill outside".

Might not be a bad idea, I'll add it to all the good suggestions you folks gave.

Thanks everyone, Ralph in NC

My chef's apron, pair of tongs, a cold beer, why not? the neighbors already think I'm a little off!!

Hi Ralph, With that alluring smell of old iron cooking you might have all of your neighbor collectors over for their"Dinner" Rob

yeap mr. leonard ,i can see mrs ethel saying that!and i can also see you walking when she takes that golf cart and will not let you ride!better get that puttyknife back out!

Ralph:

I've also had problems sometimes with cast iron. I believe it's because the iron is slightly porous and soaks-up some of the oil. Usually, I clean with gasoline (outside) then with lacquer thinner (also outside). No smoking unless you want to make a flaming ash outta yerself!

One of these days, I'm gonna try that spray-on oven cleaner after de-gunking. Let it sit for a few minutes then hose it off with water. It has lye (caustic) in it, so be careful about aluminum. The big test is how fast the iron rusts after the treatment. If it starts to rust after only a few hours, depending on humidity, it ought to be clean enough to take paint.

My two-cents worth and worth at least half of that!

Take care - Elden

Yogi Berra was supposed to have said "Free advice is worth every cent you pay for it."

All of the cleaning advice, I'm sure, comes from hard earned lessons (as in mistakes were made).

hello all!! after cleaning your parts take a propane torch and heat the part till you see the pores open and the part dry out then i paint. no problems so far with the paint sticking.. hope this helps.. jim king

Hi Guys,

working for a chemical company I maintain serveral export meat works. If any of you have been in a meat works or butcher shop you may have noticed the steel or plastic hooks they have to hang the bodies.

These hooks get covered in blood, fat and oxidise very quickly.

To clean them we use a bath method of an Alkaline chemical the rinse followed by a phosphoric acid rinse and then hot oil dip.

The fitters at one of my clients uses their tanks to clean anything metal (except aluminium)and continuely drop stuff in and come back 10 minutes later and its perfect.

They only use the phosphoric acid bath as this derusts the metal very effectly. Naturally being in a production environment time is money and they want it done with in ten minutes; to do this requires a higher concentration of chemical; the down side to this apart from the straight forward OHS issues is that use of concentrations this high may weaken the metal and cause it to become brittle. Also the item needs to be painted with in 30 minutes so as oxidation does not occur.

A warm the bath increases the rate of derusting. Im so tempted to take one of my engines and drop it in the bath and see how it comes up.