I'm wanting to smooth out the appearance of my superbell axle. Any suggestions on proven ways to get a smooth look? I don't to take the time to polish it if it's not needed. On a side note, would powdercoat hide the casting marks without sanding? Thanks
Search here. There is a thread on a guy smoothing out a origional 32 heavy axle. End product was amazing!
I just found the thread by 117harv on peaking & polishing a '32 axle... Extremely beautiful work! I'm not looking to go that deep into the polishing process but it gave me some ideas on where to start. Even though I'm going to smooth it up a bit, I'm wondering if any sanding would be required if I just powdercoated the axle? Thanks for turning me onto harv's thread.
The axle will need to be sandblasted to powder coat and it won't hide all the casting imperfections. HRP
I had one powder coated once and like ^^^^ HRP said it doesn't hide it all, satin black looked good but you could still see the imperfections. I think sanding is in order... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Get it blasted, your powder coater can do that for you, then grind the worst of the bumps and pits. The powder coater will have to blast it again to make sure it's clean after you were handling it. Then have them put on a couple heavy coats. They generally shoot for 4-5 mils, but can go much thicker without any problems.
I just recently did this. I just used a simple side grinder with a sanding disc on it. after you get it all smooth, go to a finer grit. I also removed that awful looking winged thingy in the center. Remember that powder coating will not hide anything, its like paint, you are only coloring the surface, imperfections will still show.
Thanks guys. I have polished 3 of them for local rodders, it's iron so it's a dirty job, black dust everywhere. They polish out nicely, and will make the final finish look that much better, beit paint or powder coat. Also I (carefully) milled off the ugly wings logo in the recess, detailed that area and drilled holes. This is the only pic I have of any of themthem, if you double click the photo it will get larger.
That superbell looks great! What grit media makes the two different finishes? The center looks blasted but I'm sure some grinding had to be done prior?
I just polished the outer surfaces, the recess was left as is, freshly blasted, it has a nice satiny uniform texture. I used a 4 1/2" flap disc 80 grit and then course (brown) grit Scotch brite pads to get that finish.
I've done two forged axles the old fashioned way with a good or new large file. You can draw it with both hands, it actually goes pretty fast, (about 3hrs) . Zen like, and kind of therapeutic, if your into that!
Thanks for the details and inspiration, I've blown my budget for parts purchasing for the year, now I have a couple of months where I can just tinker. Winter projects will be smoothing out the front axle & wishbones, & plumbing the brake lines. Spring will be steering and a driveshaft. Then the chassis should be finished. Looking at these little pits on the wishbones makes me want to try and smooth them out with a flap wheel. But i don't want to weaken the bone (1947), do you think they would be ok as long as I don't grind down the weld that runs down the backbone?
I used a mig machine like body filler when trying to smooth out wishbones. Sanded everything down to uniform, so I thought, still see imperfections. But I can live with it. As I mentioned before satin powder is much more forgiving then gloss, my junk got chromed, and you see everything... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Yep, there's various 'tricks' you can use to apply powder thick enough to hide almost anything. There is a downside though; too thick and you can start having fitment issues with parts that attach. This can be addressed by masking, although you do it opposite of paint; keep the powder off of these areas until the last coat...
A dremel and sanding paper rolls on a drum are your best bet. Or live with it like the rest of us lazy bums do.
Well, I'm 5 hrs into smoothing up the axle... Satisfying progress has been made but I still have a ways to go. Started with a 4.5" grinder to remove the seam from the top and bottom. Then I used a dermal with small drums of 60 grit (which was a little too aggressive) followed by some fine 90 or 100 grit to do the axle ends. I've been using a small round file to get all the hard to reach spots. And I starting to go over the the top & bottom of the axle again with some 180 grit discs on a die grinder I forgot I had. Gonna run to harbor freight in the morning to see if I can find any finer discs for a finish surface? I thought I did pretty good job early on with the 4.5" , but the more I flip it around in the light, I can see curves that don't blend so well. Hoping more light passes true it up? Might take a stab at the bones... Maybe just skim coat with bondo? Another cherry to be popped!
We have a great polisher who will do a CE or SO-CAL axle for $150 and when powder coated comes out fantastic in gloss black.
A Superbell can actually be smoothed very well. My Son's is chromed and the chromer was able to get it nice and smooth before plating it.
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