a bead blaster ate my intake!

ARG!

I cleared my intake, but wasn't happy with the finish, so I took it to a self serve place and glass beaded it.

Now it is clean and has a beautiful sheen, but I can see every pinhole in it, and the edge looks like it was rotted?

Is this because of the shine that it shows now?

 

Greetings! Hate to tell you but those holes, pits are from simple corrosion, the bead blasting had nothing to do with it.

 

^ ^ ^ Yep! ^ ^ ^

 

...like lines and wrinkles on your face......it's a sign of maturity and not NIB......

 

really?
they were not there before blasting

 

Looks good to me

 

really?
they were not there before blasting

That's becuase the pits were filled with oxidation (aluminum oxide). When you blasted it, the oxide is removed and leaves the small pockets where the oxide was.

 

it looked like this when I bought it



and after first clear (too glossy)



I know they are not close-up shots, but I would have seen the edge issues.

 

They were there. You just didn't notice/see them because they were filled with white puss.

 

Ever see potmetal that "appears" good prior to having its chrome stripped.

A piece may look real nice with little or no "visable" pitting prior to stripping. Then it gets stripped and that's when you find out that either it costs a lot of money to restore the piece prior to plating or it's shot all together.

 

Send that sucker back to Vic for a refund! HaHa.
Was the blasting media too aggressive? Would blasting with something like walnut shells smooth the coarse finish?

 

so, run it, and consider them beauty marks

 

NOPE!

Age spots!

 

The edges of castings are often not as nice as the rest of it, right out of the mold. Edges are more liable to oxidize as well.

Bob

 

...another thought. The 'as bought' pics indicate that the intake was polished. Polishing compound and aluminum particles from the abrasion could have filled in the holes and pit marks.....

 

I have beadblasted many intakes (prior to sandblasting) and it WILL not pit the metal.
As stated above it just removed the oxidation, however, a 50-60 year old intake will have a some rough casting from the sand mold.
P.S> the original finish is suppose to be dull and have a sandblasted appearance, not shiny and smooth, unless it is polished.........

 

May not have been the case with yours, but there's a lot of old speed parts on the market which have been cosmetically restored. That is, the corrosion/oxidation pits have been filled with JBWeld, bondo or whever, then it's shot with cast aluminum paint. Thefts by deception I've seen:

1. Flathead V8 heads which were corroded through, plastered over sold, but leaked like a sieve when up to temp and pressure.

2. Transmission case patched with aluminum epoxy and painted over.

3. Intake manifolds with studs glued in stripped carb mounting stud holes.

Would take too long to list 'em all, but when you start stripping off paint, it's buyer beware.

jack vines

 

just porosity, tiny holes were always there. Most shops use #6 glass bead for general blasting and the result looks normal to me

 

Sand would have been harder on it , glass is a little easier on the metal . Live with it , unless its a major show car .

 

It was corroded prior to blasting. The glass beads will eat away at what is the softest and leave what is the most solid. All you did was knock the corroded or oxidized metal away.

What is most important is that the intake functions, when someone comes up and says, "look that is an old intake." You can reply, "you bet your ass it is."

 

I couldn't have said it better! HRP

 

FWIW, I used to work in an aluminum foundry (80's) and we cast intakes for Oldsmobile. All of the intakes were shot blasted (steel shot) prior to shipment. It not only was done to improve surface finish, but also to remove any residual sand left over from the sand-core used to form the internal passages in the intake.

So...it's not like you did anything unusual by bead blasting it with glass.

Phil

 

Looks pretty nice to me.

 

If you cleared them I think you are trying to seal them up so just get some good aluminium paint and paint them.No more gas or oil stains and washes up great did it on my heads and intake.Darrell

 

Call it "patina" and you'll be loved by many.

 

myself i do not care for look after glass beading, i like the as cast look and just clean them as best i can.

 

I work in an industrial turbine repair facility, we use steel shot, glass, sand, walnut particles, aluminum oxide and a few others I can't think of. I have never seen any of them damage parts. I have seen similar results when there is rust/ corrosion or contamination in the metal being cleaned just as other guys mentioned.

 

As said above is all correct.
I bought a new vac system for my blaster with a new 50 pound pail of glass media. Got it hooked up last week and a buddy had dropped an intake and the factory aluminum GM valve covers from the late 60's. I have done alot of alum. valve covers and intakes and they look great. His were pretty oxidized and all white powdery looking. Well I blasted it them and they looked like shit, I though at first is was to coarse of media, nope, just heavily corroded aluminum.

I do agree that if you can have something walnut blasted in it leaves the alum. more of a brownish hue and not so new white looking. It looks more vintage clean looking.

 

If you want a smoother finish, with pits/holes filled, consider having the intake powder coated. I had mine done and am really happy with how everything turned out. And leaking gas, stuck floats, ordinary events haven't fazed it!

 

that looks good.

I am a fan of the Por-15 Glisten clear. I used gloss first, but want to change to the semi-gloss, hence the bead blasting...