Author Topic: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block  (Read 868 times)

Offline ohiorider

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The old R100GSBeemer is 30 years old.  Bodywork is fine.  Wheels need either a lot of TLC to get back the shine and black buildup on the spokes.  Is it possible the wheels, engine, tranny and final drive could be cleaned up to look really nice without removing wheels from the bike by some sort of blasting that leaves no residue?  The alloy components aren't in really bad shape, I just don't have the patience to clean up the bike with aluminum polish and other compounds.  If not, at next tire change, perhaps I'd have to take the wheels to a shop that specializes in cleaning wire wheels, if there is such a shop.

Bob
Main ride:  2008 Guzzi 1200 Sport (sold July 2020)
2012 Griso 8v SE (sold Sept '15)
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Offline Canuck750

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Re: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2021, 04:45:16 PM »
A friend of mine took his 1973 Honda 500 to shop that does the dry ice blasting and they cleaned up his wheels real nice while on the bike. He also took a complete motor in separately to be cleaned and it worked out ok, not as nice as Vapor Blasting but much better than it was. To vapour blast the engine needs to be completely stripped down, all bearings removed etc and then scrupulously cleaned and all blind holes chased clean.
The dry ice clean is a great alternative if you don’t want to pull the bearings out of the wheel hubs. I blast whole wheels in my Vapor blast cabinet after I remove the wheel bearings. I leave the tires on the rims unless I am replacing the rubber.
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Online Scout63

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Re: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2021, 09:54:04 PM »
What Canuck said. I love vapor blasting but you need to fully disassemble the parts and then carefully clean with hot soapy water and air. Also, it can bung up threads a little so if holes aren’t plugged a set of taps is essential.
Ben Zehnder - Orleans, MA USA

Offline ohiorider

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Re: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2021, 06:15:13 AM »
Thanks, guys.  I think what I'll do is wait until early next season when I'm getting new tires mounted.  Have shop dismount old tires, take wheels to blast shop (seem to be a lot of industrial dry ice blaster in the area) and have the wheels really cleaned up.

Bob
Main ride:  2008 Guzzi 1200 Sport (sold July 2020)
2012 Griso 8v SE (sold Sept '15)
Reliable standby: 1991 BMW R100GS
2014 Honda CB1100 (Traded Nov 2019)
New:  2016 Triumph T120 (Traded Dec 2021)
New:  2021 Kawasaki W800

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Re: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2021, 06:15:13 AM »

Online cliffrod

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Re: vapor blasting/dry ice blasting alloy wheels and engine block
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2021, 07:05:30 AM »
We've blasted a number of assembled items, from engines in frames to wheels on or off bike, with a variety of media.   Some efforts were definitely more redneck than refined.   The masking work is usually not fun and no matter how much you try, it's hard to reach everything on an installed engine to blast it well.  The residual abrasive concerns have already been addressed, so no need to discuss that further.

The consistent issue across all efforts was that anything aggressive enough to remove paint (but maybe not corrosion or rust) or clean alloy will also remove any rust- or corrosion-resistant coating on ferrous metal components.  Then they rust like crazy. Even bikes with ss hardware generally have some plain ferrous parts.   So after blasting, you have to r&r or exchange the fasteners, be an anal-retentive hero cleaning them in place before clear coating every one of them so you can wait to see which one(s) you missed or just live with a cleaned wheel/engine/etc that's got lots of bits of orange rust growing everywhere.  You can just wash everything well and clearcoat everything, but that's a quick fix- not a real solution.  It really depends upon what you deem as acceptable or how much time & work you will invest to do it the "easy" way instead of doing it the way that you know would be best.

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