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Soda blasted carbs, need final finish suggestions

philosopheriam

philosopheriam

Forum Mentor
Past Site Supporter
Folks,

I recently soda blasted my carburetors during a cleaning/rebuild and now they look absolutely fantastic - all of the oxidation is gone and they have a matte aluminum finish.

However, I am concerned with future oxidation - I know I can paint them, but if I have to clean the carbs again at a future date it would most likely destroy any type of paint finish.

So, my question is, what do you suggest? Paint? A clearcoat? Leave them alone?

Just wondering...
 
Me personally, I would leave them looking good as they are. They will hold up until they need cleaned again in 3-5 years. If I were to cover them with anything it would be powder coated or plated.
 

After dipping my 78 1000 carbs looked like this ,would have been serviceable but...............

I polished the tops and bottoms to a fairly high gloss and sisal polished the bodies to even them out.

Look pretty good I think.
 
The zinc bodies will be fine, but if the blasting took off the plating on the steel parts they will rust. If that's the case I'd repaint, either the entire carbs, or just the steel parts.
 
I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the soda blasting - it removed the light corrosion on some of the steel parts without removing the remaining plating from some of the steel parts.
 
I just run over them with a fine wire wheel on the bench grinder..can shoot clear over them if you want but be sure its fuel / oil resistant. Click pics for larger views.





 
I did mine (soda blasted) and left them alone .
I polished the bowls and the top thingy and they still look good (to me) 5 years on .

Cheers , Simon .
 
I just started soda blasting carbs for some of my customers & love the fact that it removes the oxidation & rust but doesn't remove the zinc plating like glass bead does.

I'd leave them alone too, with polished tops & bottoms. Very classy.

Paul
 
soda or sand is terrible for cast parts as it is pourous and still stains as you remove a layer unlike vapour blasting
 
Soda is not gently ,maybe compared to sand or glass bead .But vapour produces a satin finish which will handle without picking up finger marks and gently peens the surface so can help reduce porosity in castings and very easy to keep clean.
Aqua/Vapor Blasting is both highly effective and gentle at the same time - The process cleans very effectively without removing any of the underlying metal or substrate. This allows for the cleaning of delicate parts and soft metals.
Ask anyone in the U.K about vapour and you will find anyone restoring older bikes always use vapour for exposed alloy surfaces ....


The illustrations below show the different natures of grit, bead, and vapor blasting. The aggressiveness of dry grit and bead blasting are shown in the first two illustrations which demonstrate the severe 90? ricochet that occurs when using these methods.
The third illustration shows the gentler, but just as effective, vapor blasting method. The ricochet of media is reduced due to the cushioning from the water; the angle of the media is changed producing a lapping effect travelling across the surface, giving an even satin/polished finish.
wetblasting_illustration_1.jpg
wetblasting_illustration_2.jpg
wetblasting_illustration_3.jpg

The key to vapor blasting is that the finish is produced through flow of water borne abrasive, giving a finer finish due to the flushing action of the water. No media is impregnated into the component, nor is there any dust created by the break-up of media, unlike dry blasting where the finish is produced by sheer force of media impact.
A specially designed glandless polyurethane pump agitates water and media into a slurry, and pumps it to the blast gun. At the same time this slurry is pumped at approximately 2 bar to the nozzle, and air is introduced at the blast gun to accelerate the slurry and its cleaning effect on impact, albeit cushioned.

One off my Katana engine and carbs vapour blasted here at the shop .
 
+1 on vapour blasting. had all my engine components vapour blasted and still look like the day they were done, 5+years later.
carbs, crankcases, block,head etc all done that way. would never use bead blasting again unless it is purely for a good key finish prior to painting.
 
Bead blasted these carb bodies and replated the steel parts with a Caswell's kit. A tiny bit dull looking but not too bad.



 
While vapour blasting is the best way to go, however it cost way more than soda, and until someone shows me exactly how much damage is caused soda is still the route I'm going
 
Paul said:
While vapour blasting is the best way to go, however it cost way more than soda, and until someone shows me exactly how much damage is caused soda is still the route I'm going
Click to expand...

vapour blasting is cheap, in Plymouth anyway. no more expensive than bead blasting
 
Agemax said:
vapour blasting is cheap, in Plymouth anyway. no more expensive than bead blasting
Click to expand...
ah ok I thought it was like ?60-80 for a set of carbs, not sure what it would be with soda to be honest but as you know I bought a soda pot so its almost for free, but it is a concern if I will be causing excess damage to parts?
 
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