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-Heat paint, whatever colors you like!-
-Steel whool 'bulldog' brand lasts the longest
-Degreaser
-Patience
I was so sick and tired of looking at this nice UIM/LIM/DC painted and cleaned up with this UGLY assed TB attached to it. All the Levers, wheels and shit were covered in this calcium type deposit, and other parts of it were horribly discolored from years of weathering.
The TB itself was also discolored in areas and had shitloads of deposits in the cracks and other hard to reach places.
It needed paint, badly and I knew it would take some time, but it would be worth it in the end.
First I needed to turn this messy work area
Into a cleaner one, you need to have lots of room for the laying out of all the pieces
Keep in mind that you should lay ALL the pieces out in the order that you took them off, this makes a shitload easier to put back together, and you also know that those pieces are for that side of the TB, etc.
So I flipped the TB around and started with this side
for dissasembly.
Take off the nut and washer
Pull this part off where the springs hook into, this also allows the throttle cable wheels to turn the throttle plates
Once that piece is off, pull off the throttle cable wheel.
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__________________ Don't look for trouble, but if it finds you there is no such thing as a fair fight. The real world isn't the schoolhouse where there are teachers to break up scuffles. If it comes down to it, go for broke.
Now you'll come to another spring holder thingy, take some needle nose pliers and unlatch the spring
Once the spring is unlatched, pull out the pin that holds the arm that connects to the other set of throttle plates. Remember to put the pin and washer back in after the arm is removed so that you don't lose them.
Once again, another shot with the first piece that I was talking about removed. Now remove the two plastic spring holders with the spring out
Now you need to remove the plate adjuster mechanism, just take out the screw and pull the first piece off
Now you can see the last piece to remove, just pull it off and once again place it neatly in your pile of 'taken-off-pieces-in-order'
Wait, I lied, theres still a plastic washer that needs to be removed
Now we'll move onto the next plate mechanism part beside the first one that I mentioned.
Start by of course removing the nut and washer
Pull this piece off and then the arm
This is the last piece for this part, again pull it off and place it in your nice line of pieces on the table
next up is a part that I should have done with my intial TB mod procedure, but the screw was stripped.
If you'r planning to do the TB mod, make sure you have a drill with you cause I swear, every single screw that I tried to take off of my correded TB was fucking siezed.
Anyways, I had to drill this bastard out too, and if you plan to drill, drill until you get to the base of the screw, it should easily screw out at that point
You only need that first piece if you've done the TB mod, so of course keep it and remove the rest of it. I throw all the shit im never gonna use in a box, just in case I need it again.
Flip the TB over and we'll get started on the last area of removal, this is the side that the TPS connects to.
Remove the nut and washer and then remove this first mechanism piece. Take the whole two pieces off at once, just pull them out and place them in your new pile
Pull off the OMP controller lever thingy next
Heres a few pieces that come out in the order shown in the picture
Heres the last piece, another spring mechanism
You should have all your pieces layed out like this, this is a great reference shot of the order btw
there, we're pretty much done the dissasembly, the last spring mechanism beside the last pieces we took off cannot be removed easily. You'll need to take the throttle plates out and then remove the the bar with the piece attached to it. Since the screws are all loctited in, and I didn't have a torch, let alone more loctite to set them back in, I didn't even bother.
This is the longest part, the cleaning. Steel whool is your absolute best freind for this job, and you shouldn't need any sandpaper for the parts/TB. Basically clean all the little parts first individually with the steel whool until they are as smooth as you can get them. Once all those pieces are done, you'll need to wash them, any grease and it'll chip right off or bubble up during painting.
I took the pieces in sets to the sink. Use some anti-grease dish soap, it works great and everyone has it. If the pieces visibly have grease on them, use some degreaser. Anyways clean them as best you can and rinse them, dry them with a paper towl.
Now you can paint them, since this article isn't about painting, but more about how to dissasemble the TB and how much nicer it can look for all the work, im not going to get into detail about painting. Don't spray in spurts, just hold down the nozzle on the can and spray the paint on evenly. One coat for each side of the parts is good enoughe IMO.
Once that shits done, do the same thing to the TB. I dumped mine into a sinkfull of degreaser/water/dish soap and scrubbed away. Get a nice lather going with a plastic pan brush and do this for a good 10 minutes. Once the grease is gone, break out the steel whool and start scrubbing when its dry. Remove any deposites in the cracks, any part that is untouched with the steel whool, will show up after you've done painting. I spent a few nights a little bit at a time, cleaning it.
Once thats finished, go back to the sink and put some dish soap on the TB with some hot water and scrub away with the dish brush. This is to remove any grease that we missed and to get rid of the residue left from the steel whool/deposits.
When your done, you can mask off the front and rear of the TB, we don't need paint inside, only on the outside.
Heres a shot of the TB clean as a whistle
And heres a shot of each side masked
Use an exacto knife to to trim the tape around the edges of the TB.
Bring your masked product outside and break out the paint again. Once again, hold down the nozzle all the time and spray the paint evenly on all sides, don't overdue it or you'll get drip marks.
I did about 4 coats, with this much paint it almost looks like it was chromed.
This is starting to pay off! You should wait about a day or two before you start re-assembly, if you don't, you'll leave finger prints all over the thing.
Now for re-assembly, this took me about 40 minutes using the above pictures and working backwards. In no way is this 'guide' perfect as some parts of the re-assembly required you to figure out how 2 of the pieces go back on, but its not hard to figure out.
heres some final shots of what it looks like back together
btw, this took me about 3 weeks to do. I started and did it very very slowly, I just finished tonight.
This is only for the S4 modded TB btw. S5 may be different, im not to sure. But yea get it powder coated, it'll look the same as what I did, but it will last far far longer.
Man, if I had a garage... winter project: Dismantle engine bay, clean & paint everything. But, alas, I don't have a garage, and taking apart my engine in a parking lot in sub-freezing weather doesn't sound like a fun project. I don't doubt that at some point I'll be doing it, but that won't be voluntary.
I'll have an in-engine bay shot as soon as my damn braided omp lines come.. Its takin forever! but there was a mixup, and scalliwag has been pretty good about it. They should be here any day now.
Now that the paint is starting to fully dry its really starting to shine. In bay pics sooN!
Works real real good, holds up to heat very well. If you use it on an exhaust manifold it will smoke, but the color will dull out a little, but stay on good.
For the TB, it'll never got hot enoughe to smoke, so that shine should stay for a while. The cap for this paint was a real shitty plastic aluminum color that was dull and well did I mention shitty? As you can see it has some gloss on it that looks great. Just remember DO NOT touch it until about 2 days, or you'll leave permanent smears or finger prints.. heh found that out on the DC when I painted that.
The black that I used for the UIM/LIM was low gloss black.
If you want, you can use a clearcoat for it, but I think that would make it look to shiny.. im not to sure, do what you want I guess.
thanks for the great feedback, its great to see that this is appreciated!
Throw the TB in the oven for a couple hours, bringing it up tp 180 degrees slowly.
It will improve the finish of the paint (should make it shinier), give a full cure, and make it more durable.
if anyone else is considering doing this, do an s5 tb! I think they are quite a bit different with the dual tps setup thing, etc, or maybe not. someone confirm this?
scathcart that sounds like an AWESOME idea, its fully assembled, but the only thing that im worrying about is the rubber seals for the throttle plate rods... if they melt..
if anyone else is considering doing this, do an s5 tb! I think they are quite a bit different with the dual tps setup thing, etc, or maybe not. someone confirm this?
scathcart that sounds like an AWESOME idea, its fully assembled, but the only thing that im worrying about is the rubber seals for the throttle plate rods... if they melt..
They've never melted on me.
I don't use paint very much anymore (powdercoat mostly, now), but when I do I always bake it at 180 fahrenheit, slowly bringing it up to temperature over a period of two hours or so. I find it majorly increases paint adherence and improves the lustre of gloss paints. With proper cleaning and prep, it makes the paint near-impossible to get off.
TB Dissasembly+Painting guide!
I'll have to remember this when i get my T2 intake manifold and TB!
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