I've had to pull the crossmember from the RX-2 for the sake of painting it, which put the engine on the ground. I figured I might as well go ahead and paint the SA tranny behind it, as it looks horrible.

Seeing as the rotary is a series of oil leaks stacked one ahead of the other, plus all the road grime it sees, I'm sure a tranny is hard to degrease enough that it'll hold paint. I've gotten all the big globs of grime off the tranny, I've taken it to a do-it-yourself high-pressure car wash place, but I've still got more to go. Is it possible to clean these things enough that they'll take paint? Any tips? Am I better off separating it into 4-5 parts, or paint as a lump?

 

Anything can be cleaned to shiny new, it just takes time, patience, and the right degreaser. Soak it down and let it sit for a day or two, to let the degreaser really work, rinse it off, scrub it with a wire brush, and do it again until your satisfied. If you want to get detailed, then take it apart, but really, whats the point unless this is a show car. Personally I would just paint it all in one piece, or maybe use some truck bed liner. That will definitly hold up better than paint. Just my $0.02. Good luck.

 

I've entertained the idea of steam-cleaning it, the same way that used car dealers get that engine bay all shiney and leak-evidence-free. Any idea where I might do that? Maybe the local Mazda dealer can help me, if I can find a fellow rotor-head.

 

You could always rent a steam cleaner. I'm sure it wouldn't be overly expensive for the day. You'd have to find out where to get one though, I have no clue.

 

You could easily try superpages.com to find a business that rents them out.

 

Get yourself a medium brass or SS rotary brush for your drill and go at it. I managed to polish my tranny with this and then clear coated it. Looks nice.
RXDad

 

I just spent 3 hours cleaning up my new TII trans.
First hit it with the P-washer at work,then went to manual wiping with carb cleaner and rags.Used a small screwdriver to scrape the nooks and crannies,then used a full can of carb cleaner to rinse the whole thing down.The bellhousing inside was the worst.......took a while,but it looks like a brandnew unit,right off the showroom floor.'Course now my buddies think I'm tweekin'!!;-)

 

Comeing from someone who works in the recon department of a ford dealrship. Castrol degreasser is the best **** known to man. I would give it a healthy dose of that power wash rinse repat. At my delarship we dont steam clean motors. Spray them down and pw them yes but not steam lol.

 

yetter - When you use the powerwasher, do you use the heavy duty or medium duty spray nozzle?

 

also letting the degreaser soak for a bit usually helps as well. Kind of random but ive found that brake clean works super good for those smaller really stubborn bits. That being said i dont recommend getting it on an form of cable/hose/wires/skin. But it has worked well for me thus far

 

I sparayed mine down with degreaser, powerwashed it, then taped it off and sandblasted. Shot it with epoxy and installed it.

 

its a medium nozzle wont take paint off a car. I detail cars and engines all day long for a living.

 

I just hit mine with purple degreaser and brake cleaner until it looked shiny new. Took a few hours but was worth it.

 

Degreaser all the way Crit, helped by a large screwdriver to get in the cracks and a good set of brushes. You will probably have to do two or three pplications. Follow the degreasing with a hot detergent wash and rinse, power washer is nice but a garden hose will do (except in Atlanta). Finally give it a good alcohol rub before the paint.

Now would you please stop painting that thing and get it on the road?

 

Nope. Not 'til it's perfect. I only want to take it apart once

I've got carpet, wiring, interior, etc all in the garage. The only things I lack are redoing the chrome and stainless, find a good windshield, and several, several cubic hours of work.

 

What chrome and stainless ? Oh yeah its an older rx I forgot. DUH!

 

"Nope. Not 'til it's perfect. I only want to take it apart once"

Well OK then but we're going to have to see some pics to make sure you are not making this up. When you get that tranny painted (what color is correct for an RX-3 tranny, anyway?) post them up!

Ray

 

RX-2, and the correct color is clearcoat . The porous aluminum collects tons of crap, and it's right behind the painted engine, so it just looks horrible. I was thinking of painting silver, but I'll probably just clean it very well and clear it to fill the pores of that cast aluminum of the bellhousing. And I don't have a camera -santa- so updates are hard to come by.

 

RX-2, excuse me. I need pictures to get this thing imprinted in my brain.

Can you get a heat resistant clear coat? That would look nice and make it easy to clean up so that it always has that "new car" look. When you do get it running you can be sure I'll be poking my head under there to see how it looks, so don't miss any spots.

Do you have a cell phone? A lot of cell phones have cameras. Get us some pictures of that chrome and stainless while you are at it.