I'm pretty close to actually being able to ditch my beehive oil cooler and put in the 79 style air oil cooler. Anyway, the hard water line (passenger side of engine bay) has got a bit of surface rust on it and is just generally dirty looking. Anyway, can I just wire wheel it and spray it with some rustolium or something? Or will it get too hot for that? If that won't work what will? TIA

 

Actually im workin on a 83 12A right now porting it out,I was going to paint this line same as the main plate paint BUT I want to check to see how much it will cost me to make a SS one.

 

heh, i replaced it with hose.... remember my issues with the beehive cooler in an air cooler car?

 

Go right ahead. I used some high-heat engine paint that I had lying around when I painted mine, worked great. Its not going to get hot enough to damage most paints, but barbebcue grill paint or engine paint will be impervious to the heat.....

 

Woah man. I was just looking under my hood cause Im doing the same swap, and I was looking at that hose thinking it could look a lot better. I thought about painting it too. I think Im going to when I have it all drained and torn apart.

~T.J.

 

Cool. Guess I'll go find some engine paint. Thanks guys

 

Hey Sean, if it's rusty I'd treat it with phosphoric acid after wire-wheeling it to convert the rust from iron oxide to iron phosphate, which is stable. Then your paint will last. By the way, your motor will be toast long before that line gets hot enough to require high-heat paint!

 

Cool, thats what I figured, most paints can handle several hundred degrees and I doubt that line ever gets more than 210 (at least it better not) So I should wire wheel it and dip it in some acid and paint and I'll be good to go. Where can I get phosphoric acid? Lowes? thanks guys

 

You want to use one of the phosphoric acid solutions from the automotive paint store. A couple of brands are Rust-mort, and Os-pho. I thin them a little with water, maybe 4-5 parts acid to one part water, just because it makes it flow a little better. Then apply the solution with a bristle paintbrush and let it dry. The surface of the metal will change to a mottled black color. When it has totally dried, wipe it down with acetone and you're ready for primer. The stuff is great, it even works on battery trays. I suppose I should say to keep it off your skin, but the fact is I've gotten it all over my hands and washed it off within a few minutes with no ill effects.

 

Cool, definatly gonna have to pick some up, still got at least a week before my oil lines come so I got time to mess with stuff like this.