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Cleaning a rotor, need some quick advice.

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Old 06-25-04, 06:47 PM
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Cleaning a rotor, need some quick advice.

I got this bad *** rotor and blown housing from a nice dude here on the forums and am cleaning them out to stick on my computer desk here.

I already used a ton of degreaser and some stainless steel brushes to get everything but the stuff I can't get too off, and now I have them both soaking in a tub full of I'd say about 5 cups of bleach and a couple of chugs of laundry detergeant. Will the bleach damage them at all? I'm planning on sanding them down a bit and polishing them up anyways, but just wanted to make sure I'm not in for any surprises.

Old 06-25-04, 06:50 PM
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Sandblast it! Then polish..
Old 06-25-04, 06:51 PM
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Originally posted by brainndropp
Sandblast it! Then polish..
Drats, don't have the equipment. Where's a good place to take it for something like that, and how much would they charge?
Old 06-25-04, 06:55 PM
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tried soaking it in simple green? there's industrial cleaners out there that are tough, too. i dont know any names, though. sorry.
Old 06-25-04, 07:02 PM
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you should be fine. Get a piece of small metal (side seal, apex seal) or something along those lines and scrape out all the crap you can't get to with a brush.

Last edited by My88Se; 06-25-04 at 07:10 PM.
Old 06-25-04, 07:53 PM
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urizen if you have a cheap air compressor you can go to your local home depot and they sell a hand held sandblasting box and gun for like $60 i think its worth it to have for little parts i used it thing is it does make a mess but hey thats what you have the outside for =P
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Old 06-25-04, 08:20 PM
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use chem dip.
trust me. it works great.
Old 06-25-04, 08:45 PM
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after you get it cleaned and all, could i get a picture of it? perfectly vertical looking down on the rotor laying flat, preferably with a single color "background" that contrasts well (ie bright white/blue/pink/etc). if you could, i'd appreciate it. the best quality and as close (without blurring) and as big of a picture as possible.
danke.
Old 06-25-04, 10:07 PM
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Originally posted by razorback
use chem dip.
trust me. it works great.
Is that a product that's available at your local Hoem Dept?

I just took the rotor and housing out of their bath and sprayed them down just to see how clean they were getting, and they've cleaned up really nice so far, I'm pretty impressed.

I'm leaving them in overnight and I'll take some pictures in the afternoon tomarrow. I think I'm just going to go with the hand sanding route since there are some edges on the poor rotor that need attention. It looks like an apex seal blew, then got wedged between the rotor and a side housing.

I'll take some good vert shots as well, as soon as she's all cleaned up.
Old 06-25-04, 10:18 PM
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I would try to avoid getting water in the rotor bearing... it looks like you have that thing in a wet bucket.
Old 06-25-04, 10:25 PM
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Originally posted by nonameo
I would try to avoid getting water in the rotor bearing... it looks like you have that thing in a wet bucket.
I'm not using this in an engine ever again, it's for a project, so I don't think it'll matter much. I will be drying it off with a nice heat gun later.
Old 06-25-04, 10:27 PM
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chem dip is available at autozone for 15$ a gallong. really good stuff.
Old 06-25-04, 10:56 PM
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sulfiric acid
Old 06-26-04, 06:47 PM
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Ok, took it out of the bath this afternoon and rinsed it off. They both looked pretty decent afterwards, but corroded very quickly. I grabbed some good laquer so when I polish the rotor it'll look good.

Will that chem dip remove the corrosion and leave it pretty clean looking over what I have now? My goal now is to put them on my computer desk for show.

Old 06-27-04, 09:33 PM
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dude,
if you're not planning to use it in a motor, then just put some elbow-grease in it and polish it. then clearcoat it.
Old 07-02-04, 01:32 PM
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Chem dip works for degreasing. The sandblasting will pit the metal; you'd need to use a plastic media or walnut shells to avoid pitting. For your purposes, an acid dip would be best and cheapest. Metal prep or similar acid solutions are available premixed at auto body supply stores. Some will leave a coating which will need to be polished off prior to clear coating.
Old 07-02-04, 02:24 PM
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Oven cleaner is by fair the best cleaner I've found.

Spray it on your car and you can watch it eat the paint....

Works wonders on grease.
Old 07-05-04, 12:50 PM
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ATF LOL
smiles

yeah
go the steel-wool / fine wire brush
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