I have strated on the chassis and this thing is in rough shape. I never realized how bad the aluminum was from associated. I guess I was expecting a somewhat smooth chassis, but this thing is full of pits. I snapped some photos of the side of the tub where you can see exactly what I am talking about.
I am just about done with the motorplate and took a picture to show the end result. The motor plate will be machined in a couple spots to loose some material. If everything goes as planned, I hope to be ready for anodizing this weekend. It is quite a bit of work to get the aluminum as smooth as the motor plate, but it looks sooooooo much better than the moon surface I started with. I was dreaming thinking 400 grit would get the aluminum smooth. I am having to start with 100 grit and make several passes before moving up to 400 grit.
AE chassies never went out from the factory like that, I bet it's more the chemical substance the previous owner used to try and remove the ano from the tub that attacked the aluminum surface and made it look like a teenager face skin.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Come and visit the stable
That is probably pitting from oven cleaner which is typically used to strip anodizing. It works fast and you've got to time it right to keep that from happening. Another thing that will pit it like that is trying to use a wire wheel on it.
I agree with RedScampi, judging from the way the material is "pulled" around the one hole, and around the edge of the tub I would deifnitely say wire wheel. I have a chassis that looked like it was a nice straight chassis, before someone did that to it....
I hear you on the 100 grit. I have a 4 inch DA sander that makes really quick work on the chassis but I have to change sanding pads quite often. I got one of the sides done last night and man what a difference. I need to pick up some more 400 grit to get all the swirl marks out of the aluminum. I am going out tomorrow to find another DA sander that will take 2 inch pads so I can get inside the tub. That is going to be the most difficult part about this build. You guys should be surprised with the outcome after seeing the shape this thing was in.
I got most of the chassis done now, and man was this thing a pain in the butt. It is not perfect but ten times better than it was. I may end up needing to bead blast the inside of the tub. I cannot get to a few samll areas. I did the machine work on the motor plate and the nose plate. I am probably going to break down and buy another nose plate for the car. I really hate that someone drilled a hole in the top center of the AE logo. The nose plate did not turn out like I wanted it to. I had to round the corners because there were extra holes drilled in the corners. Enjoy the pics, I hope to get the parts prepped for the anodizing process early this week and get going on other parts of the car.
Anodized the aluminum today and the efforts ended in utter failure
I got good coverage on the motor plate, but the nose plate and chassis has a really crazy looking finish to it. The bottom of the chassis looks like the sky on a clear evening where you can see all the stars. I will post some pics later. I am going to have to take another stab at it later. The green is really ugly anway so back to the drawing board on this one.
dunno what you are using for a power supply, but you might need more juice for the large area of the chassis/nose in order to get a solid anodized layer.
Typically, the more surface area you are trying to anodize, the more amperage you need. Small parts like shock caps and bushings are easy, large parts like a chassis... not so easy. Google some "home anodizing" setups, and you should be able to find equations for amperage vs. square inches (dont' forget to use both sides of the aluminum chassis when calcualting surface area ). -Jeff
I think I am getting pretty good juice flowing. I am using a charger caple of up to 250 amps. The lowest setting I can run is 50 amps and it really gets the acid flowing. It was pretty chilly today and the I had to start adding ice to the acid to cool it during the process so I didn't burn the aluminum.
I had four leads going into the chassis for the reason you stated, large area to cover. The sides of the chassis took the color very good, just the inside of the tub and the bottom of the tub came out wierd looking.
). -Jeff