Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Painting

OK I am ready to start painting the light manifold and other interior things on my pump. A lot of the parts are cast iron and have rust. How do I prep. these and paint them? Also I would like to take apart and clean the sight glass things(where you see the gas swirl)How do I take these apart?

with a wrench, clean and put back, wire brush as much of the rust off as you can , prim and paint.

Use a lot of lube (WD40) or something better if you have it to get the bolts out. You want to try to get those bolts out in one piece, they are a real pain when they break on you. ~Jason

When you get the site glasses out clean them with DWAINE'S REAL LEMON juice.Did a pair today and works like a charm.
---JERRY

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Hi, Just take your time. Some of the answers are quite short. With 11 posts it is probably your first pump. The site glasses clean very very well with hot soapy water. If you can, have the pieces related to the upper manifold glass blasted. If not, wire brush and clean as best you can. Most of these parts are not really seen. Shake and shoot paint is perfectly fine. Its your pump paint it to suit YOU. After you get the site glasses off clean the spinners gently with nothing too harsh because sometimes the spinners are made of a fragile material. Most all parts are repopped, but try to save the gennie (original) parts. Good luck

Best of luck, it's all pretty simple, but use caution. Most of the gaskets used in the internal plumbing contain lots of asbestos. You don't wanna breath that stuff, so be careful and use appropriate protection when scraping or grinding.

Vern

Thanks for all the help. I didn't know if the glass thing was threaded or what. It is very tight.

If the sight glass is comming off hard, use a thin knife or blade and cut through the gasket, then just clean off the gasket. Probably asbestos in there but watch out for other stuff like lead, if you are blowing things off with an airhose, do it outside and dont breathes the stuff. Wash your hands off real good after you touch the stuff, gloves and masks will help........dodogas

Thanks alot for the info. I was thinking of getting a small sand blaster for some of the parts, do you think that would work ok?

To remove the outer ring from the glass you have to use a wrench, yes the bolts are very tight,most penatrating oil will do nothing but make the wrench slip. I have broken these bolts off but thats ok , when you put the ring back on an close the doors you can't see it anyway, theres no step by step way to do it, put the wrench on it and hit it with a big hammer. if that don't work try tightening it then back it off, or use a breaker bar with a cheeter pipe, as far as the rust, git it off as best you can then prime it, cleaning the glass, use comet or ajax, water an a green scratch pad. if you get stuck and have more questions email me .I'll help as best as I can. good luck.

Get the sand blaster they are life/time savers! Makes old stuff look new again. I have a cheapy $99 one and its wonderful. If you can get one with a light already in it do so, and get one with a glass window that has plastic sheets that you replace that protect the window. A plastic window will scratch easly and is hard to see through. Just my two cents worth.

For cleaning the site glass I have had good results in soaking it overnight in a 50/50 mixture of water and bleach. For cleaning rusty bolts,nuts and washers, I put them in a plastic container and cover them with Real Lemon juice, let them soak for a few days and all of the rust comes off. It works on larger parts also if you have a big enough container to put them in and a lot of lemon juice. (lol)Takes about a gallon for a manifold. Have alos put the lemon juice in a spray bottle and sprayed frozen bolts over a few day period and has worked sometimes. Barry