For people who painted their Block

[dsmputz]

Hey guys, my shortblock is back from the machine shop fully assembled and I was going to paint it today. I was very dissapointed to find rust on it after the hot tanking process. Most of you know that the porous surface of our cast blocks make them rust very easily. If you take a look at my avater it's what the block looked like before it went to the shop. Anyway my question is directed at people who painted their block. Did you guys paint over some mild rust?, and if you did how did it turn out?
thanks

Robby A

 

[andymoraitis]

A great solution is to pick up some spray rust converter. This is made by Mar-Hyde or Tal-Strip and you can find it at most home improvement stores. After that, you can hit it with some VHT or whatever finish you like. The rust converter will actually seal off further rust production and turn any remaining rust to black primer. I'd recommend that you run a wire brush over any rusty areas just to knock and loose crap off and promote better paint adhesion.

Hope that helps,

Andy

 

[Auto RS T]

I have also had good experience with the rust converting paint. Just not on the block. I wire wheeled the block with a grinder and brushed the block, for the tight areas I used a smaller wire brush deal on a drill, it worked majic.

It got rid of most of the rust. I used many layers of high heat primer to try and smooth the surface. Then painted, it looked great. Too bad you can only see a small portion of it once its installed.

Good luck

 

[blackGSX2g]

I painted my block in the exact condition you are describing it. I picked it up from the machine shop, set it on a bucket (after taping it off), and sprayed it with a flat black ceramic engine enamel right over the surface rust. That was about 2 years ago and its still the same color with no flaking.

 

[Black 95 TSI]

have you thought about power coating the block it looks good when done nice and smooth

 

[dsmputz]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I just painted it with some VHT aluminum color, turned out awsome. Powder coating is not a good idea for anything seeing turbo style heat.