Black box

I'm working on the back end of our Evo1, the suspension and diff have been removed for attention, you can see this on Youtube here.

The rear differential support cradle is a pressed steel box, with several holes and seams,

this unit is exposed to all the worst conditions when our Deltas are in use.

This box knows how to rust! I refurbished ours.

First job was to strip the box down, that's a story on its own, then the box was taken to the sand blasters, which isn't far

away from our workshop.

Paul at the blasters offered to

powder coat our box.

Click on logo above to see

Tecnogrip data sheet

You may know I don't have a high opinion of powder coating, its hard finish cracks and chips allowing water in, where the damp attacks the metal hiding behind the stiff powder coated covering. This can't be noticed until the corrosion has often gone too far to repair.

So I declined Paul's offer. I was looking at the Rustbuster website to find out about epoxy finishes. The Rustbuster 2 part coating is tough and flexible, and has a chemical etching component giving a physical bond to the component.

There's a lot of choice on rust.co.uk, and a lot of expense too, I thought I could do as well in our local body shop supplier. So after collecting the blasted off box I gave it a de-nib with a 120 disc, then I gave it a coat with my usual etch primer rattle can spray, this will give

a good base for any further coating.

Diff carrier back from the blasters

and spray etch primed

Mixing the paint on the bench. Its coverage is good,

even when thinned for spraying.

At Colourtone, our local body shop supplier, they have a range of professional products.

They stock a single pack Lechler product called Tecnogrip that sounded just up my street!

This is a semi matt primer and top coat based on

vinyl polymers, with a zinc phosphate anti

corrosive pigment.

It's made for industrial single coat use where adhesion

to metal is required. Bingo!

I bought a litre tin, Colourtone mix this to your colour requirement, so it's fresh and ready to use. The paint is thick enough to brush on, and can be thinned with a good quality cellulose thinner for spraying, I bought a litre of thinners too. This came to £40 odd.

The guys told me cheaper thinners have a higher

water content, this interferes with the curing.

The complex diff box fabrication has hidden inside sections and seams.

I had decided to spray paint it, using my spray gun to fill the inside areas with paint,

allowing the paint to run down the hidden cavities and seams. Then I painted the outside,

giving everything two good coats wet on wet, then I left it alone to dry to its satin finish.

If you want it to have a gloss finish clear lacquer can be applied.

I'm happy with the result, Barry has filled his recently refurbished diff cage with Waxoyl,

which I think this is a good idea.

Our Deltas aren't taken out in much bad weather any more, so these refurbished

diff supports will last a long time.

I quite flooded the inside with paint,

letting it run into the corners,

I then turned the box over and did it again.

Talking of black boxes.........

Black Box were Italian, they were leading exponents of a wave of Italian house music that flourished on the dance floors of the late 80s and early 90s, Black Box comprised three Italian

studio musicians Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoniand

and Valerio Semplici.

I'll bet they all bought Evos with the cash from this hit,

enjoy it again!

This is the finished article, the paint build up is good and it fills the rough

sand blasted finish quite well. It could be sanded down and done again

if you wanted perfection.