Cleaning/painting TBs.

[jmc330i]

Ive got my S50 TBs off at the moment to clean them up. As you can see they look




They are cast ally and its a bit corroded, so whats the best way or whats the best stuff to clean them up?

I dont know if I can get them back to their former glory, so was thinking of cleaning as best I can and painting them instead - hence the poll.

I think painting them black would be to much as the plenum and rocker cover are also black. Silver would look like it should and Red cause the cars Red.

Any other suggestions??

[320Touring]

paint them black mate, then polish all the pipe outlets/inlets

will look amazing

[E30Adam]

Wire wool and elbow grease will see them looking fine and spangly again just like the day they left the factory!!

[johnono]

sand blast them bastads!!

and then chrome em!!


nah serious, sand blast and clear lacquer, look the nuts and wash clean too!

[Jos]

The alloy on those is a bugger to paint, very 'oily' metal, serious etch primer needed. the problem with leaving them bare is they will just corrode again quite quickly. Chrome them or laquer them, either would look cool!

[jmc330i]

Thanks Guys.

Im hoping they will clean up and look like new, then I will laquer them to stop them corroding again. I should of put laquering as an option on the poll

Painting them is the option if they dont clean up nicely.

Looks like Im breaking out the wire wool this weekend

[Jamesb318is]

If nothing else on the lump is red then RED!
A nice flash of colour and something a bit different

[jmc330i]

I must admit, the Red option is high up there, along with laquering ally.

I quite like the look of Red and Black like this...

[Sjoerd320i]

black mate black

[Project_E30]

If you lacquer shot blasted aluminium then it looks like cheap grey plastic. Black is best with the insides polished! Stays clean looking

[jmc330i]

The problem with black is that the rest of the engine is black. The Rocker cover, plenum and intake runners. The TBs wont stand out if they are black as well.

I reckon Red or the original Ally like this will break it up a bit...


I cant decide now.
I think I will clean them up over the weekend and see how they look. I definitely dont want them looking like grey plastic

[Andy335Touring]

I'd paint them a dullish silver so they would look the same as when they were new.

I don't envy you having to strip them down though,they look PITA,thats why i just cleaned mine with carb/brake cleaner.

Not pretty but functional

[Sjoerd320i]

ok mate that's true, then I'd paint them silver

[jmc330i]

I don't envy you having to strip them down though,they look PITA,thats why i just cleaned mine with carb/brake cleaner.

You should try taking the bloody things off
2 of the 9 bolts holding them on were impossible to get to without taking everything else off as well

Just hope I can remember how to put them back on

[Andy335Touring]

Before i took any thing off mine i zapped loads of photos of the TBs in the highest res' my cam' would do, touch wood i should be ok ?

[Demlotcrew]

You need special tools to sync the TBS up again if you have taken them appart fully.

Did you buy those red rubber caps?

A

[Andy335Touring]

I've got a carb/TB balancer, i could only find one in the States so i had to order it but it wasn't expensive, i think it was 35 quid apx including P+P and no import tax for some reason ?



Apart from measuring the air flow for balance there is some other stuff to do like making sure all the throttles open the same amount as each other at full and closed throttle positions ETC.

This link for the full TB set up procedure for S38 and S14 but i am guessing the S50 and S52 will be similar ?

http://home.insightbb.com/~todd.kenyon/throttle.htm

They came with 5 red caps but when i ordered some replacments they were black, i couldn't find the part number for the red ones.

[Demlotcrew]

^ Very good info there mate!

A