Stripping paint from aluminium intake manifold

[Supersnake 27]

G'day guys, just bought a second hand Edelbrock air gap manifold. It's been painted black with engine enamel but I'd really rather the raw aluminium finish. Would paint stripper be ok on the aluminium? Or should I get it bead blasted?

 

Cheers for your help,

 

Matt

[Gandalf 144]

It will cost more to bead blast it, you will end up with a better finish though. I stripped one once and semi polished it. Came up alright but took a while.

[gerg 10,871]

If you have some time to do it, brake fluid takes paint off pretty well, and doesn't corrode the alloy like paint stripper will.

 

Also, glycol will do it gradually too. My Clevo has a leak out of the thermostat gasket and the engine enamel has peeled back to bare iron in the places that the coolant has touched.

[blackxt 699]

I have a cheep Chinese sand blast cabinet I do every thing alloy with it . Then satin clear if I can be bothered . Its the best for motorbike swing arms and so on. Paint striper and a pressure cleaner would work but be very messy<br /><br />Sent from my XT925 using Tapatalk 2<br /><br />

[slydog 7,873]

Drop it off at the sandblasters and pick it up a day later clean as new for $20.

[blu xe 825]

Yep screw stuffing around with paint stripper for ages straight to a blasters with that one. Will look brand new again no mess no fuss.

[hendrixhc 10,921]

I sandblasted mine at home and it came up ok. Little patchey so i sprayed it with aluminium engine enamel and it came up great.

[mcfly94 169]

bead blasting cost like $30 for a manifold, id just do that

[Supersnake 27]

Off to the blasters it is, I'll post some before and afters.