Thread: Major upgrade! - Better Engineering parts washing cabinet rehab.

oh- that finish on there looks like factory finish ive seen on industrial equipment. good job matchin it!

Cabinet looks nice, B.

Originally Posted by ItHurtz

Uh research the $50 rustoleum paint job on a 69 charger......................

I mean, for a derby car or just to mess around the Rustoleum would be good. For a car I actually cared about I'd spend a couple dollars more for something like that duplicolor single stage.

Did you do 1 heavy coat or a few light?

I did a tack coat then one heavyish coat.

Try a LVLP gun, and thinner

You saying my $27 Amazon gun isn't any good? LOL

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

looks damn good to me. i just looked before i read, i thought it was hammer finish lol

Thanks! I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Originally Posted by tomsteve

it does make spraying better.spray bombs are thinned down quite a bit to get em to spray at them low PSIs which leads to lower mil thickness. switch to quarts and spray gun and ya get higher mil thickness per coat and better coverage. might have to thin a bit (depending on paint) to get rid of the OP but that could be caused by the gun,too. i started with a devilbiss startingline gun and was never able to get rid of OP. the gun doesnt atomize good enough. bought a finishline gun and had improvement. bought a copper tekna for base and clear and DAM!!!

ya might be able to find deals on mismatched colors from your local jobber,too. i get half off on all mismatched base and single stage.

I don't think I have ever used a rattle can without getting runs. Makes sense if like you say, they thin it down a bunch. I really like the high build I got with the HVLP gun. Just feels more industrial. I did thin it like 8:1 with mineral spirits. I didn't want to go any thinner due to my history of making runs. The one sag I did get tells me I probably had the mixture just right for the guy who was spraying. I may step into a better gun in the future. I'm having fun and learning a lot with the one I have for now.

Originally Posted by tomsteve

oh- that finish on there looks like factory finish ive seen on industrial equipment. good job matchin it!

Thanks! That's 100% what I'm going for. An "industrial" finish. I know I'm going to cringe the first time I smash a trans case into the side of the thing.

Originally Posted by idrivejunk

Cabinet looks nice, B.

Thanks! I was hoping you'd chime in.


Working on getting the door latch to line up. I originally ordered 3/8" spacers. After putting the door on it looks like I'll be needing 1/4"

Well, that's where she's gonna sit. Waiting *not so* patiently for the electrical...

very cool project and nice outcome to it!

Brand new water temperature sensor installed:



And the motors are back. Here's what $900 worth of rebuilt motors looks like.



Electrician should be back tomorrow morning to do his part. Very possibly could be washing trans parts by the afternoon.

Previous total: $574


Pile of random crap: $100
Invoice from electrician: $1831




Current total: $2505

Holy **** did that price add up fast.

You're telling me. Still cheaper than new, but ouch.

I'm sure it will all be worth it once I start using it.... Eventually.

Do you run a transmission business or a painting business? Comments in the thread got me all confused. Lol. Looks great man! I was thrilled when I bought my first gallon bucket of parts cleaner. You know the thing with the little tray that drops in? Yeah man, that was a big step up for me!

Originally Posted by bandook

Do you run a transmission business or a painting business? Comments in the thread got me all confused. Lol. Looks great man! I was thrilled when I bought my first gallon bucket of parts cleaner. You know the thing with the little tray that drops in? Yeah man, that was a big step up for me!

does he ever rebuild trannys. i bought his last HD tranny for a 3800 he built. sad i had to sell the car with it. if i had something to put it in id had kept it lol

Originally Posted by bandook

Do you run a transmission business or a painting business? Comments in the thread got me all confused. Lol.

I guess by definition I run a transmission business. I have an LLC and rebuild 4L60e's exclusively out of my garage. That's not my full time job however. My regular job is only tangentially related to the auto industry and the only tool I need for it is a mouse. Everything else you see me do is just for fun, experience, and to save some money.

Looks great man! I was thrilled when I bought my first gallon bucket of parts cleaner. You know the thing with the little tray that drops in? Yeah man, that was a big step up for me!

Thanks! Hey, it's all about progression. I remember when I got my first pressure washer. 1500 PSI. After cleaning cases by hand with a garden hose, that was a big step up. Then I got the 2030 PSI unit. Another step up. Now I have this cabinet. That should do for a little while.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

does he ever rebuild trannys. i bought his last HD tranny for a 3800 he built. sad i had to sell the car with it. if i had something to put it in id had kept it lol

Thanks Scott! I have a tendency to dive into a new area of interest, learn as much as I can, monetize it, then move on. I cut my teeth on the 4T65e and enjoy building them. Unfortunately there just doesn't seem to be a market to support that side hustle. The 4L60e on the other hand... Those seem to be everywhere. Also, considering the popularity of the LS swap, there's potential to be building them for the next 40 years. Shoot, the 700r4 was introduced in '82 and guys are still rebuilding those.

That washer looks great buddy. The paint shouldn't be perfectly mirror finish either. It's an industrial washing cabinet. The true test is.. how well it works. My Dad sold Zep stuff for a bunch of years ad I've got to say they make some great stuff overfall.

It's alive! It's pretty loud, and it drips from one of the seals but I love it! Only played with it long enough to mix in the detergent, but all systems were a "go'"





Just in time too. The temp is really starting to ramp up outside and my next build is a disaster.



Even if it takes 2 hours in the machine to clean up, that's 2 hours I'm not out in the backyard in direct sunlight pressure washing that turd. We'll call this the "before" and I will post pictures of the after once it's been run through.

thats awesome. cant wait to see the after shot.

It's been 12 hours, that's like 10 hours longer than you said it would take.

BTW, that looks like what most of the ones we see around here look like.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

thats awesome. cant wait to see the after shot.

You and me both buddy!

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

It's been 12 hours, that's like 10 hours longer than you said it would take.

Hey now, I already have one on the fixture. Waiting on parts for it to go back together. One at a time. That's how I roll.

BTW, that looks like what most of the ones we see around here look like.

Ug. Sometimes I get lucky and the cores are halfway clean. Most of the time they are just "gross." This is probably the worst I have seen. Greasy is better than covered in mud though. Superclean will cut the grease, but you have to chisel that Arizona mud.

Before:


After:


So after running this thing for the better part of the day I have some more insight. Is it the be all, end all for cleaning every single piece of a transmission? No... Is it the cat a** for cleaning caked on crud from the large parts? Yes!

For all the small little internal trinkets I'll probably still use the ultrasonic cleaner. It just does a better job cutting the clutch paste off the ferrous metal parts. Plus, in the cabinet they just seem to get blasted all over the place. Where this thing really shines is on the larger parts. It had the case about 90% clean after just 10 minutes. 1/2 hour and it was spotless. Same with the bellhousing and tailshaft housing. Bottom line, anything that I was doing in the ultrasonic before will still get done in the ultrasonic. Anything that I was pressure washing by hand will now get done in the cabinet. My farmers tan will suffer greatly.

I have a 22L ultra sonic cleaner, it's pretty slick for cleaning parts and entire carbs on small engines.

Looks like it did a great job. Now you guys have me looking up ultrasonic cleaners lol