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

As some of you may know, I have a nice little side hustle rebuilding 4L60e's. This "hustle" started with me rebuilding on a bucket and a flexplate with just the bare minimum of specialty tools. I barely knew what I was doing. It has slowly grown to a registered LLC with all the dedicated specialty tools, a couple tried and true recipes for different level builds, and a solid reputation. I have a good system for knocking out a build in as little as a week while still working my other job. The biggest time suck being cleaning. I would bet 50% of my build time is spent just cleaning. That gets old fast, but there is a solution. After doing a bunch of research, I had a nice american made automatic parts washing cabinet picked out. I just wanted to wait till I had the $4k in cash saved up before I pulled the trigger. Time progressed, everything was lined up and I was about a week away from placing my order. Then it happened. Corona. Everything shut down. I decided it would be wise to just sit on that cash to see how things played out.


Life and business went on as usual for the next few weeks. Then one day while I was out dropping off torque converter cores, I saw it sitting around back and unloved. My diamond in the rough. A better Engineering automatic parts washing cabinet.





I knew I had to have it. The owner wasn't there that day, so I had one of the guys check with his boss and get back to me. Later that day I get the text "200 and its yours" I could not get back there with the cash fast enough. I paid the full asking price. Called a local towing company to set up transport. Today was the day I took delivery.





To say it's in rough shape would be an understatement. Rode hard and put away wet. The crust on the inside measures time like the rings of a tree.











Bucket for scale:






But it has good bones. All the parts are there. I have a call into an electrician to look it all over. Let's assume it needs a full rewire and both motors rebuilt. I should still be into this thing for less than half of what I was going to spend on a new one. The electrical, a full cleaning and a coat of paint should get this thing right where I want it. I'm thinking battleship grey, but open to suggestions. I just don't want it to stand out. I also need a name. I'm not one for naming vehicles, but machines are fair game. I have one in mind. Probably offensive to liberal progressives, but my machine, my name. Unless someone comes up with something better, I shall call her Hillary. No personality, loud, and good at cleaning things. Also open to name suggestions, but you have to give reasons, and they need to be "safe for work."




I'll keep a running total of the money spent on this thing as the "build" progresses.




Purchase price: $200
Transport: $100


Total: $300

Hahaha.. who knew you'd go this crazy

Originally Posted by dezldave961

Nice find, good luck with the rebuild.

My dad's been doing it the traditional way forever, but definitely has his stand/pan/pump in the basement for keeping it efficient. I'm betting the big shop near him has a bunch of those spendy units you were looking at, but they're a big operation/

Thanks! Well, I'm certainly not a big operation but I am pretty meticulous about cleaning things. Does your dad build as a side business also?

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

Hahaha.. who knew you'd go this crazy

I did Bill. I knew I would go this crazy.

Ya know..I bought a pry bar that should retail for over $120 alone. A pry bar............. for over a hundo by itself. Gotta say though, that pry bar is great in the right situations. A cleaning cabinet would be great. I wish I had even a parts washer.

Originally Posted by dezldave961

It definitely adds comfort when he's got the experience of paying attention to the updates coming out while doing various regular rebuilds. I'm sure you're seeing similar benefits. It surprised me when he said they finally had good upgrades for 4L60's to finally rely on for moderate performance setups. Might become an option for a RWD 3800 build later.

Yeah. Trans-Go has come out with some new goodies recently. Sonnax has some pretty good pieces for higher HP builds. I still wouldn't put one of these trannys behind anything making any serious power or in anything very heavy. At the end of the day, it's just a glorified 700R-4. It does add a certain level of comfort when you have a builder you can trust or even do it yourself.

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

Ya know..I bought a pry bar that should retail for over $120 alone. A pry bar............. for over a hundo by itself. Gotta say though, that pry bar is great in the right situations. A cleaning cabinet would be great. I wish I had even a parts washer.

Some tools you have to pay a premium for, but are worth every penny. So far my most expensive purchases have been a HF lift cart and an Eastwood disassembly table (with drain). Neither one of them were crazy expensive, but much more than the random socket or seal driver.

The last couple days have been spent disassembling and cleaning. I have never been a coal miner, but now I can relate. This thing is filthy. I have an electrician coming this afternoon to look at the wiring and I've already ordered some parts. The spray nozzles are mounted using some sort of saddle tap. I'm not a fan. The rubber seals are all hard and flakey. Plus the screws used to hold them on come in from the back side. It's like some brain teaser puzzle trying to get this thing apart. I ordered new nozzles and will be tapping them directly into the iron pipe, I also got a new set of casters. One of them was MIA, and I really need this thing to be movable. Both pillow blocks for the basket were seized solid. Got a 4 pack. 2 will be spares. Back to work...

Previous total: $300

Pillow blocks: $19
Nozzles: $74
Casters: $26

Current total: $419

**** dude congrats on the LLC! We got to get you into turbos so you can open up "Brandons Snail Toys LLC"

Thanks! Honestly though, it's not that big of a deal. Any goon with a physical address and like $100 can register a LLC. Well worth the time and effort if you do any kind of side work. Protects your personal assets and many tax benefits.


Machine has been fully disassembled. Motors are off for rebuild, I built a wheeled stand, and the exterior has been prepped for paint.



Weather permitting, I'll be shooting primer tomorrow.



Previous total: $419

Pile of random crap: $155


Current total: $574

I was Inc, just switched to sole proprietor, got tired of paying big bucks to a accountant, taxes etc.



That things going to look sweet painted up. What kind of top coat? A moisture cured urethane are balls tough, kbs coating has a nice color selection.

Originally Posted by ItHurtz

That things going to look sweet painted up. What kind of top coat? A moisture cured urethane are balls tough, kbs coating has a nice color selection.

Either Ace or Rustoleum brand alkyd enamel with a dash of hardener. Whoever has the shade of gray I like best.

Primer is on. I think it came out pretty nice. I'll let that harden up over the next week while I work on other parts of the machine. Everything went pretty well, but I did learn a couple things. Just when you think you have stirred enough, stir some more. Also, the little funnels with the screens in them... Mandatory. I bought a couple but forgot to use one on the first batch. The reservoir filter clogged after a few minutes of spraying. Dumpet it out, ran it through the funnel filter and no more problems.

bet you could sell it back to the place you got it for full price when done lol

Uh o your driveway has a owie, someone spilled!

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

bet you could sell it back to the place you got it for full price when done lol

No way. I have way to much sweat equity in this thing now.

Originally Posted by ItHurtz

Uh o your driveway has a owie, someone spilled!

Ha! Kinda looks like that. No, that's the remains of a bunch of crushed up sidewalk chalk. ...kids

I got my first bucket of detergent the other day. Supposed to be good for general cleaning but especially formulated for transmission rebuilders. It better be good for what it costs.



Tomorrow's supposed to be a little cooler. Probably the last day this year under 90. That being said, seems like the perfect morning to shoot the color coat.

Paint is on. Ended up taking just one quart after all was said and done. Got a couple small sags, and no runs to speak of.



The orange peel is pretty noticeable but it doesn't really bother me. At the end of the day it's an industrial machine. I'm sure it could be cut and buffed to a near glass finish, but that's not what I'm after here.





Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Especially when compared to how it looked 3 weeks ago and for how much I spent on the paint. Hardest part is going to be NOT TOUCHING IT for the next few days.

In conclusion;

Would I paint a car with Rustoleum? NO!!

Is it good for spraying on machinery and equipment? YES!!

I can see myself doing a lot more painting with an HVLP gun and ditching the rattle cans whenever possible.

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



Did you do 1 heavy coat or a few light?

Try a LVLP gun, and thinner

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

Originally Posted by BrandonHall10

I can see myself doing a lot more painting with an HVLP gun and ditching the rattle cans whenever possible.

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.