I'm doing my blasting outside. I would use sand paper for the tranny. I'm speaking with about ten years of metal finishing experiance. The burr with leave a really uneven finish. If you have a da and 180 grit it will work just fine. The little cracks and rough spots are called heat check. Its from the die the tranny case was cast in. I got my start metal finishing in a die cast shop. I set the dies now, accually plastic molds but the same thing.

 

Ok, I started with a wire wheel to get the crap off of it. I actually found that the scraper and oven cleaner works best though. Now rags and some sort of cleaner is going to finish it. I'll move on to sandpaper too maybe. I'd hate to put all the work into it and find it is junk though. it just came with the car, no idea on its history.

 

It's good practice. And a smoothed case for a good rebuild if it don't work.

 

That is true. I'll probably end up doing it. I need to get my garage back in order first. I'll just leave it on the engine stand and dink with it when I have time. How do you go about polishing it? Grind out what you can, then go to 400 grit, 600 grit etc, til eventually steel wool? I assume I need to pull the vacuum modulator and stuff off to do it right, I'll need to read my transmission book on how to rebuild it, I may as well plan for a shift kit at the very least.

 

Polishing it. Well you could. if I were to do it for a custumer. I would want an enpty case. Then Would DA with 180 unitl all the cracks, pits,and the rough cast texture were gone. Then pull all the 180 with a 320 or 400. Probably 320 cause thats what I usually have lying around. Then I would buff on a polish jack (looks like a big bench grinder) with a cutting compound and a sisal buff and then switch to a cotton wheel with a coloring compound for a show quality luster. You could shave in it when done. In the real world (a car that gets driven) I would just clean and paint. I did that on my four speed. Its maintenance free. Polished aluminum requires too much to keep it nice, if not it will turn chalky after awile. I just hate polished and chrome. don't let deture you from your goals. My dad has 40 years polishing and I have my experiance, neither one of us puts chrome on much. I wouldn't dare to guess how many guys have asked us to clean up there valve covers. If you really want to go this route I will walk you through doing it with hand tools.

 

LOL, I will just debur it and clean it and paint it. Seems easier.

 

I did get out and work on my car today but did not get to the subframe connectors traced as promised. The fuel pump on my pick up went out just as rounded the corner to my dads house. Lucky in a way but I REALLY don't feel like changing the pump in his driveway.

 

No rush, I am not putting them on till all the sheet metal is back on the car and I can see my gaps.

I pushed the car outside today, pulled the plastic down, and swept and cleaned half of my garage to the other side of the garage. Now I am going out there to sort through that stuff. Alot of work to do yet.

 

Sounds like you've completed a major step getting everything blasted. That's gotta feel great! The reassembly will be the fun part, just watching it all get closer to complete!
I'd seriously consider painting the tranny with a brush or roller. I cut mine in with a brush in all the tight spaces, then used a small edge roller to roll the paint on all the open surfaces. It gives a much heavier coat of paint, and looks great. Mine still retains 99% of the paint after nearly 30 yrs. since the rebuild.

 

That is an excellent suggestion. I'll do that, I would rather that anyhow, I hate taping stuff off, and spray bombing gets into everything if you don't.

Finally I can put the sandblasting behind me, spent about 8 hours today cleaning it all up. I wiped all surfaces down and swept out under everything. I'll clean all the shelves another time. But I got rid of alot of sand and garbage. Figured I would post up some pics of the progress. Starting with my favorite tool. It is a modified motorcycle jack.









The car is back on its wheels in a workable garage!



I put the core support on just to get it off the ground. I want the fenders and everything else on soon so I can figure out how it all goes back together and figure the shims and gaps.





Here is my other current project. I am working on cleaning this transmission up. I am going to grind off the casting things so I don't have to worry about cutting myself, and probably just paint it like an aluminum color. I would also like to start thinking about getting a shift kit for it sometime. I am borrowing one of those tailpiece inserts to keep oil from leaking out of the spline area. It is drained so I don't need it in there probably at this point, but it did work anyhow.







Tomorrow my goal is to actually take all the seats out of the Suburban and give it a well needed after winter wash and clean. I need to give the rims some serious elbow grease, I may get one of those mothers ***** for it. Sucks going through winter with chrome rims.