Of course, I blew through in a few places when I attempted to smooth it out.
Attachment 744096
I should have started with a larger patch to begin with (how many times has that been said? All of them?)

Better:
Attachment 744097
Coloration is from grinding down the welds on the other side a bit:
Attachment 744098

A trip through the blaster revealed a little more work to be done:
Attachment 744099

Good enough:
Attachment 744100
Attachment 744101

Not only will the battery be covering it, but a plastic tray as well, so it definitely doesn't need to be perfect. Not to mention pitting elsewhere.
Paint:
Attachment 744102
Attachment 744103
Attachment 744104
See what I mean? It blends right in!

Ran out of time to get to the radiator panels. That will be next time.Of course, I blew through in a few places when I attempted to smooth it out.
Attachment 744096
I should have started with a larger patch to begin with (how many times has that been said? All of them?)

Better:
Attachment 744097
Coloration is from grinding down the welds on the other side a bit:
Attachment 744098

A trip through the blaster revealed a little more work to be done:
Attachment 744090

Good enough:
Attachment 744091
Attachment 744092

Not only will the battery be covering it, but a plastic tray as well, so it definitely doesn't need to be perfect. Not to mention pitting elsewhere.
Paint:
Attachment 744093
Attachment 744094
Attachment 744095
See what I mean? It blends right in!

Ran out of time to get to the radiator panels. That will be next time.

I did a lot of blasting this session, and the humidity was pretty bas. Not for me so much, but the air compressor. This is from the moisture trap drain, just one session of about 15-20 minutes:
Attachment 744088
Attachment 744089

That poor little thing isn't up to the humidity. I'm also draining moisture in the tank, and a seperate line drop before the trap each time. Thankfully, cola slag isn't very picky, but glass bead or walnut shells would probably have a shit fit.

Any recommendations for a good, relatively inexpensive dryer/moisture trap? I may need to be educated on what "inexpensive" is in this space. I don't really know. A brief look seemed pretty pricey. I'm thinking maybe a desiccant system, as long as I can recycle desiccant via a trip through the oven, or the desiccant is just cheap, and I'll move this little guy to just before the blaster as a secondary, or just after the dryer.

Poked at the RX-7 a bit after mowing the lawn on Saturday.
I slapped the ECU assembly back together, after replating the tab for the relay pack at the lower left, and the nut that goes with it. A little rust had developed between the nut and tab. Fortunately, the tab was easily removable from the relay.

Then I started on other things that needed attention.
Motor mounts:
Attachment 744061
Attachment 744062

Attachment 744063
Attachment 744064

I happen to have two good ones - one from the '79, and one from the '84 parts car, most likely both from the right side. Otherwise I probably would have gone the hockey puck route.

Those radiator side panels pictured previously. First I had to remove and take a reference photo for reassembly of a little skirt seal (that seals the area around the oil cooler hoses going forward to the cooler in front of the radiator):
Attachment 744065

Blasted:
Attachment 744066
Attachment 744067

Everything painted:
Attachment 744068
Attachment 744069

Sunday had family stuff to do, so only got a few minutes out in the garage. I elected to start prepping the airbox:
Attachment 744053
Attachment 744054
Attachment 744055
Attachment 744056

The air flow meter is had to come off, as well as any hardware and the rubber air duct.
No problem:
Attachment 744057

Reference photo for me, after I plate all this hardware with all the *other* hardware, and mix them up.
Attachment 744058


Still need that dryer:
Attachment 744059
Harbor Freight seems to have a couple of decent desiccant dryers, one of which is literally identical to a DeWalt unit, for half the cost. Reviews are good, mostly. That and a little inline desiccant dryer should do the deed, at least for now. If nothing else, the desiccant turning pink will let me know it's time to stop for a bit.

The shelf 'o stuff:
Attachment 744060
Or one of them, anyway. Stay tuned for the dash pad refurbish. That will be fun, and probably messy, involving Bondo, fiberglass, fleece, and bedliner.
For reference:
I love this guy's work. He does good work, in a basic garage, with cheap(er) materials accessible to mere mortals.

I blasted the adapter from the air flow meter to the airbox:
Attachment 744018
Attachment 744019

It was pretty crusty, as you may recall:
Attachment 744020

The AFM is going to be a little more difficult, with the connector, plastic cover, and the air door.
There's crust on the inside, and the actual flapper, too, though it seems to move fine. I'll see what carb cleaner takes off on the inside first. Don't want to damage any of the actual mechanism or electronics.

Hit up Harbor Freight for the dryer. I went with the newer, more expensive model (the black one). It was a tad larger than the outgoing model that was on clearance (the tan one):
Attachment 744021

The haul. Grabbed a regulator, also on clearance, since the one I have is dinky (and I thought it was integrated into the swirl dryer I had, which is incorrect.)
Attachment 744022
Nifty modular air gun and a stubby 3/8" ratchet, because I didn't have one. I renewed my Inside Track account for $20 to get $10 off the dryer. Hopefully I'll buy more stuff in future to justify it. At least you don't need the coupons anymore. It's all automatic, like a grocery-store shopper card.

Turns out my old dryer is identical to the pre-stage of the new one, with the exception that mine uses a hard filter, while the new one appears to use foam or something similar.
Attachment 744023

The regulator is a smaller 1/4" fitting. The new one was $13 on clearance, so I'm happy about that.

All mounted up:
Attachment 744024

This thing came with no instructions at all. Thankfully, it's obvious to me where the desiccant beads go. Also the description on the web page for it says "durable brass drain valve that stands up to daily shop use", which is, as you can see, incorrect.

I just looked up the manual for the equivalent DeWalt DXCM019-0338, and I did it right. I also discovered that the filter in the left unit is replaceable, and, in fact,can't be cleaned. It *has* to be replaced when the indicator on top pops up. Guess I will need to source that.

The blow gun is nifty. In one configuration it's very similar to the OSHA blow gun I have:
Attachment 744025
But you also get an open blow tip, and a non-safety rubber tip, plus the two barrel extensions, so realistically, this can take the place of my safety gun, the old-school rubber tip blowgun I have, and my long one.
Attachment 744026
Nice lightweight aluminum, too.

HF has moved into *large* toolboxes:
Attachment 744027
That's $6900 (nice) of toolbox right there. The center section, with the large open cabinet on top, is 73" wide. The center lower box is $3K by itself, The "work center hutch" is $1200, The 28" left end locker is $1500, and the 22" right end drawers are $1200.
Ah, now that I'm looking, it's actually more. I didn't add in the stainless top on the center 73" box. That $500, so $7400.
That's a lot of money. OIF course, I understand that this setup from Snap-On would be, what? $30K?
I'd probably replace that hutch with an actual top box of drawers at $2200, since I have a workbench. The hutch is nice for storing power tools and chargers, though.

Fakeedit: yeah. HF claims the equivalent Snap-On to the 73" base unit is over $14K! Jesus.

Anyway.
All I actually did on the care today was put the painted bits on the shelf, after they've been hanging outside drying for a week.
Engine mounts, assembled:
Attachment 744028
(this is upside-down to their installed orientation, BTW.)

And radiator side panels, with the rubber bit reinstalled:
Attachment 744029

I'll probably bolt those radiator panels on this weekend, so I can throw the radiator in there to start figuring out placement and mounting for an aftermarket high-efficiency condenser. The original is an inefficient serpentine-flow design, and was marginal with R-12 when the car was new. The one I have is also clogged up, which is a thing when you only have one path for flow. I discovered that when I retrofitted it to the car over a decade ago, and blew the high-side hose on my gauges because of it. At least I learned that the compressor was working, and working well...

Braided split loom showed up. It's nice.
Attachment 744006
Attachment 744007

Dug out another bag or two of hardware from the storage tubs:
Attachment 744008
Attachment 744009

Reference pic after removing rubber bits from steel bits:
Attachment 744010

Reference for replacing broken hardware:
Attachment 744011

The plan was to get all that cleaned and plated, since the bolts I need to mount the radiator panels and the rad are in there, or in the bowl of hardware from previous bags waiting for enough stuff to run the barrel.

I ran them through my ultrasonic tank first:
Attachment 744012

I decided to try skipping a step and go straight to the polishing tumbler, rather than blasting first.
So while the hardware was tumbling in batches, I worked on the wee screws for the VIN plate:
Attachment 744013

And the duct for the airbox still needed some cleaning:
Attachment 744014
Attachment 744015

Got the metal reinforcement off of that so I could soak it in purple cleaner (which can and will strip paint after a bit.)
Attachment 744016

While I was cleaning the duct, I also hit the rubber and plastic stuff from the underhood hardware. Mainly just wiping off remaining schmutz from the ultrasonic cleaning.
Attachment 744017
A couple of these things I won't be using, but cleaned them up for storage anyway.
The bumpers with the castellated top and cuts along the body are screw-in adjustable bump stops from a BMW, which I replaced with red polyurethane in an earlier post. The barbed bumpers next to them should be the original non-adjustable bumpers, unless I see otherwise later.
The little round ones on the lower right came off of the adjustment stoppers for the pop-up headlights, and the remaining single bumper is a hood bumper on one side, passenger as I recall. No idea why there aren't two. It's been that way since I got it, though I know it has had front end sheetmetal work, so one may be lost.

Got the duct reasonably nice looking. For whatever reason, it has some variations in sheen, but I can live with that.
Attachment 743995
Attachment 743996

May hit it with some back-to-black or detail spray and see how it looks.

There were a few light to medium scratches in the side marker lenses, so I sanded and polished them:
Attachment 743997
Attachment 743998

Not bad for 42 years old.

Some of the hardware out of the polisher:
Attachment 743999
Not bad, but, I should probably blast anything that's rusty or painted first. I had to take a bunch of the hardware to the wire wheel to remove remaining paint and bits of rust. Mostly just a little cleanup, so not terrible, but not really any less time consuming than blasting first.

Attachment 744000
The little pile in the upper right (and the wire bails for the airbox) are what I *didn't* need to take to the wire wheel.
After wheeling:
Attachment 744001
All rust, paint, and corrosion is gone. What's left is just discoloration. Should plate OK. If not, it gets blasted and I try again.

In that batch were the screws for the VIN plate. They cleaned up fine, except for inside the phillips head recess, two of which were noticeably rusty. Zinc won't plate over rust, so I was trying to figure out how to get in those little recesses when I remembered I had acquired this a bit back:
Attachment 743999
It was rescued from a fire. I had to dig into my stash and fabricobble a hose for it - I don't even know what size the fitting it (airbrushes are a world unto themselves) but I had the nut and barb, some hose I had from rebuilding airbrush hoses for my mother in law's T-shirt painting venture, and a few fittings left over from that as well, which got me 1/8 FIP on the other end. A 1/8"-1/4" adapter, and I had a standard 1/4" air fitting, and a functioning tiny media blaster. It worked great on those little recesses.

Plated and polished:
Attachment 744003

Passivated (blue):
Attachment 744004

I also drug out them headlight assemblies while I was digging in the tubs, with the intent of getting to the, as well, but that didn't happen this weekend.
Attachment 744005

Slowly, so slowly...

no need to spend that kind of money for tool storage. everything u would need to work on an rx7 will fit just fine in something for less than $1000.

Trouble is I work on more than my RX-7, eh? I gots old 'Merican stuff, too, plus house stuff.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure I could get every tool I own in that assembly, including the separate bag I keep for the wrecking yard. The 73" center section alone with the top box of drawers rather than the work hutch would probably be plenty. Maybe someday in my garage-mahal. Right now, my $400 Costco 48" box holds most of my hand tools, at least. It was a nice upgrade from like 4 various smaller toolboxes.

this is so good.

Thanks. It's slow going, but very therapeutic. :D

I forgot to post last week.
Decided to blast and re-tumble the more egregious hardware, especially since the final batch contained some fairly rusty stuff that even 90 minutes in the polisher didn't completely take care of. It still did a pretty good job, all things considered. It's not really designed for taking things from "absolutely crap" to "sheeeeeen!", just the final step, and it's really designed for jewelry. I may still pony up for a viratory tumbler.
I also wanted to make sure the recesses in phillips screws, and some of the other recessed-head bolts were properly cleaned. Thankfully, I remembered to replace the broken bolts and nuts:
Attachment 743971
Attachment 743972
Though I think one of those nuts was a captive nut.

Blasted those as well, and into the tumbler they went:
Attachment 743973

I think I need to glue a square bar across the ends to prevent washers from doing that. I think this is acrylic...

Anyway, while that was processing, I was blasting the bag of fasteners to be passivated black, kept separate because of that. Mostly phillips screws, probably #8 and #10 sized. This stuff, and some others:
Attachment 743974
Kind of a pain, because I didn't want to lose them down the grating in the blaster, and they're difficult to handle with the gloves, but it was going fine.

...until the air line decided I was done for the day.
Attachment 743975
Attachment 743976
Attachment 743977

Well, OK, then. I guess there was a weak spot from a kink or something, there. I'll go pick up a couple of push-connect couplers and splice a new bit of tubing in there. Almost regretting not getting the pricier 3/4" HDPE/aluminum line. It was $210, though - this kit was $90, rated for garage duty, and realistically, it's been fine. Northern Tool has a house-brand version of the RapidAir 3/4" kit that's $40 cheaper, though...
I only got about 2/3 the way through the pile of black hardware (it's not a large pile,) but oh, well. It was 9PM, anyway.

At least it didn't pop up in the attic where it'll be 400F.

Parts came out of the tumbler nice:
Attachment 743961

Plating barrel went to work:
Attachment 743962

First round wasn't fantastic:
Attachment 743963
Lots of not-plated there. Some spots I clearly missed while blasting.
Attachment 743964

So I hit those with the wire brush and ramped up the amperage. Like maxed it out - actually, it hit max voltage (30V) before it hit max amps (10A.) It was running around 8A. It varies, of course, since everything is tumbling around, making and breaking contact.

Much better.
Attachment 743965

The bolts with captive washers didn't want to plate the bolt shaft occluded by the washer. I tried them individually, and at least got more of the washers themselves plated:
Attachment 743966

So here's a comparison. Left to right: plated out of tank, wire brushed, polished with steel wool.
Attachment 743967

Tried walnut shell in the tumbler immediately out of the plating tank.
Attachment 743968
Meh.

Tried glass:
Attachment 743969
Attachment 743970
Meh, plus.

Another comparison:
Attachment 743951
The tumbler is clearly not providing enough action for the walnut and glass.

Attachment 743952
Attachment 743953
(rear row is control, from the previous walnut tumble.)

OK, maybe shorter, slower sessions with the stainless steel shot.
Attachment 743954
Promising, but another 10 minutes was too much:
Attachment 743955

Those will need to be replated.

So I hit up Harbor Freight today.
Attachment 743956
(The Rust Cutter abrasive I already had - I used to have one of these, but it was stolen, along with a bunch of other power tools.)

We'll see how a pile of hardware with walnut shell works in this. I threw in the two lines of hardware from the previous walnut and glass, plus some that had been past the wire brush but not steel wool. Starting with 30 minutes.


Also fixed the air line.
Blowed up:
Attachment 743957

Bought an assortment of Chinese fittings from Amazon for less than two RapidAir butt connectors, delivered same day:
Attachment 743958

Actually replaced the entire section of line from the split to the compressor, because I noted a kink right at the push fitting at the valve as well:
Attachment 743959
No problem!

Line is rated for 150 PSI, so I double checked what the cutoff was set to. Attachment 743960
120 PSI, so shouldn't be an issue.

Desiccant is already done:
Attachment 743946
Attachment 743947

Microwave fixed that:
Attachment 743948

Meh.

Attachment 743949
Attachment 743950

Longer? That 3+ hours.
Is the zinc too hard for the walnut shell? Maybe my walnut shell is worn out? I didn't buy this new - I picked it up with my media blaster, which was used (and smoke- and heat-damaged.)
The instructions for the device suggest a "small amount of commercial metal polish", but I'm concerned that will interfere with the passivating afterward.
Guess I'll try the "polishing" media I bought and see what happens.

Hmmm.
A little diggin on ye olde internette tells me maybe a quick dip in the muriatic acid after the zinc strike might help, and to buff rather than polish.
I was already thinking about buying the little HF 3" grinder/polisher with the flex-shaft. Guess I'll do that, and use the little buffing wheel. It's got speed control, which should keep it from flinging things across the garage. Of course then I need to wonder about compound remaining on the part for passivating.
Ugh.

Yes, I justify the tool purchases for this buy reasoning that I'll use them again, later, for something else. Why do you ask?

That brings us to the past weekend.
Tried the "ceramic polishing abrasive":
Attachment 743935
Attachment 743936
After washing them off:
Attachment 743937

Meh.
How about the "rust cutting media":
Attachment 743938
Attachment 743939

Not a lot going on there.


I bought a min-bench grinder/polisher at HF.
Typical HF quality - the attachment point for the rest on the grinder side hadn't been threaded:
Attachment 743940

It is now:
Attachment 743941

Got some polishing compound and a wheel for the big grinder, while I was at it. Though I think I might have a wheel hiding out somewhere in the garage already. I don't know where it is, anyway, and this was $7.

Then I cut the mandrel off of a 3" brass wire brush wheel, and enlarged the hole to fit it in place of the grinding wheel on the mini grinder:
Attachment 743942

It works nicely. A lot less likely to throw parts across the room, given the speed control, small size, and a tool rest (I need to make one for the big grinder, on both sides...)
This is after wire brush (left) and 0000 steel wool (right):
Attachment 743943

Steel wool methodology:
Attachment 743944


Tried adding some Blue Magic polish to the walnut shell:
Attachment 743945
It helped a little but not much.

Tried 8 dang hours of walnut shell (no polish):
Attachment 743924
(I threw some copper and brass bits in there to see if they worked any better, to sort of gauge the hardness of the zinc.)

Still seems really (forgive the pun) lackluster.
This is the coil of tubing the test bit of copper came from, and it's not a lot of difference:
Attachment 743925

The 9mm casings also don't differ a lot ("polished" on the bottom)
Attachment 743926


OK, fine. How about glass?
Attachment 743927

During this test, I had to deal with the wing nut backing off. The lid rattling around was stupid loud, and wallered out the hole:
Attachment 743928

Attachment 743929
Attachment 743930
Attachment 743931
Smooth, but not particularly shiny.

I got annoyed at all of this and started polishing by hand.
Attachment 743932
Attachment 743933
(second with flash)
Literally.

The hardware on the right is finished with steel wool. Good, but on the right, polished with Blue Magic, basically doing the same as with the steel wool using the drill press. Nuts go on a length of threaded rod:
Attachment 743934

Same comparison with some bolts:
Attachment 743915

A study in various finishes:
Attachment 743916
(polished ones upper right.)

I had some "fine blasting media" as I labeled it, because I have no idea what it actually is, and gave that a try.
Attachment 743917

The polished hardware passivated pretty nicely, except for three random ones, for some reason:
Attachment 743918


Another comparison:
Attachment 743919
Attachment 743920
raw plated, wire wheel, steel wool, and Blue Magic, without and with flash.

I finally ended up just using a nylon locking nut, and a powered screwdriver. It *still* has to be tightened down pretty good or it'll back off.
Attachment 743921

The fine media didn't do a lot. And it darkened the copper for some reason.
Attachment 743922


I polished a few more bolts and threw them in the chromate.
Not bad:
Attachment 743923
The second batch, mostly on the left, was slightly unsatisfactory, so I dropped them in the passivate a second time... and ruined them. Dunking them into the acid to remove the passivate and trying again also sucked, so those will probably need to be replated, which is fine, since I already had some other hardware that needed to be done.

Two steps forward, only one back.
I guess I'll just be doing the polishing by hand. I'm not sure how much I actually have left - probably not enough to be worth figuring it out. I was hoping the tumblers would provide a better finish than I could get by hand, even if it took longer.

Pile of stuff to go in the barrel.
Attachment 743904
Background is the pile to be re-plated after messing it up. Foreground is all stuff to be passivated black - interior screws, mostly.

All nicely plated. I swiped half of the big washer and the head of one course screw with steel wool, and the plating with corn syrup in it is now plating smoothly enough that actually works. Wire brushing not really needed.
I did throw a few of these in one or two at a time to touch up, but I think what I was seeing wass not bare steel, but even nicer zinc. I was worried that "not primer grey" = "not plated" though. I should have polished a sample and popped it in the passivate to test, I suppose.

Nothing wasted but a little time.

Last ditch: I bought some different walnut shell:
Attachment 743905

It's definitely courser than what I had:
Attachment 743906
(new stuff in the drum.)
edit: lookit dat meaty paw.

After 12+ hours
Attachment 743907
I'm not impressed. These are all the same ones I've been using as a test, plus I chucked in the one big washer I half polished from above, and the countersunk hood bumper bolt beside it. You can still see the difference between the polished and not-polished sides. After 12+ hours. The parts are smooth, but far from polished.
Starting to think maybe HF tumbler is crap? Running it with the lid off, it's definitely moving the media, though it seems like all the hardware stays out of sight at the bottom.

Oh, well. I chucked all the hardware that I just did in while I'm at work to see if volume makes any difference.

While blasting the to-be-black hardware, I noted that the window on the blaster needed it's liner replaced.
Attachment 743908
Attachment 743909

It's like dirty glasses - sometimes you don't even notice until you take them off.
I have a roll of Lexan sheet I got from Grainger that I just cut into the right size - it's slightly too narrow, but I just use packing tape to seal those edges. I also have some shields intended for some other blaster - they're also about 2-3" too narrow, and about 1/2" too tall. Same thing - packing tape on the edges, and trim the other edges with a razor knife. I bought the specific-purpose shields because I forgot I had a the roll of Lexan, or forgot where I put it at some point, but neither was particularly expensive.

I also seem to have worn through one of the gloves:
Attachment 743910
It wasn't letting much if any grit in, but I could feel a breeze as I handled the individual screws to get into the Phillips recess, etc.

I have another set of gloves, but I'd prefer to use these until I can't, basically. So...
Attachment 743911
Attachment 743912

Let's see how the Gorilla outdoor repair tape holds up. As you can see, I've used most of the roll, and it's done well elsewhere. It actually *is* water resistant, if not proof.

That's it. That's all I got right now. It's been a busy week at work. I'm tired.

Hey, how's everyone today?

So last episode, I chucked all the remaining hardware in the hopper. I let that run while I was at work, about 9 hours:
Attachment 743900

It's... actually doing something.
While I was at work I Googled around a bit and noted that, basically, this shit takes a long time. Not just walnut shell, but vibe tumblers in general. Times like "24 hours" came up. Adding liquid apparently can help, but a lot of tumblers, like this one, specify they are supposed to be used dry. Folks have successfully done it with the HF, though, and the Eastwood, which looks identical, can be used wet.
Reloaders like to add a bit of polish to the walnut for brass (they like Nu Finish car polish for a cheap option.) I played with that earlier by adding a bit of Blue Magic (I ended up with a box of the stuff some time ago - it's been handy,) but a) I didn't add enough, and b) I didn't let it run long enough, I think. So I took the same walnut shell i had added polish to earlier, and added *more*, probably 3 tablespoons' worth, and then let it run overnight.
Here's a sample I pulled out:
Attachment 743901
Attachment 743902
OK, then! Much better!

I've got some stuff to do before I can get out in the garage, like my job, so I plopped some more stuff in there, and I'll look at it later in the day.
Attachment 743903

Some success, some not so much.

Attachment 743889
walnut + Blue Magic does a lovely job.

I did have to disassemble the air coupler because a bunch of walnut dust packed up in the collar and kept it from working, but that's not unreasonable.

Attachment 743890
Plated parts looked great!

Until...
Attachment 743891
That's not promising. Passivate is hit or miss.

Dunked the remaining hardware in Simple Green to get any of the polish and any other oils off.
Attachment 743892

Meh.
Attachment 743893
Some looked OK-ish (the difference in tone is that I left one batch in longer to attempt more coverage,) but a lot of the edges didn't convert. I got a little bit of rust after letting them sit a day, so I think I let them run too long and polished through the plating. One way or another they needed another go. <sigh>
The pile of pointy screws in the rear are destined to be black, BTW, hence the separation. The bails for the air box came out nicely.
Fresh yellow chromate also helped.

Back to the old methods.
I fabbed up a hanger to make it easier to do a bunch of parts at a time.
Attachment 743894
Attachment 743895

and just used my peanut butter jar tank. The solution is fresher and easier to control in the smaller volume.
Seems to be working well:
Attachment 743896

Another batch ready to go:
Attachment 743897

A mixed bag:
Attachment 743898
All the hardware that will be black is plated. You can see a sample already passivated in the rear, some wire brushed in the front (not going to steel wool or polish, since these will be black,) and a few of the larger parts done in gold already.
The plating coming out now takes minimal effort to shine up. The brass wire brush on the little 3" grinder from HF is perfect for this. Most of the parts just going straight to steel wool works fine.

I just run into issues scaling up, or trying to automate, so I guess I won't do that for now.
I don't have *that* much hardware left.

Realistically, after buying all this junk, I probably could have sourced new hardware for the more common bits, and I still may do some of the more visible fasteners in stainless, but that wouldn't have been near as satisfying. I've got a jones to tinker and fiddle, so this is just situation normal for me.

I get the rest of that hardware done, and I can put more of the engine compartment together.
I need to disassemble the headlight mechanisms and paint those, clean and paint the steering center and end links, and idler arm, and clean and pain the air box, among other things. Guess I should clean and re-loom the wiring harness, too - probably going to need to get that in and routed before some of the other stuff goes in.
Maybe side step over for a change and make the dash pad not broken.

I'll keep doing this until I can afford wood to do some stuff on the house, I guess.

Hey, look, not-plating stuff!

Attachment 743880
(reference shot)

Attachment 743881
Attachment 743882
(measurement just in case I need to take the end links apart.)

Attachment 743883
reference for reassembling the idler, because I *am* taking it apart.

Attachment 743884
See?
Bushings are still good - I did them not long before it got taken off the road. I have a spare set in polyurethane if I needed them. Moog makes a heavy-duty model that has the same joint at the top and bottom as this one has at just the bottom, but it's significantly more expensive that the stock unit, and *way* more expensive than replacement bushings, since this one is rebuildable. The flip side is that the Moog heavy duty unit basically never wears out in this application.

Attachment 743885
All disassembled. The tie rod ends are still fresh, too, so those will just get cleaned and painted, whole the center link and idler will get blasted, as well.

And of course the nuts and hardware will get plated!
Attachment 743886
Attachment 743887
Attachment 743888
Literally just degreased them, dunked them in acid (removes any remaining passivate and plating, as well as oils, etc.) and plated them as they were, since there was no rust. They came out nice. The picture just doesn't show the iridescence of the passivate.

Tie rod ends turned out to be Made In Japan Three-Fives:
Attachment 743871
So did the idler, BTW, so I guess it's been fully replaced at least once.

All masked up for paint, no need to disassemble.
Attachment 743872

I'll still need alignment, of course, since everything has been apart, and bushings replaced, but it will be closer, and probably drivable.

Went with cast-iron grey for these, for a little contrast to all the black.
Attachment 743873

Center link and idler blasted:
Attachment 743874

and painted with epoxy black:
Attachment 743875

Speaking of blasting, I refreshed the desiccant in the microwave before I started blasting. This is after:
Attachment 743876
Water up to the fogged line, there, and the desiccant is already saturated again. Maybe an hour blasting? Yeah, it's a bit humid. The drier assembly is working well, though. The media blaster is happy.

Got all the to-be-black hardware wire brushed and ready to passivate:
Attachment 743877
You can tell on some of them where part way through I realized that brushing the threads was a waste of time.

Then I dunked them.
Attachment 743878

A few went weird:
Attachment 743879

The bad: most of those turned a lot more brownish as they dried, so something went wrong. I redid the ones where the chromate didn't take for some reason, and they came out better (didn't get a picture, I was too annoyed that it f-d up.) I may have to do all of these again, or I may just paint the damn heads with satin black. They're protected just fine, but ugly, and most of these are interior screws that can be seen (otherwise I'd go with gold. It would stand out badly against the black interior, though.)

So we had this garbage:
Attachment 743861

Test acid dip, replate, and passivate in black, no polishing:
Attachment 743862
(the group lower left. Upper right is a previous successful batch, from before I did the big batch.)
Acceptable, so I did the rest of the pile, a few at a time.

Attachment 743863
Some grey spots, but it'll do.

On to the tie rod.
All the steery bits unmasked.
Attachment 743864
Nice!

Found a split in one of the outer tie rod boots:
Attachment 743865

And a little split in the idler arm pivot boot.
Attachment 743866
It's just a pivot, so doesn't flex much, if at all, so I'll leave the idler alone, but the tie rod end needs to be addressed.

Got the original boot off, and it looks OK inside:
Attachment 743867
You can see the polyurethane replacement boot there just behind. I'm not going to replace the others, since they're not only in good condition, they fit better than these aftermarket boots. I will tell my OCD to fuck off and deal with the one red boot.

The split in the idler arm gave me an easy spot to add some more grease, though, since it has no grease zerk. I used a syringe.
Attachment 743868
A little small at 20ga, but I couldn't find my larger blunt luer-lock tips.

Well, don't use an impact on your fresh-plated pretty nuts. I knew that and spaced and did it anyway.
Attachment 743869

All back together:
Attachment 743870
Now tell me what I did wrong. I'll wait.