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This isn't the first time I've looked like this
Sandblasting in the cabinet is cool, you stay clean while the dust and dirt flies all around in the cabinet. Sandblasting outside however, well its a messy job. I spent hours in the hot July sun sandblasting the core support and both wheel wells. I wanted to do this outside so I didn't get sand everywhere in the shop. It made a mess, but luckily its all gravel out there.
I've never had good luck with chrome pulleys. It seems the most of them that you buy end up being some cheap crap made in China and belts slip alot on them. I even had them fly off my 454 Big Block in my 79 Trans Am due to chrome pulleys. Due to this, I decided to try out powder coating. Bill does powder coating, so I had him coat a bunch of stuff for me including the pulleys, battery tray, hood hinges, some brackets I made and a countless number of nuts and bolts. I started with sandblasting my original pulleys and he did them in a chrome powder coat. The last pic shows how they turned out. Durable with a nice look.
The original brackets for the power steering pump bolted to the block but also used the exhaust manifold for support. Since I was going with headers, I knew they wouldn't fit right so I had to make my own. I started by tracing the lower bracket out on cardboard.
Then I used some scrap steel from the framewrap and began cutting it out of 1/4" steel. Then I drilled 3 holes in it and grinded it smooth as I could. The second bracket was originally part of my original alternator bracket, but since I was using a different one I hacked it up a bit for the second bracket used to adjust belt tension.
The first pic shows how I had to trim the wheel well opening a bit so that the front hydraulic cylinders wouldn't rub on them. I planned to paint match them so I didn't want them to get scratched up. The original passenger wheel well was rusted up a bit where the battery tray sits. Nobody makes an aftermarket replaceable one and a good used one is hard to find. So, I had to doctor up mine a bit. Since it sits hidden by the battery tray, I just needed it to hold strong and wasn't worried as much about how perfect it looked. I took the two pieces and tacked them together. Then, I used sheet metal steel pieces to cover the rotted out metal and hold the 2 pieces together.
After sandblasting and one repair, the core support and wheel wells were ready to be primed up and painted. I finally got to use my new spraying setup.
After sand
A kit for a chrome alternator is much cheaper (around $30) then spending $99 for a chrome one from your typical aftermarket company. All they do is use this chrome kit on a regular one anyway, so its the same difference. I used my original good working alternator's parts to put inside the chrome kit. If those parts ever go bad, I can just swap them out for another one from the parts store. Its a fairly easy process, the only trick was to use a small stud of some kind (I used a very small drill bit)
After sandblas
After sandblas
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