Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Shiny engine cases sir?

[ali]

My bro has just started a business in Guernsey wet-blasting manky old engines for everything from Bugattis to Z900s. The engine below was from an ancient Z9, results speak for themselves.



The machine is a Vapormatt Lynx, uses plastic/glass beads, zinc oxide, ball bearings, etc in a solution. Guess who's Superlight is going to have a very shiny engine!

Ali

[jimbers45]

er.......does it work on magnesium?

[Alexaye]

Hi I know this might sound a bit stupid but I hope the oilways and bearing journals etc were taped during blasting we used to call that vapour blasting gives an exellent finish. We also used to rumble some components and that gave an exellent finish as well, It's something you can rig up at home and diy it.
Sorry for being the big nose Alex.

[Monty]

I had the 450RT cases vapour blasted-came up like new. The only issue is that if the cases are polished-as Ducati singles are-the process leaves them with a matt finish-which I like but others may not.

John

[Jools]

I may just be a sad old perv, in fact it's almost certain, but sexy naked engine bits don't half give me the 'orn.....am I the only one?

What are the prices like Ali?

[ali]

Prices are really reasonable, think it cost the guy with the z9 about £200 for the whole engine. Freight to/from Guernsey can be reasonable if you send with a courier used to shipping there.

From what I understand they change the media in the solution to finish different parts of the cases to avoid damage to bearing faces. J said most of the above was done using glass beads which shatter, rather than grind, when you take the nozzle too close to the object. They've got 2,000 hours of additional testing coming up on every imaginable material using every type of media the machine supports, but Vapormatt have been doing this for yonks so they know what they're doing.

Ali