Cleaning Hammerite off brushes?.

[Keithmac]

Hello all, I'm using some smooth hammerite on Sunday to freshen up my wishbones etc in situ (it is a major pain to remove them!.

Ideally I would like to keep the brushes to use a week later.

Whats best solvent to clean the brushes with, heard petrol is as good as anything but that will have an amount of oil in it?.

Any ideas?.

Cheers, Keith.

 

[JohnD]

Bin them.

 

[Burnerman]

The solvent for this stuff is Xylene, Keith - the constituent of genuine and hideously expensive Hammerite thinners.
Nowt else seems to shift it, and indeed the brush will still solidify after a week or so. Remove whatever you can with kitchen towel, dunk it in the thinners and they'll last long enough.
John

 

[Burnerman]

Keith, what's the update on the Kuga DSG?
John

 

[Keithmac]

All good so far John!.

Nearly up to a thousand miles now and no issues (touch wood!).

Put a road friendly clutch back in my GTO Twin Turbo two Sundays ago (took 10 hours!), just tarting it up on Sunday before MOT.

 

[Keithmac]

Think I'll just bin the brushes, not worth messing about (got 10 for £12 from Screwfix)..

 

[EddieM]

err, yeah bin them, xylene is nasty stuff.

 

[Burnerman]

Great news on the Kuga!! Long may it continue.
Now that's a man's clutch......can you get the box out with the engine in situ? Looks bloody tight!
John

 

[Keithmac]

Great news on the Kuga!! Long may it continue.
Now that's a man's clutch......can you get the box out with the engine in situ? Looks bloody tight!
John

Only just!, with the help of the hoist. All the exhaust/ transfer box etc off first though.

This is what i took out, OS Geiken R3C tripple plate ceramic. Rated at 1000+ ftlb torque and built for multiple drag strip launches.

It was excellent while I was racing but since York Raceway shut down it's just no fun in a road car so had to come out.

For sale if you know anyone with a GTO .

And yes it is great news that the family Kuga is still going well, thanks for asking.

 

[Burnerman]

Ye gods that's a beast and a half......looks like its out of a truck!
I've had my fill of doing clutches lying on my back on the cold concrete......age and sciatica took care of that!
Regards
John

 

[Keithmac]

I have the joys of gravel to massage the back of my head when under the cars!.

Bought some big sheets of 18mm plywood to make it a bit more palatable to work on the drive.

Did think half way through the GTO that I'd had enough for the day but plodded on regardless!.

Dread to think what a garage would have charged for the Kuga and GTO so just have to suck it up and get on with it!.

 

[Burnerman]

Talking of clutches, I wonder if you recall the original FWD Cavalier.....you could do the clutch without taking the box off, the pressure plate came out of the bottom once the mainshaft had been pulled back with a slide hammer and the bolts undone. The clutch itself came in a pre compressed state, ready to pop back in.
A good idea I thought, but it never caught on for some reason.
John

 

[Keithmac]

Yeh my mate had done a few of them years ago (he was a car mechanic at the time), said they were a very easy job to do.

I just seem to buy awkward cars it seems!.

I have a Mk2 Golf 16v thats a work in progress, they have a "backwards" clutch. The pressure plate bolts to the crank and the flywheel then bolts to the pressure plate!.

It's an "020" gearbox, got a full bearing kit, diff bolt kit and modified driveshaft cups to preload the diff.

 

[Burnerman]

Yep, they were a breeze to do, the Astra of that period was the same.
Ive no experience with the 020 but would guess the clutch is courtesy of the dmf design.
John

 

[Keithmac]

I'll take some pics when I'm next on it, it has a hollow input shaft, , clutch push rod through it and a release plate.