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Advice needed - new guy with MEP004A

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Back-in-Black

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Went to the office a couple of weeks ago and plotted my schematic drawing - still not complete. I need to chose an automatic transfer switch and figure out what I'm going to do with a few alarm notification circuits before I can finish the schematic. Going to try to get some of the low voltage wiring, oil press, water temp and stuff like that, started today.

20220129_140139.jpg
 
B

Back-in-Black

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Scoobyshep said:
Looking good. You really do have a fun project.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

It has been pretty fun. Hopefully it'll last a long time with very few problems. Although I really won't have a whole lot of money in it when finished, I'm ready to stop spending money now. I'm a little over $2k right now, and figure by the time I buy a transfer switch, buy a fuel tank, have a custom control panel made and buy 50' of copper to run to the transfer switch I may have $5k in it all said and done. That's a pretty cheap 15KW diesel generator these days! Also have learned a lot about generators in the process and even rebuilt a diesel injector pump with Ray70's help. Something I never would have thought I'd ever do 6 months ago. You guys have been an awesome knowledge pool! Thanks again for answering so many dumb questions.

Getting ready for the weekend. Pulled everything out of the control cubicle so I can blast it too.

20220216_200656.jpg

20220216_200704.jpg
 
B

Back-in-Black

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Soooooooo much paint! When I was in the Army, many moons ago, when guys didn't have anything to do, someone would hand them a paint brush and a bucket of paint and say "go paint that Jeep". I suspect that's pretty much what happened here. "Go paint that generator".

I knew there was a bunch of paint on this thing, I experienced the same problem with my little sandblaster. I figured an industrial compressor and blaster would speed it up considerably. Not so much. The blaster still has to eat thru each layer of paint, and it does so over a much bigger area but it still takes time to eat thru all that paint. Too much time. At the rate it was going, it would have taken me about a year of steady work to blast every part. So I started trying other things. Paint stripper: Don't know if anyone else here has tried paint stripper lately - they took some chemical out of it (probably due to some EPA rule or something) but basically modern paint stripper is absolutely worthless. I tried using it on those rocking chairs mentioned earlier in this thread. I ended up sanding the old paint off the chairs. The paint stripper was just as useless on this paint. Doesn't even soften it up any.

Next I tried a knotted wire cup on a 3" side grinder. That was a lot faster than the sandblaster but still pretty slow. Too slow. Cut the time down to 6 months of steady work...

Then I remembered I had some 4-1/2", 36 grit sanding discs in my "grinder box". So I put one of those on and gave it a try. Much better. Think we got it down to 3 months of work. Problem is, there's a lot of places you you can't get a round, spinning piece of sandpaper on these things, inside corners, handles, latches, weld seams, etc.

So what I did was decided to concentrate on the 2 pieces that are holding me up right now. The skid assembly and the front of the case where the control cubicle mounts. I got every bit of paint off of each part possible using the grinder and then used the sand blaster to go back and hit the places I couldn't get.

Saturday: ~6:30 AM till 10:30 PM
Sunday: 7:30 AM till midnight.

Sunday, I ate a donut on the way out the back door and didn't even so much as sit down till I ate diner at midnight.

I got both of those parts done for the most part but still have some areas on the skids that I need to get back to when I have the time. I left some flat places to be done on the skids - places that I can get with the sanding disc but in the interests of getting as much done with the big sandblaster as I could while I had it for the weekend, I concentrated on the tough to get areas. I figure I'll keep doing the same thing with my small sandblaster and maybe ever try to hit weld seams and such with a wire cup before resorting to blasting (the disc doesn't work so great on uneven surfaces for obvious reasons).

The rust under the batteries and under the fuel tank was pretty bad.

20220219_075954.jpg

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20220220_231117.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mullaney

Mullaney

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Back-in-Black said:
Soooooooo much paint! When I was in the Army, many moons ago, when guys didn't have anything to do, someone would hand them a paint brush and a bucket of paint and say "go paint that Jeep". I suspect that's pretty much what happened here. "Go paint that generator".

I knew there was a bunch of paint on this thing, I experienced the same problem with my little sandblaster. I figured an industrial compressor and blaster would speed it up considerably. Not so much. The blaster still has to eat thru each layer of paint, and it does so over a much bigger area but it still takes time to eat thru all that paint. Too much time. At the rate it was going, it would have taken me about a year of steady work to blast every part. So I started trying other things. Paint stripper: Don't know if anyone else here has tried paint stripper lately - they took some chemical out of it (probably due to some EPA rule or something) but basically modern paint stripper is absolutely worthless. I tried using it on those rocking chairs mentioned earlier in this thread. I ended up sanding the old paint off the chairs. The paint stripper was just as useless on this paint. Doesn't even soften it up any.

Next I tried a knotted wire cup on a 3" side grinder. That was a lot faster than the sandblaster but still pretty slow. Too slow. Cut the time down to 6 months of steady work...

Then I remembered I had some 4-1/2", 36 grit sanding discs in my "grinder box". So I put one of those on and gave it a try. Much better. Think we got it down to 3 months of work. Problem is, there's a lot of places you you can't get a round, spinning piece of sandpaper on these things, inside corners, handles, latches, weld seams, etc.

So what I did was decided to concentrate on the 2 pieces that are holding me up right now. The skid assembly and the front of the case where the control cubicle mounts. I got every bit of paint off of each part possible using the grinder and then used the sand blaster to go back and hit the places I couldn't get.

Saturday: ~6:30 AM till 10:30 PM
Sunday: 7:30 AM till midnight.

Sunday, I ate a donut on the way out the back door and didn't even so much as sit down till I ate diner at midnight.

I got both of those parts done for the most part but still have some areas on the skids that I need to get back to when I have the time. I left some flat places to be done on the skids - places that I can get with the sanding disc but in the interests of getting as much done with the big sandblaster as I could while I had it for the weekend, I concentrated on the tough to get areas. I figure I'll keep doing the same thing with my small sandblaster and maybe ever try to hit weld seams and such with a wire cup before resorting to blasting (the disc doesn't work so great on uneven surfaces for obvious reasons).

The rust under the batteries and under the fuel tank was pretty bad.

View attachment 859623

View attachment 859624

View attachment 859625

View attachment 859626
Click to expand...
.
Looks like a LOT of work went it to that - and you still have a long way to go... It's looking good though!
 
B

Back-in-Black

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In addition to sand I tried coal slag which is also pretty sharp. This paint is kind of like rubber when it comes to blasting. It's soft enough that the media kind of bounces off of it. And like rubber, if you stay on it long enough, it will eventually eat thru it. There's just so much paint and so much surface area that it's almost an impossible task. Not to mention that basting is just a miserable job. I've pretty much resigned myself to sanding, grinding, torching and using paint stripper where I need to. Then I'll come back with my small blaster and catch the spots I need to. My compressor more than keeps up with the blaster. 7.5 hp, 2 stage with 80 gallon tank and when blasting at 125 psi (max press for my blaster) the compressor only runs about 5 minutes for every 15. So it's not a problem to run the blaster but, it's still a miserable job and really with that blaster, only good for small areas because the blast nozzle is so small.

I sanded down the controls box with a 5" orbital and a 1/4 sheet sander over the past couple of afternoons. Using both of them I was able to get about 98% of it down to bare metal because it's one of the few pieces that only had the "factory" paint on it.. Wasn't repainted umpteen times. The factory paint and primer was still thick and pretty tough to get off and it took a while and a bit of sandpaper but I just need to spend 20 minutes on it with the little blaster and it's ready to paint.

I also poured the crappy paint stripper in one of the latch handles and let it sit overnight. Damn near filled the latch up with the stuff. It took some work but I was able to get about 75% of the paint out of the latch handle and after 2 more "pours" of stripper, I got it to about 90% stripped. I think between the propane torch and the blaster I can get the rest off.

The torch and wire brush method works pretty well on the piano hinges:
20220222_181506.jpg

This is after the second application of paint stripper. The third time got all the paint out of the "bottom" but there's still paint around the sides that wasn't covered by the stripper.
20220223_074145.jpg

The sanders worked pretty well on the controls box.
20220224_181750.jpg

20220224_181805.jpg
 
Guyfang

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You do know that CARC paint is a proven cancer causing agent? Inhaling the dust, or spray painting CARC is not good. I just haven't heard of folks having cancer from it, I know them. I sure hope you took precautions.
 
C

Chainbreaker

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You're getting there and it's certainly a labor of love! Your gonna love it when finished. After its all fixed up and running like a top, you're probably going to occasionally feel like you need to go out and keep it company & wax it & pet it! :cool:
 
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