Time to refinish my Dive Xtras Cuda Scooter
My cuda is in trouble.
It's losing its battle against corrosion. Especially on the tail section. I can only guess all the different metals, connectors and the motor's field is accelerating the process.
I'm a nut about gear maintenance - but there is simply no way to stay in front of this by rinsing and drying.
So its time to scrape, sand, prime, paint. I've been following Ross' and Claudette's journeys with their scoots and their battle with corrosion - now its my turn. Most of this stuff they've already been over - but here are some shots of my own journey:
-Ken
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The tail is especially crusty - you can see the paint bubbling as the corrosion is spreading over the surface of the aluminum
The stanchions and the tail cut are especially crusty. The paint is just bubbling - it has the consistency of tissue paper
The paint is flaking off in large chunks
Most of the body tube corrosion is under the latches
I start by scraping off as much of the flaking paint off the Body Tube as I can
Did the hand sanding over the roughest areas with 80-grit. Moved to 150 on the orbital, then to 320 grit for a final hand sanding. So smoooooov
Time to scrape the tail
Now to the hand sand with the 80 grit, orbital with 150 grit, then hand sanding with the 320 to finish
With most of the sanding done, I went over both pieces one more time with the 320. This is the shot right before I cleaned them off with diluted Simple Green, and dried them off.
Next up is prepping for Priming! Claudette handed me the Zinc pickle juice that she had left over when she re-finished hers. So that's what I'm using.
I took Kabob skewers, bit the pointy end off, and screwed them into the latch holes. I then grabbed an old spool, and set up a spray booth in the back yard - hanging the tail from a branch so I can slowly spin it as I spray it to assure even coverage. Hanging it also lets me access all critical sides easily.
I spray the satellite evenly, and thoroughly with the first coat. I take it down and put it into my studio to dry (probably the cleanest place I can think of.... there are already gnats stuck to this. I'll give it a light dusting with 620 grit tomorrow)
With the first coat of the tail done, I turn my attention to the body tube. Same story - bite off the pointy end of the skewer and screw it into the latch screw holes. Without the convenient shaft hole the tail piece had, I simply screw the Zinc holding screw partially in, and hang the tube from that.
Same thing - slowly spin as I spray. Of course, I run out of Primer 1/3 of the way through the job. UGH!!!!
I think I'm gonna grab the yellow version of this primer for the second coat. I'm painting my scoot Fed Ex purple... and a yellow base would be much better for my top color coat than pickle green.
I'll post more shots as I move down the road with this fun job!
Next up for Paint Prep:
- Ultrasonic the steel parts - screws, latches, etc. to get all the residual corrosion off
- Finish the body tube in yellow primer
- Lightly dust the tail with 620 wet paper to take off the gnats and schmootz - Coat in yellow, set aside
- Lightly dust the body tube with 620 wet paper to get it smoooov, dry, coat in yellow once more, set aside, dry, finish with 620
I'll have this ready to paint this next weekend.
Long live the purple scooter!
-Ken
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Originally Posted by LCF
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