My alternator and starter were really crusty looking, but they both still worked great when I bench tested them at the parts store. There was no need to replace them since they are both perfectly fine, so I just restored their appearances to new for aesthetic purposes.
Starter
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| I apparently did really poor photodocumentation throughout this entire process as I appear to have very few photos. This is the starter as it started out. I cleaned and degreased it well, removed the solenoid cover and blasted that down, then sprayed it with an aluminum paint. I also sprayed the strap with aluminum paint. I sprayed the body of the starter with Eastwood's Black Rust Encapsulator because it was matte black. |
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| Now the starter is slightly improved. |
Alternator
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| This is the alternator as it started. It is only 60 amps so I may still end up needing a new one. This will at least get my engine started for the initial fire up, at least. |
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| This is the magical aluminum paint I use to refinish all my aluminum parts. This is what I sprayed the transmission with too. It looks exactly like real aluminum finish. |
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| This is how the alternator ended up. To do this I removed the pulley and fan and sandblasted them, then etch primed and painted. For the alternator itself, I scraped any crud off then sprayed down with brake parts cleaner. I then wire wheeled to get shiny aluminum, primed, and painted. The final result looks like it came straight off the parts store shelf. I took some liberties with the color of the fan and pulley colors just for the sake of more color contrast. |
