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Parts washer project


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A friend asked if I wanted an old gas station parts washer, all I had to do was send someone to pick it up. It was exactly what I remember working at while working at my uncle's gas station while paying off my fluid swap mishap on my mother's 63 Tempest.

My crew picked it up and stashed it in my storage building for about a year before I decided I wanted to get it functional again. Unfortunately, none of us remembered to take the fluid out of it before storing it. More unfortunately, it appears that the fluid was mostly water that had fostered the conditions for a major biological science experiment to take place. Kind of a primordial soup, so to speak.

After removing the lid and power washing it it was still pretty disgusting, but it didn't leak, and that was a plus. It really needed to be sandblasted and refinished.

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Since the cabinet was to big for my sandblaster booth I took it to Michigan Sandblasting where I got an estimate to blast it to white metal for $225.00, which I reluctantly agreed to. I thought that that was pretty expensive. I got back to my shop and did a web search and found that new power washers were only $150 from Harbor Freight or Northern Tool. I called and cancelled the job and went back to pick up the cabinet. I figured I'd put a plywood top on it and use it as a rolling workstation.

I told my friend Shawn that I had killed the restoration project in favor of getting a new one. He asked me which one I had selected and I sent him a link. Little did I know that my wife had been bugging him for ideas about what to get me for my birthday, which was two days away. I came home to have my wife greet me with an envelope in hand. Inside was $150 in cash and the printout of the link I had sent Shawn. Glynette's always desperate for birthday gift ideas since my compulsive nature makes me just buy what I want with little time to mull over the purchase.

I went to look at a couple of parts washers and was not impressed. They were mostly knock-offs of commercial units made of very lightweight materials. Basically, one of those cases where you get what you pay for. It was then, with $150 in hand, that I decided that I could buy a whole bunch of blast media and pay Shawn's son James to do the blasting for me at $10 hr. The day he started was warm and he wore some lightweight clothing, refusing the throw-away body suit I offered. That night he found sand in places he didn't know he had. In the second session he took my advice and covered up sensitive areas. It took him 8 hours total and used 6 bags of sand at $15. each. I now had a clean cabinet for $170.

I used POR-15 to coat the inside back and legs of the cabinet.

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After letting it sit overnight I masked off the sections previously painted and sprayed the rest of the exposed metal with Eastwood's self-etching primer.

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I took a paint chip to the local auto parts store and got spray paint that closely matched the original colors of Creme and Candyapple Red.

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Now that it was painted, the Art Deco cabinetry really reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I then started working on the mechanical bits. What a mess. I had a very difficult time getting the motor and pump to come apart. When I did I found that the motor was seized. After soaking the bearing overnight I was able to hammer it apart. I found that, due to lack of lubrication, a fiber bushing had worn away, dropping the vertical motor's armature partially our of the windings and lowering the pump's impeller onto the bottom suction plater, wearing off about 1/16" of the vanes where they made contact.

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Sand-blasting the mechanical bits revealed that this was a quality piece of equipment simply suffering from a lack of maintenance.

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After a liberal coat of POR-15 I ran a tap through all the threaded holes to ease reassembly.

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The pump's aluminum impeller looked odd to me but it turns out that it is proper for the application.

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The suction plate originally had a piece of perforated metal over the opening with a bronze screen over that. The screen was gone and the perforated metal had broken away in places. I went to the local ACO and they had the perfect solution in the plumbing aisle. It's basically a strainer that goes in the sink opening.

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It worked perfectly, with little modification.

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When I finally reassembled everything, I realized what the cabinet really reminded me of.

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Guest imported_MrEarl

Great story Barry and a nicely done restoration. Your first "before" picture also reminded me of the same thing it did you and I took a closer look to make sure it wasn't that. BTW I had to copy and paste the pbucket links to the last half of the photos but it was worth it. Nice surprise.

again good job!!!! thanks for sharing

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I'm not sure, either, but by the prefix and suffix (), it looks like you've copied from Photobucket (or some such web-based photo-holding site). If you still have them in a file on your own computer, try selecting from that file.

I was able to see them by copying the address (and deleting the prefix/suffix's), but you're right, they're not coming up like most of the others.

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The pump's aluminum impeller looked odd to me but it turns out that it is proper for the application.

IMG_2382.jpg

The suction plate originally had a piece of perforated metal over the opening with a bronze screen over that. The screen was gone and the perforated metal had broken away in places. I went to the local ACO and they had the perfect solution in the plumbing aisle. It's basically a strainer that goes in the sink opening.

IMG_2415.jpg

It worked perfectly, with little modification.

IMG_2447.jpg

When I finally reassembled everything, I realized what the cabinet really reminded me of.

IMG_2273.jpg

IMG_2274.jpg

IMG_2275.jpg

IMG_2276.jpg

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Barry Wolk</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

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the Art Deco cabinetry really reminded me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.</div></div>

Kind of reminded me of a big orange metal box with metal legs, without a top and rusty on the inside. grin.gif

Neat cabinet now, Barry. Nice work.

How about showing us a photo of what it looks like on the inside.

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Guest Dean_H.

What a great looking parts washer. Much cooler than anything Harbor Freight sells. A lot of work (and money)but now you don't have to look at some cheapo pile every time you clean a part. Way to go.

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So, these sideline projects are again just amazing. Couldn't be satisfied with just a plain metal box with a pump in it, noooo, you had to have a bit of character to say it's mine. Is that some symptom of some sort of condition? It's cool though, really cool. I'm sure that each of these diversions are directly tied to your current core project ('68 Lincoln Limo), you needed to clean some parts this time and had enough with the plastic bucket and cleaner. I am happy for you to have the time and opportunities to work on and complete these really cool projects. I'm sure you've worked hard to get there... Scott

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These are all small projects. Were you around for my car hauler project?

Funny that you mentioned this, I did happen to noted this project in my current reply to the "Exactly where'd it go again" thread on the General Discussion forum. I thought it was amazing and when I first heard mention of it and went out looking for it. It is a truly creative project. All these small projects are kind of like a major sleight of hand, with an end result of always keeping them guessing...

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I got ahold of someone at the company that made this. They stopped making the cabinet with rounded corners in the early '70s, so it's nearly 40 years old, at least. The true clue to its age is the fact that the original wiring is grounded. When I started in the trade in 1970 all wiring was already grounded. I'm wondering when grounded outlets came into being. My house was built in '57. The outlets were just two-wire but there was a ground wire bonded to the box. I'm wondering when grounded outlets became the norm.

Since I already had the sandblaster set up and had a couple of extra cans of Candyapple Red I decided to "freshen" a real Coke cooler that I've had for years. The top was flattened and I had run into it with my lawn tractor a time or two, tweaking its shape. It's one of those "honey-do" projects I never got around to. Now I did.

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It was pretty beat up. I straightened the lid and took out most of the horrendous dents, but left some character. smile.gif

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What would a Barry project be without a little POR-15?

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Parts washer looks great!! Put some wire bicycle wheels and a multi-color umbrella on it and you're all set to sell hot dogs and cold soda at a street fair.

All kidding aside, how was the Coke lettering done, custom cut Vinyl from the local sign guy on a Computer aided machine??

Chris

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Scotts_DG8</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Couldn't be satisfied with just a plain metal box with a pump in it, noooo, you had to have a bit of character to say it's mine. Is that some symptom of some sort of condition?</div></div>

Yes, yes it is. West has been to my home. He can tell you how bad I've got it.

You're local. Why don't you stop by some time? My shop's in Redford at 7-mile and Beech and my home's in Farmington Hills at 9-mile & Drake.

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Guest imported_MrEarl

Reckon who will be the first thirsty soul to open the top, reach in and pull out a solvent soaked oil cleaner canister instead of the expected cold Coca-Cola. sick.gif

again great job Barry

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I have the opposite of Coke Cola. Got it from my Grandmothers house before she passed away.

A friend of mine has restore an Orange Crush cooler like your part washer.

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The only difference is he keeps his beer cool in his smile.gif

He has also restored a Pepsi Cooler like mine but his is either older or newer I say that because his handle is different then mine.

It is amazing what them little coolers go for now...

Keep posting up them great projects.

You have a nice evening

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Guest Orphanauto

Thanks friend, you just had to tick me off, after all, Here I was being all proudful of what a cool parts washer I got at harbour frieght tools, and then I see what you did, now I'm jealous, hahaha, Well seriously you did a great job, and I love the Coka Cola look, so cool, even though I will drink my pepsi as I use my HFT mmmmm.

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Guest Orphanauto

I use solvent. I worked at a tractor/farm repair place, they had a 55 gallon drum of it, so I got 5-10 gallons for mine, I am a hobbiest, so for me it is the best way to go. Well, ok, maybe yours would be the best way to go, haha, but for my hobby only statis it's fine. by the way, thanks for sharing what you did. I really enjoyed it.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Barry, big two thumbs up on the parts washer!! In fact, thank you very much for posting it, you have become an inspiration to me. In the mid 1980s when I was in auto mechanics in high school the shop had an old parts washer just like yours that was leaking and gave it to me to haul away for free. It should still be at my folks house and now that I have seen yours I think I want to go rescue it and bring it to my shop to restore. FAR cooler than a new cheapie and now I have the extra room. Great job! Todd

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Yes, I was just looking at their Clean-O-Matic, and I would guess if they still made the old rounded case it would be much more $$$ than that. I still think mine is like yours and seeing your photos showed me the thing really is fairly simple. I will have to figure out the leak and I recall the lid may have been dented in (may have been double wall), but it still looks like with a little sheetmetal work (like an old car) and pump and plumbing rebuild this will last forever and be much more to my liking than a new cheapie. Can't wait, thanks again, Todd

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Nifty parts washer. I'm putting a different "spin" on the idea for our garage with these multi-purpose units.

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Larger

This trio came from my Aunt Elsie's basement in Southfield, MI. With a little refurbishment

(the grunge is oil spilt in transport), they'll make great beer/beverage coolers for parties,

doing double-duty to wash rags.

I'm bringing the two Maytags to Fall AutoFair to sell, but I'm keeping the Speed Queen!

TG

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