Today I media blasted the Heater Box Assembly to clean it up for refurbishment. I did not have high hopes for it. It had been the home for a mice family and suffered from a fair amount of rust. It actually cleaned up better than expected. With a little body filler skimmed over some of the damage I think I can end up with a pretty good looking box. However, I have one major problem the air control flaps are frozen tight. I have used some PB Blaster and Kroil but so far nothing is budging.

I think this is not an uncommon problem. Anyone have any suggestions for a fix?

Thanks.

Lin

 

Try some heat on the pivots. Probably still some rust on shafts, heat them up and see if that helps.

 

From an earlier post you may have read that I media blasted my 64 MK2 heater box and while it cleaned up pretty well, the air control heater flaps were both frozen in place. Even after applying heat I could not get them to budge. AWG, on the saloon-lovers list, suggested a water/molasses mix that may well have worked, but it takes a long time. Pete55Tbird recommended electrolysis.

I watched a few YouTube videos on using electrolysis for rust removal, and thought I would give it a try. I emulated this particular video:
I put the heater box into 14 gallons of water with 14 tablespoons of sodium carbonate. The videos recommend using Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda, but good luck finding it in a store! I ended up "cooking" baking soda at 200 degrees for an hour to release the carbon dioxide, and thereby turning the sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate. Worked like a charm.

I then attached my battery charger and let the magic begin. I put the box in the solution at 9:15 PM and after two hours I was surprised at how much the water color had changed from clear to rust given how clean the box already was from blasting. The solution just gets into places the aluminum oxide blast abrasive cannot. I then let it all sit until about 8:00 AM this morning.

I cleaned up my mess and put the box on the work table expecting to be disappointed, but I was not. One flap started working immediately, needing little coercion. The second required some pushing and pulling and a little lubrication but it now functions properly as well!

Thanks to Pete for his recommendation. I would use this process again in a minute. Very inexpensive and easy. One more original Jaguar part saved. I have a little pitting to fill with body filler, but otherwise should be a very serviceable unit.

Try it - you will like it.

In the images below the light colored water image was at 9:00 PM almost exactly when the Box went in the solution. The darker colored water image was taken at 8:00 AM the next morning when the Box was removed from the solution.

Lin