C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

[Kevin Morris]

I finally have my wiper motor out, and am cleaning/detailing it. It has 31 years worth of gunk on it, and appears to be somewhat discolored from age. I plan to take some very very fine sand paper to it, to remove the gunk and try to return the natural finish. To all (judges especially), should I leave the motor natural, or paint it a light coat of something (e.g. silver metallic, etc.). TIM/JG says nothing about the finish/color of the motor.

Kevin #39927

[Patrick H.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

I wouldn't ever use sand paper. You will alter the appearance of the finish, and I don't think you'll be pleased.

Use a degreaser like Simple Green or Meguiar's Extra, or lacquer thinner as the harshest. Remove the gunk and grease, and bolt it back in (new gaskets for the firewall seal available from Dr. Rebuild). No type of clear or other finishes will be necessary unless your case has a lot more corrosion than what I've typically seen. Plain old plating looks good to me.

Patrick

[Gary S.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

NO SANDPAPER, please. You will ruin the finish fotever. As Patrick says, start with Simple Green and then work your way up to the more powerful cleaners. I got my 66 wiper motor looking virtually new, with the exception of a little bit of tarnishing.

Gary

[Chuck S.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Patrick didn't say, but your motor/gear housing should be silver cad or zinc plated. It will also have some black plastic and a white/amber washer pump.

Careful use of degreasers and/or mineral spirits will get you down to the plating if it hasn't been painted with "detail black" paint. If you find paint under the gunk, and the paint isn't too heavy, you will probably be able to get it off by patiently scrubbing it with lacquer thinner (not too wet; you don't want it leaking inside).

If you have a heavy coat of paint, I would be tempted to try carefully applying a light coat of gel paint remover on one small area at a time. Be careful not to get the paint remover on any plastic or let it leak inside. As I recall that motor is pretty tight, and has a gasket at the housing joint, but a little discretion is a good idea.

[Kevin Morris]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Thx all. And thx for the suggestion on the firewall gasket, mine came out in pieces.

Kevin #39927

[Kevin Morris]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Is there such a thing as Silver Cad or Zinc spray paint? Source?

Kevin

[Chuck S.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Kevin, there is a spray paint that is fairly close, but none that will fool judges...especially on that wiper motor where you have a large sample in plain view with good light. :-)

Eastwood sells a spray paint kit for imitating cad or cad dichromate. The kit has a silver base coat that you then overspray with clear yellow, then red and green highlights for the dichromate look. The silver base coat is as close as you're going to get to silver cad plating with paint, but it's still a paint. It's OK for a driver, but it'll surely nick you a few points in judging. You can toss the other three cans in the kit (or buy only the base coat); those dichromate paints are worthless in my opinion.

The C3 wiper motors were available new up until a few years ago. You may still be able to find an NOS part, or there are vendors that can restore your wiper motor if it's in really bad shape.

[Patrick H.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Kevin,

These motors are still available rebuilt from sources like AutoZone. They will come painted blue, but some paint stripper will return them to their natural silver color.

I think you will be surprised how nice yours will look with some cleaning. I've done the cleaning route and the strip-the-blue-paint route before, and both turned out well. Remember, you don't know what the rebuilt motor will look like under the blue paint, and it may look worse than your original!

Patrick

[Kent K.]

Re: C3 Wiper Motor Finish/Color

Kevin,
These spray paints are similar to "chrome paint". Sure to make any judge notice them and deduct points accordingly. Clean carefully, don't paint.
Good Corvetting,
Kent #6201