Painting a carburetor

[Randy Trentham]

I just had my carburetor bead blasted and wanted to find out what type of paint that I should use inside the carb to seal it. Thank you very much. Randy

 

[Radiator Bolt Man]

Randy - I surely would not apply any paint inside the carby, or anywhere that gasoline will make contact. Today's gasoline could sub for a certified paint stripper!

Now - if you have you carby all cleaned up and overhauled but will not press it into use any time soon, apply a abundant coat of spray oil inside - such as WD-40 and then put the carb into a plastic bag for storage.(PatB)

 

[sgtbull]

Randy, I"ve been rebulding carbs for years. The best solution I"ve come up with so far is to treat the carb w/ Zinc phosphate. It is usually available from most any automotive paint supplier, and is an excellent prep for painting metal, but also seems to be a great corrosion inhibitor. I"ve yet to find a paint yet that will stand up to the inevitable seepage from a carb body gasket, but this coating is unaffected. I have carbs that have been on tractors for 4 or 5 yrs that are rust free. (They do get used, but are stored indoors.) Just my 2cents.
Another trick I"ve used for years is to coat the gaskets, especially the bowl gasket, bowl nut gasket and fuel inlet cap gasket, with Chapstick. Keeps them pliable, prevents them from sticking to the components and allows for disassembly much later without tearing them up. I just took a carb apart today that I cleaned up and rebuilt 4 years ago. ALL of the gaskets were pliable, didn"t stick and could be reused if needed.

 

[MoMark]

I have a carb painted green in 2002 on a show tractor with JD paint & hardener. The hardener will help the paint resist solvents, but it is still vulnerable. It still looks great by the way, but I have to touch it up around the gasket area every couple of years, because no matter what you do, there will always be some seepage. Now on the user tractors around here, I leave them bare after bead blasting. After everything is adjusted & all leaks are stopped, I spray them with clear from a spray can. Keeps them from rusting & works pretty well. I'm not familiar with the zinc phosphate coating, but I do dip my parts in a phosphoric acid solution, which also works well.

 

[Radiator Bolt Man]

MoMark - The originator spoke of painting the INSIDE of the carburetor, no mention of the outside. My take is that one should not do this - what say you? (PatB)