I was thinking today on how to make my engine look more appealing, and it came to me, clean up the stock parts to look brand new. Well, I cleaned up the washer fluid resevoir and coolant tank with some castrol parts cleaner and some fine grit brillo pads. The gunk and years of grime came off like nothing.If you stick some of the parts cleaner as well as some water inside the tank, and swirll as hard as you can, then blast a hose in the tank, you should get all the inside grime out also. Then, using a razor, I smoothed all of the "seams" that were left from the factory press. I shaved the logos also, leaving only coolant level check. The resevoirs look brand new! I suggest trying this, it really makes the engine sparkle. I then decieded to mark a line in the inside of the resivoir for the cold and hot check points. Then I sanded, primered, base coat black, base coat red, sprinkled chrome, red, sprinkled chrome and clearcoated it. Will take pictures off final product, but so far so good.

 

I would like to see some pics because i tried cleaning mine and they just turned out a "clean" yellow! Not white like they should be. So i bought new ones... and they are dirty again. lol

 

I too would like to see some pics, I'm not sure if you could get them to look completely like new ones again, not to mention they aren't that expensive and you would probably spend about half what new ones would cost you on cleaning supplies.

 

Don't bother cleaning them. Just buy new ones, they are so cheap. Just like BTS88IROC said, you will spend half of what you would pay for the containers on cleaning supplies.

This page at my site may help...it has helpful part numbers

 

when you cleaned them, did you also clean the inside? I cleaned the inside and out, and they looked brand new, like a clear white color. I was thinking about clearcoating them to make the cleaning job next time easier, but I decieded to paint. I will post pictures of my painted one and non painted one very soon.

 

Not starting a silly argument, just stating my results. Maybe i did not use the right stuff! But mine just came out with a clean, stained yellow look to them. Not the pure white to which new ones have.

 

Yea, I was thinking about that, your resivoirs were probably dirty all the time, or had alot of heat damage, or was poured all over by chemicals. Yea never know, but I cleaned up the resevoirs up off the firebird. Here is a picture.

 

That looks alittle cleaner inperson, here another one.

 

Im not done painting that either, have to wet sand and coat again. Here is what I used to clean, with some brillo pad type sanding material.

 

mine are painted black with red caps.. Made a world of difference..

 

That Castrol stuff works great for anything from cleaning to paint (and skin) removal.

When cleaning the inside of those reservoirs, add a handfull of uncooked r*ce (not Uncle Ben's type) and shake it up. Really helps break up that nasty dried on brown rust colored cheese.

 

Why not just leave them clear? I don't like the way they look painted at all.

 

Yeah, that's the stuff that burns when you get some in your eyes. I think someone said it's a low concentration of HCl. Works great for me though. Oh, and be careful to not get it on your paint because it likes to eat away clear coat. -89IRO

 

Ya, I finished painting the resevoir the rest of the way, and I dont like it that much. Im gonna take off my stock coolant tank (non-painted one, I have two sets of tanks) and clean it up. Then Im gonna clearcoat the cleaned product as well as I can. Should look great and stay clean for along time, well exception is the inside, but thats why you buy economy size castrol cleaner and **** boxes, right?!

 

anyone think that bleach would do the same? or would that mess with the plastic to much?

 

I cleaned, sanded, primered, and painted mine a glossy black and they look great...

 

i know roshambo has mentioned bleach before, but i forget where.

 

I gave up trying to clean my overflow container a long time ago. I plan on getting a CSI 1-quart aluminum catch can from summit soon. Looks much better than the crappy plastic overflow IMHO.

 

That is what I think that I am going to do. I always thought those looked really nice.

 

that over flow bottle looks a lot better i agree... and it will free up the clutter thats is the engine bay. then i could make some type of mounting for (one day) a msd 6al box... all you have to do is mount that over flow bottle to the side of the radiator and blam, your done and looks good... thanks for the idea...

 

You're welcome! I've always wondered why GM thought we needed a 1 gallon overflow container when the fill line at hot can't be more than 3 pints or so. I wish the CSI cans weren't so expensive though. If you have any experience TIG welding you could fab one up for MUCH cheaper than what they want... and there are other (cheaper) options out there than just the CSI 1-quart, but I do like it best of all the ones I've found.

Later,
Harry

 

Check out sbrice18fan's custom solution... it's kinda the look I was going for with the CSI catch can.