240Z: Glass bead blasting part II

In my last post, i wrote about the fact that the transmission looked wrong after the “glass bead blasting”. Many readers pointed out it seems to have been just sandblasted. I contacted the blasting company again and asked what happened. He excused himself a hundred times and told me that his guy somhow missunderstoud somthing and that it was only blasted. but not sand blasted as you thought, but blasted with “broken glass”. this is softer and won’t attack the surface of the Aluminum. It’s less corrosive than regular silicat-sand used for blasting. At least that was good news. He promised me to immediately fix that. Today i was able to pick it up again:

They glass-bead blasted everything and the surface now looks and feels a lot smoother and got this slight “satin gloss” finish. just as it should be. The sense of Glass bead blasting is to improve the surface density of aluminium. Like that it’s much stronger and will keep the appearance for a longer time when used unpainted in a car.

While it doesn’t have the super-glossy OEM-like finish it’s what i was aiming for. I got told for the glossy finish it should be soda/vapour/fluid blasted. But for me it’s perfect as it is. it’s not going to be a concours build anyway and it seems much fresher again. Also they clearcoated the cast-iron bits as promised, to protect it from corrosion:

This is how the gear selector looks after the protective tape was removed. Still needs a bit of cleaning though but looks perfect. just as i wanted it 🙂

Super happy with the result. and while it took me a few extra hours to bring it back again and pick it up. the good thing is they felt so sorry that the extra-work was for free. They only charged me for the first part of the work. which is awesome and came out on a budget 🙂