I'm going to go ahead and paint it. Its not going to cost anything and I needed something to do tomorrow anyway.

 

I would not paint it, no one see it unless you roll it

 

Right, and I agree with that....as long as the rust factor was ENGINEERED into the equation. I know old racers who've left engine blocks out in the weather to rust and season the iron to make the block harder. I know one old racer whose done it very well.....me......and it works. So for some things, I do agree that sometimes rust can be a good thing.

 

Well.....to be perfectly honest about mine, I left out the part of my story where I subletted the job to my 18 year old son. LMAO.

 

But he needs to have it lookin good for when that might happen.

 

That's a superficial look at the causes of that bridge collapse. I was keenly interested in that story since I lived in Minnesota before and since my commute at the time would have had me on the bridge at about that time. Corrosion was a contributing factor in the collapse as believed. But, severe temperature swings, excessive weight, lack of redundant reinforcing trusses, et al. were also contributing factors.

Steel cracks at the joints were the direct cause of the failure. Steel comes brittle in the deep cold that Minnesota gets. I don't even think they know the whole story, but the consensus seems to be that there wouldn't have been a problem yet if there hadn't been a large construction project with heavy equipment on the bridge at the time. This same bridge was rated as deficient in 1990. They just kept on patching the patches instead of fixing it right.

 

I don't think anyone is saying there would be other than your time. Think about it from this perspective. Chrysler paints the driveshafts and then a chip develops either from offroading or just a rock flung up from the road. Now rust starts a bit like it would have if it wasn't painted and starts chipping away at the paint. You know people are going to be hooting and hollering over that.

 

The the Jeep needs to be lifted more to justify painting it.

But if you think about aluminum, it's rusted, well oxidized and is probably one of the fasted or the fasted oxidizing metals there is.

As to the bridge the metal rusting is not what actually brakes, the rust has more volume then iron forcing apart the concrete which then fails.

But to the original question.

Spudracer has painted his.

 

Uhh, not to start a fight here, but... what? I can't think of how letting a huge chunk of iron develop surface rust makes it "harder"... please enlighten me.

I can only find one other mention of block "seasoning" via google, and there's no logical or scientific reasoning, just "never blew a block".

Back on topic: the only reason I would paint my shafts is if everything else was painted too... otherwise it'd look kinda funky, and would induce "uhh, why did you paint your driveshaft?" questions.

 

Yes sir. It's a very old trick that does in fact work well. Not only does it make the iron harder, but it also aids in stress reduction. Blocks nowadays go through a seasoning process in production such as annealing and the like, which was not available many years ago. I have had to change bits on a boring bar because a block was so hard from seasoning the old fashioned way, it dulled the bit. Rust actually changes the chemical composition of iron. It can be beneficial if you don't let it go too far. Take a look at this: http://www.grapeaperacing.com/GrapeA...gineblocks.pdf
Although it does say to avoid heavily rusted blocks, and explains why, As long as this rust is removed, as per boring the cylinders, ect., it can be beneficial. I've hear Richard Petty and Smokey Yunick both talk favorably about seasoning blocks in this manner.