Steering Rack Paint

[808ETA]

What's the best paint or coating for a Z3 rack? I had it rebuilt but the paint job was garbage. I don't want to disassemble it, just mask and paint.

[82eye]

all the ones i've seen were unpainted raw aluminum. sort of like that look the best.

[rturbo 930]

It's not supposed to be painted. The aluminum should be raw, and the steel should be zinc plated.

[808ETA]

Just cleaned the old paint off and I like the aluminum. I may just live with the patina on the zinc unless there is a way to fix it without re-plating it. I'll probably paint the fluid pipes or get new ones

[808ETA]

Looks like the pipe (32131096109) is NLA for my 32131092611 rack.

[moatilliatta]

Try vapor honing?

[808ETA]

His machine is only 30" and I'm not taking the rack apart because it was remanufactured and I don't want to mess with it.

Try vapor honing?

My buddy has a machine, I'm waiting to hear back from him. I did see a video where the vapor honing stripped the zinc coating but I'm not sure if his machine is that powerful. If I did strip the zinc I would probably need something to protect the raw steel.

[rturbo 930]

I think I'd just leave the zinc alone. At the end of the day it's a steering rack, its going to get dirty and it's not really a visible component.

[82eye]

Looks like the pipe (32131096109) is NLA for my 32131092611 rack.

what's the part number on the rack itself ? what year was the car it came from ? do you know the travel ? was discussing the different z3 racks in another forum. early 2.7 ltl cars have 53.5mm of travel and end in 031. later cars have a rack stopped at 2.7 ltl and have a travel of 44.5mm. the others got either a 3.0 or 3.2 ltl e36 rack.

[808ETA]

I think I'd just leave the zinc alone. At the end of the day it's a steering rack, its going to get dirty and it's not really a visible component.

That's probably the best idea.

[808ETA]

what's the part number on the rack itself ? what year was the car it came from ? do you know the travel ? was discussing the different z3 racks in another forum. early 2.7 ltl cars have 53.5mm of travel and end in 031. later cars have a rack stopped at 2.7 ltl and have a travel of 44.5mm. the others got either a 3.0 or 3.2 ltl e36 rack.

Part number is 32131092611 stamped 1 092 611 on the tag. I don't remember the year or know the travel

[82eye]

thanks