Vapor Blasting - How much?

Anyone have any idea how much vapor blasting usually costs?

I found a guy not too far from me that will do it, but his prices seem a bit high. He wants $35 for each big piece and $10 for a small piece. He considers anything with fins to be big, so we're we're getting pretty close to $250 for the whole engine...

holey poop! Your in Oregon, this guy is in Oregon

Lucky You!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VAPOR-BLASTING-Norton-Triumph-AJS-Ducati-Moto-Laverda-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2a0fb9029eQQitemZ180652409502QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Seven Pieces $139.00

That's the same guy I got the quote from!!!
Maybe I just go through eBay instead, ha!

Vapor blasting is worth every penny. I just had my Gold Star motor vapor blasted and I will never use anything ever again for motor parts. The results are simply stunning.


There are two vapor blasters in the US specializing in small orders and motorcycle parts for weirdos like us.
Bikesalot in Oregon
Mods and Rockers in Mankato, MN


I went with Peter at Mods and Rockers because he is two hours away, a DTT member and rides old British bikes and Italian scooters. I met him for the first time when I picked up my parts, great guy and has a cool operation. I paid nearly $250 to vapor blast a BSA Gold star engine case set, inner primary cover, two gearboxes, (inner and outer), cylinder head, barrel and two Amal monobloc carbs. Wow. I am sending him a Triumph T110 lower, Norton gearbox and my madyno body next. It is labor intensive and requires a huge industrial compressor(s), specialized equipment and media, as well as experience to do this:













If you are close to Bikesalot send or drop off your parts and pay in cash and I am sure he would honor his E-bay prices, without giving Fee-bay and paypal any more money. I highly recommend Mods and Rockers for Peter is a true craftsman and does fantastic work.

swan,

Thanks for the info, man. It was actually your build that led me to do some further investigation into the process. You imply that the price I'm quoted is about right though? If you don't mind me asking, how much did the blasting run you for the parts in the last pic?

Thanks again,
Sonny

$225 for all in the last picture. Worth every f#%*ing penny.

Bikesalot might actually be a bit cheaper than Mods and Rockers but would cost me a hell of alot more for me to ship there.

Jesus those results are impressive... Wonder if theres anyone in Toronto that does this, because im seriously considering getting it done to a few things i have lying around...

Re: Vapor Blasting

How can you prove it to yourself that vaporblasting is better than any dry blasting method?

Yesterday I showed Vaporblasting by Bikesalot at a vintage meet at the Portland International Raceway. People are always impressed when I scribble on a vaporblasted part with a black ink magic marker. Then I use a little solvent or spot remover on a clean cloth, and the black ink wipes right off the vaporblasted surface.
So scribble on your own bead-blasted parts with black ink and see if the ink wipes off.
See? Now you have proved it to yourself that vapor blasting is the best ( and possibly the cheapest ) aluminum cleaning method in the industry.
Have fun with your projects. I'm Jeff Gibson at Vaporblasting by Bikesalot

How to save money on vaporblasting? Send in only the four big parts at $35 each for $140. Cylinder heads, cylinders, crankcase halves turn out near perfect. The small sidecovers came from the factory painted silver or black and you can save money by doing those parts yourself.
I'll try again to load a photo here so you can see what I mean.......

I'm Jeff Gibson at Vaporblasting by Bikesalot

The parts look great, but I bet it costs a pretty penny to ship everything from my residence in Florida to one of these two shops! Any idea if there's someone closer to those of us in the south that can, or is planning on, doing type of work?

RGRH said:

The parts look great, but I bet it costs a pretty penny to ship everything from my residence in Florida to one of these two shops! Any idea if there's someone closer to those of us in the south that can, or is planning on, doing type of work?

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Im in the same boat. Ive emailed Jeff before, but hes clear across the country. My engine does need some love, but its going to hurt mailing it out!

For the old Honda's it looks nice but isn't really needed.
The top case was usually painted silver and the bottom case was bare
Cylinders and heads were usually bare to help heat transfer.
Have them blasted with a less abrasive mix if your not painting and just glass beads if you are.
If you have sand cast or parts with a texture, vapor blasting is really the only thing to do (pretty much the cylinder head on almost all early air cooled bikes)

Hello you gang,

Please forgive me necromancing this thread. I think I know quite a few of you from other boards - hope this is not unwelcome here.

Last year I setup shop to do vapor blasting and cycle restorations. Have a bunch of very happy customers by now, and I serve people all over the country that ship in their parts for restoration. I'll post a few photos of the shop and the work and say "Please be in touch" if you want to learn more. Services are priced by the hour at $70 per, and normal turnaround it 48 hours or so. Happy to send prepaid shipping labels too, which makes the shipping process pretty painless, and affordable. Visit the website for more info at http://restocycle.com or come join the conversation on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/restocyclellc



And now with no further ado, some vapor blast porn:

Interceptor carbs - these take about 90 minutes in total, including ultrasonic cleaning, net $105 plus return shipping.






O & A Rearsets - these were about an hour (minimum billing), net $70:






H2 cases - 2 stroke cases have a fraction of the oil passages that 4-stroke cases have, a bit faster to do - about 2 hours, net $140:






CB750 cases - lots of passages to plug and rinse, these take 3-4 hours depending on condition, net $210 - $280:




Harley heads - Air cooled bikes are a ball, these were pretty rough, and have a lot of fins to work through. 2 hours for the pair, net $140:






BMW hubs - Like the Harley heads, there's a fair amount of ferrous metal in these, we use anticorrosion additives to prevent flash rust. The pair of hubs was about 2 hours, net $140 :





Miata intake - this one arrived spotless and previously bead-blasted, and so was quicker than it might have been. This was a minimum-billing project as a result ($70), but something similar that hadn't been prepped like this is probably closer to 2 hours typically:






Thanks for checking it out and be in touch if I can be of service.

Nils Menten
nils@restocycle.com

Vapor blasting is definitely the bomb, but I'll throw this in as an alternative. With a little effort, you can get VERY close if you can get use of a conventional dry glass beading cabinet. The requirement is to use brand new, uncontaminated large glass beads - good ones. Glass beads break down pretty quickly getting smashed in the blasting process into sharp little fragments that cut up the surface, but when new they make a nice smooth shiny finish more like vapor blasting. Parts done carefully with new large beads will pass the magic marker test with ease, and do not attract dirt or oil and stay shiny and cleanable until they eventually oxidize just like vapor blasted parts will. The coarse beads from Grainger work very well though not the cheapest. The manifold below is straight out of the cabinet and just blown off with compressed air. Looks noticeably better after a good hot water/detergent wash. Not the best pics, but you can see thees parts do not have the porous, dull flat, dusty look usually expected after glass beading.

jpmobius said:

Vapor blasting is definitely the bomb, but I'll throw this in as an alternative. With a little effort, you can get VERY close if you can get use of a conventional dry glass beading cabinet. The requirement is to use brand new, uncontaminated large glass beads - good ones. Glass beads break down pretty quickly getting smashed in the blasting process into sharp little fragments that cut up the surface, but when new they make a nice smooth shiny finish more like vapor blasting. Parts done carefully with new large beads will pass the magic marker test with ease, and do not attract dirt or oil and stay shiny and cleanable until they eventually oxidize just like vapor blasted parts will. The coarse beads from Grainger work very well though not the cheapest. The manifold below is straight out of the cabinet and just blown off with compressed air. Looks noticeably better after a good hot water/detergent wash.

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I hate the noise from compressors and only have a pancake in my shop now due to all the cordless tools... But. I do sometimes want to grab my die grinder or would like to have a small blast cab... What is a good compact air pump, maybe remote volume tank? any good suggestions for air without so much dang noise??

Im thinking about jumping into one of my other Nortons just to try out this process.

surffly said:

Im thinking about jumping into one of my other Nortons just to try out this process.

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The British and German metal is far and away the best. Incredible transformation. At your service anytime.

N.

Check this outfit out.
http://www.greentreescooters.com/Vapor-Blasting.html

Habanero52 said:

Check this outfit out.
http://www.greentreescooters.com/Vapor-Blasting.html

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Yep, I'm certainly not the only game in town .

Hoy hoy gang, exciting times for my humble outfit.

We have thrown in as a sponsor of this community, helping keep the lights on. If you hit the link in my signature you'll enjoy an exciting visit to my sponsor area which does include a bunch of example project galleries including some idea about what the stuff costs etc.

But for sure, be in touch directly anytime if you have any questions or want to talk about a project. Looking forward to working with you guys.

Best,

Nils Menten
RestoCycle LLC
Tucson, Arizona
http://www.restocycle.com
(520) 308-3705
info@restocycle.com