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Below is a picture of my heater box. Despite being a little rusty and very grimy it looks to be in very good shape. Is it possible to clean these things and then re-paint them? It would seem like maybe you could soak/dip them to clean out the inside. What kind of primer/paint would be best after cleaning? Or am I way off base and should I just replace them?

thanks,

they look good on mine all i did was use some engine degreaser and a pressure washer then shot it with that high temp engine coating made by duplicolor i think

Thanks for the help. I am not too sure what all is inside those heater boxes but I can easily power wash it with some de-greaser. Anything else needed to evaluate whether they are worth keeping?
thanks,

make sure there are no holes on the j tube on the inside because you be inhaling carbon monoxide not too good for you so make sure there a re no holes they kinda look like a radiator or cooling fin on the inside

I havent looked at the thing too closely yet as its quite greasy but how do you check the inside?
thanks

I think you would have to cut it open. If the outside looks OK, I would sand-blast then paint. Here is what my boxes looked like before and after blasting.





Max

I wish I had a bead blaster . I did mine with a wire wheel on an angle grinder. Degrease it first. I used some epoxy paint made for household SPAM, but it is untested as to how well it stands up to heat.

A little late but I have HEARD that this stuff works pretty good. Anyone use it before

http://www.hightempspraypaint.com/

The simplest way to test J-tube integrity is by bolting a flat piece of steel sealed with rubber gasket to the top end, a piece of hose with a T fitting, gauge and air coupler on the bottom. Give it 10 psi, valve off the supply line and watch the gauge. Test everything with soapy water to make sure you are not leaking at connections. It takes about 20 minutes to do this but your life is worth that much.

The best treatment for heater boxes is to degrease them in a vat at a machien shop. Then at the same machine shop have them dump it into their acid barrel. Most machien shops have one. You can do this at home too for about $20 worth of acid.
The acid literally eats all rust away both inside and out...cleaner than bead blasting. Then let the whole unit dry by itself. It will form a fine surface rust on all metal. Then spray it with phosphoric acid solution...available at most hardware stores (Ospho is one brand).
The phospohoric acid converts the thin even rust coating to black iron phosphate.....which not only will not rust again...it is hands down the BEST primer for any paint...even better than zinc dichromate. All of this is dirt cheap and doable at home. It makes the heater boxes last longer and less prone to rust.

By the way, the phosphoric acid primer element is one of the primary ingredients in POR-15. Look at the rust proofing sticky above. Ray

Here's mine after I bead blasted yesterday. I am thinking on using a High Temp Outdoor Grill Paint.......