I just got my rebuilt power steering box from Rock Auto and it looks like crap. The whole box is covered in old, thick paint. I'd love to make it look like new for my restoration. Can I use paint remover to get rid of the paint? Can the pump come in contact with water? It looks pretty water tight, but I don't want to risk it without checking first. How did you guys do it?http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/q2quest/Powersteeringpump002.jpghttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d31/q2quest/Powersteeringpump001.jpg

Personally, if I paid good money for a rebuilt pump and it looked the way you are describing, I would be sending it back and telling them to send me one that had "really" been rebuilt :angry: Are you sure you did not get somebody's core by mistake ???????

Personally, if I paid good money for a rebuilt pump and it looked the way you are describing, I would be sending it back and telling them to send me one that had "really" been rebuilt :angry: Are you sure you did not get somebody's core by mistake ???????Well, I may have embellished a little. I added some pictures now. It's definitely clean, but the paint job is too thick and glossy. It's a rebuilt one for sure, but it was a real quick clean-up job and I want to try and restore it like new. Any thoughts?

Mine from NAPA looks great. It's clean, evenly painted, detailed with new hardware, it has contrasting inspection marks on it that look pretty good. All the old paint was obviously removed from it. I wouldn't accept a rebuilt box in any other condition either, I'd complain. To answer your question, as long as you plug the holes for the lines so water can't get inside the box, it should be fine, they're sealed up pretty goo, just keep the striper away from the seals and finish the job around these areas by hand.

q2 -

My Cardone box looked exactly like that. First thing I did was just use a scraper and screwdriver to get the loose, thick stuff off, because there were places their black paint didn't stick too well. You can get the box wet; it is desgned to be under a car, exposed to road splash and all. I just wouldn't blow a bunch of high pressure water into any of the seals.

The plastic caps in the line sockets have o-rings on them, so no worries there.

After I knocked all the loose paint off, I chemically stripped the rest. Don't lay it on any thicker than necessary, and keep it away from the seals.

Then I just wiped the stripper residue off with laquer thinner and repainted it cast iron color. Much better than that nasty, thick black Cardone uses.

Thanks Eric, I appreciate the advice. I'll get to work.

I did the same, masked off the ends and sprayed the cheap Auto Paint Stripper in a can available at autozone a few times to remove all the layers. Wiped off the gunk, sprayed one last time to remove all paint. Finsihed cleaning with lacquer thinner until I was completely bare metal. I also used Simple Green and Metal Ready to prep.
Mine had a nice polished top under the paint so I masked that off, and put two coats of POR 15 Black on the unit. Once that dried, I removed the masking tape from the top and masked the rest of the unit. I then sprayed 2 coats of clear enamel to protect the polished top from rust.