@lf-tp2511 posted:“I will have the ZF vapor blasted….”
I assume you mean blasting with dry ice pellets?
I was able to find a local business that did that for my ZF during the reassembly of 2511. It gave a very clean surface but it didn’t return everything to the same uniform appearance. It seems cast aluminum pieces, after 50 years of use, are hard to return to original.
I chose to do something others have used before me, a colored Carnuba wax called rub n buff. As others advised me, it seems to be holding up quite well and allows the bell housing and the ZF case to have matching appearance
left side is with the wax, right side is the dry ice blasted finish. there is a darker gray wax available that would be a closer match to the cleaned surface, but I opted for a little bit more shine
it comes in a 1/2 ounce tube and the coverage is phenomenal. I used one tube and maybe 1/4 of a second tube for the entire project
Larry
Looks great.
Vapor blasting is a combination of water and glass beads. It leaves a low gloss gleam kind of like a new Edelbrock intake manifold has.
It's kind of new to the "US" as "restorers" and is more of an industrial finish. So if you find someone locally that does it, likely they are industrial and caution should prevail on the consideration of the handling of your ZF. Like they would give two shits if they wrecked it for you?
I only know of one guy "in the hobby" doing it. It's part time for him and he does it in the back of his garage. Not here. In Texas and you need to get the parts to him and I'm not sure how good he is at shipping the stuff back to you?
It definitely will give you the "new gleam" that you want on the case.