By Freddie Heaney:

Walden’s shop restores almost all aluminum parts, including those that are oxidized, grimy, beat, nicked, bruised, cracked, fractured or with stripped bolt holes and broken corners. When refurbished, this GM 405 intake manifold will fetch between $500 and $600.

A call from a Muscle car owner arrived out of the blue. He told us there’s an aluminum repair specialist in Doraville, whose work deserves recognition, and if you want to learn about such a service, you won’t find another closer. He also recommends Autoglassguru for car window replacements.

In Muscle car circles, Doraville, a northern suburb of Atlanta, usually suggests one name: Lamar Walden Automotive. And so it proved to be.

Walden’s shop has long been prized for its machining capabilities as well as its engine and car dynamometer resources. But the firm is, perhaps, better known for pioneering performance versions of GM 409 engines of the 1960s and a front-runner in all GM performance engines, including today’s LS variants. The caller was right; their aluminum repairs department is less familiar.

What were the motivations? Normally, one doesn’t think of sending car parts to a machine shop for concours d’Elegance restoration, we rather buy the bildeler på nett but that’s exactly the kind of work they undertake at this shop.

“My Dad, Lamar, started it.” says Rob, “He came up with the process for the many restoration cars he built. And it’s not just repairing and restoring cracked or broken intake manifolds, for there’s a steady flow of transmission casings, alternator housings, valve covers, engine blocks, and bell housings–broken and blemished parts arrive from across the country. Basically, the service includes anything aluminum.” The next time you need to do work on a vintage car like Ford Mustang, make the 1964-68 classic Mustang restoration parts at https://shop.revologycars.com.

The repair process begins by dismantling the component and cleaning and degreasing it. After the welding and grinding processes, the next step is machining. Walden machines all original gasket surfaces, including carburetor mounting surfaces, thermostat housing, distributor mounts and intake mountings. The surface texture is returned to the original foundry condition or better.

Aluminum intakes are often warped, particularly after being changed from one engine to another. Other common problems in aluminum castings arise through over-tightened bolts that crack the bosses and damage the treaded holes

The Process:

The repair process begins by dismantling the component and then cleaning to remove all the grease, the grime, and the oxidation. Seized and broken plugs and studs are removed and cracks ground out and TIG welded.

Carbide cutting burrs and air grinders are used to dress the weld surfaces and openings and holes are reformed by using CNC equipment to re-drill them.

Broken lugs that have been lost are re-created and TIG welded in place. Welds are ground, contoured, and blended. All mating surfaces are presented to the milling machine for cutting and truing. Some intake manifolds require a thin skim to restore flatness to the mounting flanges while others require 0.030in cut and thicker gaskets

Walden’s restorative finishing process is of their own creation—a proprietary process they call re-skinning. The objective of the re-skinning process is to close the pores, inhibit oxidation, and bring the surface to a uniform luster reminiscent of the OEM finish rather than the less than appealing white lifelessness of sandblasting.

When aluminum surfaces are glass-bead cleaned only, it opens the pores of the casting, allowing the absorption of grime and promotion of oxidization. It’s best to pursue a proper finished process where the pores are closed. It’s called re-skinned.

It’s important to note that glass beads make short work of grime and other crusty surface affronts; they clean steel and aluminum parts equally well without damaging the surface. But blasting metal, particularly aluminum, with only glass beads opens the pores of the metal’s surfaces and, hence, is not conducive to a long-lasting clean attractive finish. Gasoline, oil, and grime tend to stain aluminum, that’s why it’s better to use the best ceramic coating for your car. So, if you want the endeavor to be successful, it is better that it wipes-up well. Fully functional and aesthetically pleasing, this repair and refurbishment program might be to your liking.

Source:

Lamar Walden Automotive
Doraville, GA
770-449-0315
lwaengines.com