I’ve just separated my bolt on drive shafts from the stub axles as I want to de-rust and paint the stub shafts before fitting them to the rear hubs.

Now the drive shafts are off they look quite reasonable and even the CV gaiters appear OK although obviously the shaft and outside of the CV joints are very rusty.

I’d like to clean them off and re-paint but am not sure how effective this will be unless I strip them down further but I guess this may be quite difficult and I'd then also have to re-grease the CV joints and fit new gaiters.

I’m concerned that if I do just wire brush them without stripping them further it be difficult to make them look reasonable but stripping them may be a lot of cost and work for not much benefit.

What do you think?

John.

what about sand blasting them>?

I have made the same job some days ago.
I stripped the outside surface of the cv joints, the driveshafts and stub axles until i could see clear shiny metal. My parts were very rusty too.
Then i masked the areas where you don't want paint and powdercoated them. The result was excellent.
Stripping down was easier than i was expecting. I used a wire brush in a drill and then the cylindrical bit that has a lot of small pieces of grit papers along it... What a description... this happens when you don't know how a bit is named..

Don't forget to reinstall the shafts the way you removed them! Look at this thread for more info.
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/3/viewthread.php?tid=164917

[Edited on 9/1/12 by DRCorsa]

I stripped mine down completely and thoroughly cleaned, painted and regreased all the components, they are quite straight forward to strip only held on by a circlip on the end of the driveshaft. The Joints slide off and then come apart by twisting the inner race until the bearings pop out. There is a knack to reassembling the inner cage ball bearings and outer casing bit of a rubiks cube!!! I replaced the gaiters as well, no doubt they will spilt pretty quickly if not replaced, sods law and all that. New circlips, for replacing the joints on the shaft, came in the gaiter kit along with suitable grease.

Image shows completed shaft, though mine have a Sierra outer and Subaru inner CV joints which were all pretty tired looking



All in all I found it quite a satisfying part of the build, have fun.

This is my next job.. Feel free to keep the hints and tips coming!!

I have just had mine shot blasted and powder coated the hubs black new gainers they look v nice and today I was given 4 brand new cv joints so I will have 4 very clean ones for sale this week open to offers