Painted Transmission with Undercoat...Was That a Bad Idea?

Vanapplebomb

Dustymojave, an off road VW enthusiast I have a lot of respect for, made a comment on one of my posts. I had painted my transmission with a couple coats of rubberized spray on undercoating. Dusty wrote me this...

kreemoweet · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:46 pm Post subject:

I've never known a (manual) transmission to get warm enough to ever have to worry
about the heat dissipation qualities of the case.
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vwracerdave · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:55 pm Post subject:

That is true with the engine block but it won't hurt the transaxle. They only get up to 150-160*F, not hot enough to be a problem.
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Vanapplebomb · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:02 pm Post subject:

Ok, thanks for the replies guys! Note to self: Never paint the engine block.
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Quokka42 · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:10 pm Post subject:

Even the engine block does very little cooling, and it can be argued that oil will drain quicker in a hot case. Leave the cooling parts such as cylinder heads, pushrod tubes and cylinders alone, or a thin coat of something on the cylinders, and paint away!

OK, the ribs on the sump provide a little cooling, but IIRC it's something like 2% of the total...

Lots of manual crankcases have been painted. "Polish" the edge of the ribs and it can look really cool.

If you are worried, change to a full synthetic fluid and max temps will drop by as much as it went up or more, plus the tranny will be less affected by the heat.

mcmscott · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 9:53 pm Post subject:

vw transaxles from 61 thru 75ish were painted black from the factory

oconnell · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 10:45 am Post subject: not painted

having owned several type 1 and 4 vw's new none had painted transmissions.
oconnell

bossboy302 · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:09 am Post subject:

mcmscott · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 11:10 am Post subject: Re: not painted

Vanapplebomb · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:08 pm Post subject:

Wow, thread back from the dead.
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drumbum68 · Samba Member Joined: October 15, 2010 Posts: 566

I have never seen a type I tranny painted unless it came from a rebuilder. Why would the factory spend more money on something not necessary?

modok · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 5:26 pm Post subject:

It would not surprise me if they did paint them. If you paint fresh magnesium it usually falls of withing a few years anyway.........

junior55 · Samba Member Joined: October 01, 2006 Posts: 941

Some of the rattlecan undercoats are more of a thinner plastic formula and less
of a thick tar product that never gets solid.
You may be ok if it is the first one.

mcmscott · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 7:05 pm Post subject:

jsturtlebuggy · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 7:44 pm Post subject:

Sorry Scott,
Not all VW transaxles cases where painted.
I seen and worked on many starting in the 1970s and very few in Northern California had paint on them. These were from cars that had never had their trans out since leaving the factory.
This also includes the 1960 Bug my Dad bought new in 1960, the 1966 Squareback bought new in 1966 and the 1969 Bug chassis bought in late 1969 for the first dune buggy my Dad built. None of these had paint on them.

If you want to paint the trans case go ahead and do it. I would recommend just a light coat.
Driving with a constant load on trans (such as sand washes, sand duning) can get the trans extremely warm.
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Howard 111 · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 8:38 pm Post subject:

Without looking, Rancho painted my tranny. What was used, they didn't say, but it seems to stick well.

Aaron M265 · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 9:03 pm Post subject:

My all original numbers matching never been apart transaxle from my 1500 'S' notchback was painted black from VW back in the day- September 1964.

Not true to say that all of them came painted or not. This one definitely did but.
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SBD · Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 9:36 pm Post subject:

I pulled the transaxle out of my 1970 Ghia several years back. It was definitely the original and had never been out of the car because part of the original factory installed tar boards were put in over the top of the access cover for the shift coupler. I had to partially destroy them to remove the cover so I could pull the trans. I've still got the trans out in my shop (but the car is long gone). Now, because of you guys and this thread, I'm going to have to go out & look at it sometime (when it's not 5 degrees out) to see if there's any paint on it. Sad


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