Cleaning up tranny/transfer cases

[KLF]

I'm rebuilding an R151F tranny/transfer that I got out of a rusty parts truck. This is my first venture into the workings of manual transmissions, so I have a few questions.

I had no history on the tranny, so I figured I'd tear it apart. Fortunately everything inside looks good, I'll post up some close-up pics in another thread. But my first task is what to do about the cases. They were pretty nasty when I pulled it out, 170K and 20 years in New England is tough on aluminum castings. Lots of dried on gunk, mud, and very corroded. Here's what the t-case looked like:




Ya, really crusty. I actually snapped 2 bolts in the back of the t-case trying to get them out, they were so corroded in. You can see one of them directly below the speedo gear hole in the top pic. Took awhile to get them carefully drilled out and cleaned up.

Once I got everything stripped, I took all the outer case parts to a local tranny shop, they ran them thru their washer tank for me which got most of the crud off. I finished up with some additional scrubbing with a brush and SuperClean. Then I beadblasted all the parts, they look really nice now.

So, what should I do to protect them? This is not a show truck, but I do like things to look decent, and I don't want them to get corroded like that again. The aluminum is totally unprotected now, I'm sure it won't take long to get crusty again, as this truck is a partial DD, especially when the weather is nasty.

Should I paint them? If so, what kind of paint? I've always had very good luck with Rustoleum, red metal primer and satin black is a great, durable combo that is easy to touch up. Not sure how a silver color will last on aluminum. Is there a better choice? What about clear coat?

Thanks in advance...   

[Volcom]

If you're worried about them rusting again, I'd paint them.  My cases were covered in oil and grease, but after some elbow grease and some brake cleaner, they look nice.  I don't have to worry about the rust here in CO like you've got though